Catholic Prophecy: TEOTWAWKI and BOB's

Bug Out Bags and living like a refugee.

If you attend daily Mass - in this case, the Ordinary Form of Mass, which uses the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, you might have been taken with the first reading from Ezekiel yesterday, and the oracle concerning Jerusalem which the prophet acted out.

Now, son of man, during the day while they are looking on,
prepare your baggage as though for exile,
and again while they are looking on,
migrate from where you live to another place;
perhaps they will see that they are a rebellious house.
You shall bring out your baggage like an exile in the daytime
while they are looking on;
in the evening, again while they are looking on,
you shall go out like one of those driven into exile;
while they look on, dig a hole in the wall and pass through it;
while they look on, shoulder the burden and set out in the darkness;
cover your face that you may not see the land,for I have made you a sign for the house of Israel. - Ezekiel 12: 1-12

Thinking of the reading later in the day I wondered - what if that is why Fr. Z is always talking about bug out bags (BOB's) and all that other stuff?  What if he's a sort of prophet - prophet of doom - to be sure, but just doesn't know it?  (Actually, I think he knows it.)

Of course, Ezekiel says nothing about packing weapons in his bug out bag - but the prophecy is not about self-defense and defending one's turf - it's about going into exile.

Ezekiel says nothing about sacred vessels and travel kits, or portable altars and vestments - not that there is anything wrong with that.  Yet the story of St. Lawrence we heard earlier this week, and how he sold the sacred vessels of the Church to give the proceeds to the poor before he was martyred - sort of proves you might not be able to 'take it with you'.  Likewise, in the concentration camps of the 20th century, priests usually had to make do with all sorts of illicit items to celebrate Mass, sans vestments and candles and portable altars and relic stones and stuff ...

Of course, we all know that.  But still, the reading was rather provocative, perhaps offering a more profound understanding of the current refugee crisis spreading throughout the world.

Do not forget the works of the Lord!

And he surrendered his strength into captivity,
his glory in the hands of the foe.
He abandoned his people to the sword
and was enraged against his inheritance.

So anyway.  I guess bug out bags have a scriptural basis then?  Although, a man may have a well stocked bug out bag, but his gear doesn't guarantee he will survive ...

"Look! Don’t you see many roads, paths and fields full of people crying of hunger, not having anything to eat? And the Holy Father in a Church praying next to the Heart of Mary?" - Blessed Jacinta