Daily Liturgy
Saturday November 20
Thirty-Third Week In Ordinary Time
THE GOD OF THE LIVING
Introduction
We are told in the first reading about the end of King Antiochus IV. After he had failed to rob the temple of Artemis in Mesopotamia and heard about the restoration of Jerusalem and its Temple, he died in discouragement.
“God is the God of the living,” says Jesus. He calls back to life those who die; death is overcome, since Jesus rose from the dead. The witnesses of the first reading are put to death by the mighty of this earth because they contest the abuse of power, but God raises them up. The resurrection is the core of our faith, not only as a promise to live on in God’s joy after death, but already now as a power of building up one another in human dignity, justice, peace and serving love. We cannot die for ever, because God cannot stop loving us.
Opening Prayer
God, source and purpose of all life,
you have committed yourself to us,
with a love that never ends.
Give us the indestructible hope
that you have prepared for us
a life and a happiness
beyond the powers of death.
May this firm hope sustain us
to find joy in life
and to face its difficulties and challenges
resolutely and fearlessly,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Reading 1: 1 Mc 6:1-13
As King Antiochus was traversing the inland provinces,
he heard that in Persia there was a city called Elymais,
famous for its wealth in silver and gold,
and that its temple was very rich,
containing gold helmets, breastplates, and weapons
left there by Alexander, son of Philip,
king of Macedon, the first king of the Greeks.
He went therefore and tried to capture and pillage the city.
But he could not do so,
because his plan became known to the people of the city
who rose up in battle against him.
So he retreated and in great dismay withdrew from there
to return to Babylon.
While he was in Persia, a messenger brought him news
that the armies sent into the land of Judah had been put to flight;
that Lysias had gone at first with a strong army
and been driven back by the children of Israel;
that they had grown strong
by reason of the arms, men, and abundant possessions
taken from the armies they had destroyed;
that they had pulled down the Abomination
which he had built upon the altar in Jerusalem;
and that they had surrounded with high walls
both the sanctuary, as it had been before,
and his city of Beth-zur.
When the king heard this news,
he was struck with fear and very much shaken.
Sick with grief because his designs had failed, he took to his bed.
There he remained many days, overwhelmed with sorrow,
for he knew he was going to die.
So he called in all his Friends and said to them:
“Sleep has departed from my eyes,
for my heart is sinking with anxiety.
I said to myself: ‘Into what tribulation have I come,
and in what floods of sorrow am I now!
Yet I was kindly and beloved in my rule.’
But I now recall the evils I did in Jerusalem,
when I carried away all the vessels of gold and silver
that were in it, and for no cause
gave orders that the inhabitants of Judah be destroyed.
I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me;
and now I am dying, in bitter grief, in a foreign land.”
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 9:2-3, 4 and 6, 16 and 19
(see 16a) I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord.
I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart;
I will declare all your wondrous deeds.
I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, Most High.
R. I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord.
Because my enemies are turned back,
overthrown and destroyed before you.
You rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;
their name you blotted out forever and ever.
R. I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord.
The nations are sunk in the pit they have made;
in the snare they set, their foot is caught.
For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
nor shall the hope of the afflicted forever perish.
R. I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord.
Alleluia: 2 Tm 1:10
Alleluia, alleluia.
Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Lk 20:27-40
Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection,
came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying,
“Teacher, Moses wrote for us,
If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child,
his brother must take the wife
and raise up descendants for his brother.
Now there were seven brothers;
the first married a woman but died childless.
Then the second and the third married her,
and likewise all the seven died childless.
Finally the woman also died.
Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?
For all seven had been married to her.”
Jesus said to them,
“The children of this age marry and remarry;
but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age
and to the resurrection of the dead
neither marry nor are given in marriage.
They can no longer die,
for they are like angels;
and they are the children of God
because they are the ones who will rise.
That the dead will rise
even Moses made known in the passage about the bush,
when he called ‘Lord’
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;
and he is not God of the dead, but of the living,
for to him all are alive.”
Some of the scribes said in reply,
“Teacher, you have answered well.”
And they no longer dared to ask him anything.
Intercessions
– That we may keep up the good fight against all that is deadly to Christian life: dehumanizing kinds of labor, suppression of freedom, paralyzing fear, lack of love and compassion, we pray:
– That all suffering and dying people may share in our resurrection and find strength in the knowledge that God loves them in life and beyond death, we pray:
– That our beloved dead may live on in the life they gave us, in the faith they passed on to us and in the good we do, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
God of the living,
in these signs of bread and wine,
we celebrate the memory of Jesus, your Son.
He died for us,
but he is now alive here among us
as our Risen Lord.
Strengthen us with his body and blood
and give us a great respect for our own body
in which we hope to rise one day.
Like your Son, may we use it
to serve and love and thank you
and to reach out to our neighbor
by the power of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
God of the living,
you want us to live even beyond death
as fully human and complete persons,
and yet totally transformed by your love
that makes us your daughters and sons.
Give us the quiet but firm faith
that life is meaningful and worthwhile
and that death is not the end
but the beginning of a new way of living.
May this certainty encourage us
to share our hope with those
to whom life makes little sense.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord.
Blessing
We are people of hope and joy, for Christ is risen. We are sure that we too, shall rise with him one day. This is why our hope in God’s love and life is indestructible. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Commentary
King Antiochus lies dying with more than his share of regrets. His attempt to take the city of Elymais in Persia, with its reputed wealth, was unsuccessful when the forewarned populace rose up against him. While in Persia he learns of the Jewish revolt in Judah and their success in putting down his own forces. Stricken with fear and illness, he realizes that he is about to die. He regrets the havoc and sacrilege he caused in Judah. Now he must die in bitter grief in a foreign land.
The Jewish Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. To test Jesus, they present him with a hypothesis that borders on the absurd. In Jewish practice, if a man died without offspring, his brother was to take his wife and raise up descendants for his brother. The case is one of seven brothers, all of whom die before a child is conceived. Finally the wife dies. Whose wife will she be at the resurrection? Jesus is not to be dawn into such casuistry. The life beyond, he insists, is of a completely different nature where marriage will no longer obtain but life will continue. Indeed God is invoked as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All point to the continued life of the patriarchs. Some of his opponents are impressed with his answer.
Antiochus was a man for whom we have little sympathy. But as he approaches death, he has deep remorse. That in itself is a sign of his moral posture. The truth is that many lives take unusual twists and turns. All of which means that we are never in a position to judge. Antiochus was a pagan military monarch who never had the moral compass that we possess. The Gospel reminds us that God’s realm is much broader than our own. When it comes to anyone’s final destiny, we can do no better than leave it in the hands of God.
Points to Ponder
The remorse of Antiochus
Marriage as a human institution.