Saturday of 33rd Week in Ordinary Time

Saturday, 23 November 2024

Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

THE GOD OF THE LIVING

Introduction

At a time when the first persecutions of the Church had begun, the Book of Revelation speaks of the killing by evil forces of those who witness with their lives. But like the dried-up bones in Ezekiel, the martyrs will be raised to life and go to heaven.

 “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.

First Reading: RV 11:4-12

I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me:
Here are my two witnesses:
These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands
that stand before the Lord of the earth.
If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths
and devours their enemies.
In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain.
They have the power to close up the sky
so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying.
They also have power to turn water into blood
and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish.
When they have finished their testimony,
the beast that comes up from the abyss
will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them.
Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city,
which has the symbolic names “Sodom” and “Egypt,”
where indeed their Lord was crucified.
Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation
will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days,
and they will not allow their corpses to be buried.
The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them
and be glad and exchange gifts
because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth.
But after the three and a half days,
a breath of life from God entered them.
When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them.
Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “Come up here.”
So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on.

Responsorial Psalm PS 144:1, 2, 9-10

(1b) Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!

Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war. 
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!

My mercy and my fortress,
my stronghold, my deliverer,
My shield, in whom I trust,
who subdues my people under me.

R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!

O God, I will sing a new song to you;
with a ten stringed lyre I will chant your praise,
You who give victory to kings,
and deliver David, your servant from the evil sword.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!

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 faith 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

Where is the Woman’s Voice?

On the hypothetical case (which was not hypothetical at all, given the then practice) that the Pharisees brought before Jesus to debate the issue of the resurrection, there is one element missing: Where is the voice of the woman in the story? Whereas the law mandated that the woman be married to the dead husband’s brothers one after the other, we do not find any provision for listening to the woman’s voice, how she felt about the successive deaths of her husbands, and if she wished to continue the practice. It is as if she were a dead entity already with no resurrection in sight. We need to apply what Jesus says today – that God is God of the living – to life after death as well as to life before death, to breathe life into those silenced by the society.

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23 November 2024

Luke 20: 27-40

Living in the light of God’s eternal promise of resurrection

Today’s Gospel brings us face-to-face with the Sadducees, influential leaders who rejected the idea of resurrection. They present Jesus with a seemingly absurd scenario: a woman marries seven brothers, each of whom dies without leaving her a child. They ask, “In the resurrection, whose wife will she be?” They intend to mock the concept of resurrection, portraying it as illogical and impossible.

But Jesus sees through their question and responds with clarity and authority. He explains that life after resurrection transcends our earthly realities. In the resurrection, relationships are transformed; we won’t be bound by earthly customs like marriage. Instead, we will be fully alive as children of God, sharing a new lifecompletely filled with God’s eternal love. Jesus invites us to see resurrection not as an extension of life here, but as a wholly new way of being with God.

 Jesus reminds us of God’s everlasting connection with His people. He highlights a bond that transcends mortality by referring to Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Although these patriarchs have departed from earthly existence, theypersist in God’s presence. Jesus unveils a deep truth: God’s love is so enduring and powerful that it transcends death, infusing life into places where we perceive only deaths and endings.

 As a community, this message renews our faith in God’s power to bring life from death. It assures us that our hope is not in a temporary promise but in an unending, divine love. In Christ, we are promised this eternal life, a life where we will dwell with God forever. May we hold fast to this hope, embracing the love that triumphs over all things, even death itself.

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