32nd Sunday of the Ordinary Time
1st Reading: 2 Maccabees 7:1–2, 9–14
It happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and scourges by the king, to force them to eat pork in violation of God’s law. One of the brothers, speaking for the others, said: “What do you expect to achieve by questioning us? We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors.” At the point of death he said: “You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws that we are dying.” After him the third suffered their cruel sport. He put out his tongue at once when told to do so, and bravely held out his hands, as he spoke these noble words: “It was from Heaven that I received these; for the sake of his laws I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again.” Even the king and his attendants marveled at the young man’s courage, because he regarded his sufferings as nothing. After he had died, they tortured and maltreated the fourth brother in the same way. When he was near death, he said, “It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life.”
2nd Reading: 2 Thessalonians 2:16–3:5
Brothers and sisters: May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word. Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us, so that the word of the Lord may speed forward and be glorified, as it did among you, and that we may be delivered from perverse and wicked people, for not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. We are confident of you in the Lord that what we instruct you, you are doing and will continue to do. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ.
Gospel: Luke 20:27–38
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 out ‘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.”
MORTAL TO IMMORTAL: Every time we face death or a life threatening situation, the first reaction is always shock accompanied by sadness and fear. This is a clear indication that the death of a person reminds every person that one day he/she will die. Thinking about death makes people panic. People panic because they do waver in their faith in the living God. They see death as leading them toward the end of life instead of being the beginning of eternal life with God. A person who truly believes in the living God, will not worry when death is approaches. This is due to the fact that he/she is a person who is constantly doing the will of God. He/she knows that death will enable him/her to access all the goodness that are awaiting him/her in heaven. A Christian is a person who is ever ready to face martyrdom for the glory of God.
Prayer: May your people truly believe that there is life after death and that you have prepared goodies for them in your kingdom Lord.
****
WE SHALL LIVE FOREVER: In most communities, people tend to believe that they will continue living through their offspring. Jesus tells us that this is not the case (Luke 20:27-38). He assures us that at the resurrection there is no death. Each individual person will continues to exist as a distinct individual. A person will not exist on the behalf of another person. Each person will exist on his own right. Nobody will cease to exist. Each person will live forever in the presence of their creator forever. There is no greater joy than this for a person. The resurrection of the dead makes us to understand that death is not an end but a passage from temporary life on earth to eternal life in the next world. The resurrection proves that individual life does not end with death but continues to eternity. Therefore, whether we have offspring or not, we will live forever in Jesus.
DAILY GOSPEL 