November 10, 2013

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time 

Lectionary: 156

Reading 1 2 MC 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.

The King of Greece  arrested a family of Jews and tortured them in an attempt to force them to violate God's laws.

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."

But they would rather die than sin against God.

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."

And declared their belief in the resurrection.

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."

All of them died courageously. Declaring their belief in the living God.

Responsorial Psalm PS 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15

R. (15b) Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.

Hear, O LORD, a just suit;

attend to my outcry;

hearken to my prayer from lips without deceit.

R. Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.

My steps have been steadfast in your paths,

my feet have not faltered.

I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;

incline your ear to me; hear my word.

R. Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.

Keep me as the apple of your eye,

hide me in the shadow of your wings.

But I in justice shall behold your face;

on waking I shall be content in your presence.

R. Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.

If we continue walking in God's ways we will see the glory of God in heaven.

Reading 2 2 THES 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. 

God himself is in our hearts pouring out his grace.

Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us,

 And then this great Saint humbly request prayer.

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.

He requests the prayer of the faithful ones in order that they may overcome all obstacles and wicked people which cannot 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.

Then he declared that it is God who will protect and guide them.

Gospel LK 20:27-38

Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection,

came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying,

The Sadducees wanted to trick Jesus Christ.

"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."

They asked what he thought would be a trick question. If a woman married a man when he died and then she married his brother and he died and he had seven brothers and they all died in turn whose wife would she be in the resurrection?

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. 

When Jesus responded, you say this because you don't understand Scripture. In the resurrection you will be like angels neither marrying nor being married.

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."

And Jesus said, the dead will rise because even Moses said, "God is a God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore, is not God of the dead but of the living." 

The alternate gospel reading  is a subset of the main one  therefore no commentary is necessary. 

Or LK 20:27, 34-38

Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection,

came forward.

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."