Sunday November 10, 2019
Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 156
A Reading from the Gospel according to Luke
Lk 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."
Lk 20:34-38
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."
Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
In today’s Gospel, Jesus reveals that the children of God will rise again. We will rise because our God is not a God of the dead but of the living. St. Francis de Sales notes:
We must not look for surpassingly perfect love in this mortal life. Our hearts have a thirst that cannot be quenched by the pleasures of this mortal life. If they are moderate, our most cherished and sought-after pleasures do not satisfy us. If they are extreme, they stifle us and become harmful. Only the fresh waters of undying life that God’s love offers us can quench our thirst and quiet our desires.
Since God’s love is so superior to ours, God willed to become like one of us to show us what we needed to do in order to live eternally. When we place our love in Jesus Christ, we place our life in Him. A spray of grapes united and joined to the stock brings forth fruit by virtue of the stock onto which it is grafted. So likewise, our life in Christ vivifies and animates us with heavenly love. Through the sacred love that the Holy Spirit steeps in our hearts, we produce sacred actions that carry us toward immortal glory.
However, in this mortal life, the example of Jesus tells us that our salvation is a journey toward wholeness in Christ. Enduring injuries, contradictions and discomforts as peacefully as Jesus did are moments that fashion eternity. One ounce of patience acquired during a season of trials is worth more then ten pounds gained in any other season. In your daily meditation, reflect on patience so as to make yourself practice faithfully patience. If you find your heart agitated during this season, delicately take your heart with the tips of your fingers and put it back in its place. Then say, “Be cheerful, dear heart.” Great designs are effected through patience and duration of time. Courage, for our God who is God of the living is always with us, so that we may rise again in Christ.
(Adapted from the writings of St. Francis de Sales)
