Daily Catholic Readings – November 25, 2023

1 Maccabees 6:1-13

¹ King Anti′ochus was going through the upper provinces when he heard that Elyma′is in Persia was a city famed for its wealth in silver and gold. ² Its temple was very rich, containing golden shields, breastplates, and weapons left there by Alexander, the son of Philip, the Macedonian king who first reigned over the Greeks. ³ So he came and tried to take the city and plunder it, but he could not, because his plan became known to the men of the city ⁴ and they withstood him in battle. So he fled and in great grief departed from there to return to Babylon.

⁵ Then some one came to him in Persia and reported that the armies which had gone into the land of Judah had been routed; ⁶ that Lys′ias had gone first with a strong force, but had turned and fled before the Jews; that the Jews had grown strong from the arms, supplies, and abundant spoils which they had taken from the armies they had cut down; ⁷ that they had torn down the abomination which he had erected upon the altar in Jerusalem; and that they had surrounded the sanctuary with high walls as before, and also Beth-zur, his city.

⁸ When the king heard this news, he was astounded and badly shaken. He took to his bed and became sick from grief, because things had not turned out for him as he had planned. ⁹ He lay there for many days, because deep grief continually gripped him, and he concluded that he was dying. ¹⁰ So he called all his friends and said to them, “Sleep departs from my eyes and I am downhearted with worry. ¹¹ I said to myself, ‘To what distress I have come! And into what a great flood I now am plunged! For I was kind and beloved in my power.’ ¹² But now I remember the evils I did in Jerusalem. I seized all her vessels of silver and gold; and I sent to destroy the inhabitants of Judah without good reason. ¹³ I know that it is because of this that these evils have come upon me; and behold, I am perishing of deep grief in a strange land.”

Psalm 9:2-3, 4 and 6, 16 and 19 (R. see 15c)

R/. I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord.

I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart;
all your wonders I will confess.
I will rejoice in you and be glad,
and sing psalms to your name, O Most High. R/.

See how my enemies turn back,
how they stumble and perish before you.
You have rebuked the nations, destroyed the wicked; you have wiped out their name forever and ever. R/.

The nations have fallen in the pit which they made; their feet have been caught in the snare they laid. for the needy shall not always be forgotten,
nor the hopes of the poor ever perish. R/.

2 Timothy 1:10

V/. Alleluia R/. Alleluia

V/. Our Saviour Christ Jesus abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.

✠.Luke 20:27-40

²⁷ There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, ²⁸ and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁹ Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. ³⁰ And the second ³¹ and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. ³² Afterward the woman also died. ³³ In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”

³⁴ And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, ³⁵ but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, ³⁶ for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. ³⁷ But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. ³⁸ Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” ³⁹ Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” ⁴⁰ For they no longer dared to ask him any question.

Central Point: This earthly life is not an end by itself but resurrection and eternal life is our destiny. Therefore, let this life now be a worthy passage to the life then

1. Jesus declares: “God is the God of living and not of the dead, for to Him everyone is alive”. Thereby, two fundamental truths are affirmed. God is God of eternity, and we too are destined for the same eternity. Our God is a living God; He is the God of life and He shares this same life, His own life with us.

2. If this is so, then we will live with Him in eternity. This earthly human life is only temporary duration, a transit in preparation for that life without end. Therefore, death is not a permanent closure or cessation of life but is only a door that opens upon resurrection and risen life in heaven.

3. But this destiny after death commits us to life before death to live it with a spirit of focus and direction, detachment and soaring high. Our life on earth should be in such a way qualitative that it qualifies us for life in heaven.

4. Unfortunately, many lose sight of this fundamental nature of nurturing and orientation to life in eternity. Consequently, they tend to live a culture of death. They tend to be heavily conditioned and stuck with only the temporary and transient. They fail to value and appreciate life. They fail to realise that life is precious and sacred because it is a share of God’s own life.

5. That is why often it is so much abused and destroyed. Further, the loss of the sense of eternity also makes people lose their sense of purpose and direction. They become excessively earth-bound. They do not raise themselves to what is above, what is high and lofty. Ironically, people who claim to be foresighted and far-sighted fail to see the horizons of eternity.

Suggestion: Let us not secularise too much heaven and eternal life. Let us not restrict the unbounded mercy and reign of God