Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection November 23, 2024

23rd November 2024 (Saturday)

Psalter: Week 1

Readings of the Day

First Reading: Revelation 11:4-12

I, John, was told: “[Behold, my two witnesses;]″ These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them.

Psalm 144:1, 2, 9-10 (R. 1a)

R/. Blest be the Lord, my rock!

Gospel Acclamation

V/. Alleluia

R/. Alleluia

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

R/. Alleluia.

Gospel: Luke 20:27-40

At that time: There came to Jesus some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, 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. Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. And the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterwards the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.” And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 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, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 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. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” For they no longer dared to ask him any question.

Daily Gospel Reflection

Saturday – Thirty-Third Week of Ordinary Time

Guidelines: Our God is a living God and a life-giving God. He is ever-present and active. But for many and in the lives of many, God is not alive.

1. Our focus is on God as the God of life, and we are destined for life in eternity. Our simple reflection is God’s not dead though many try to make Him dead, many try to deaden His Spirit, His presence, and action. In the life of many, God is not really alive. He does not live for them because they do not bother at all about Him.

2. For many, God becomes a botheration, a disturbance, an annoyance, and a prick of conscience. It is because they misconceive Him as a policeman, a taskmaster, a strict penaliser. They lose that delicacy, intimacy, and beauty of a personal relationship with God.

3. For many, God is a mere concept of mind or an object of worship. The ‘personal touch’ is missing. It is like the Sadducees because they do not believe in the resurrection but ask the argument based on the resurrection.

4. Jesus makes it clear that God has destined everyone for life. He lives and shares the same life with all. Death transits us from the earthly, physical life to resurrection, which is rising to a new life of eternity.

5. This life of resurrection is altogether a totally different realm. Those resurrected are not bound or limited by our earthly human relationships. They rise above human attachments. They are like angels. This primarily means that they are not space-bound or time-bound.

6. To merit such a life of resurrection and life, we need to adhere to the two olives, two lamp stands, two witnesses, and two prophets. These may symbolise the OT and NT. Accordingly, those who abide by him will be nourished and bear fruits like the olive tree. They will receive light from the lamp stands. They are edified and supported by the two witnesses. They are fortified and admonished by the two prophets.

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