DAILY- HOMILY

November 23, 2019 – SATURDAY, 33rd Week in Ordinary Time
St. Clement I, Pope and Martyr /
St. Columban, Abbot /
Bl. Miguel Agustin Pro, Priest and Martyr
Green.

1 Mc 6: 1 – 13 / Lk 20: 27 – 40

St. Clement I, Pope and Martyr (d. 99), the third Pope after St. Peter, wrote a famous Epistle to the Corinthians.

St.  Columban  (543-  615),  an  Irish  monk  and  missionary  in  France, founded various monasteries in Europe and denounced  court  immorality and lax bishops.

Bl. Miguel Agustin Pro (1891 – 1927), a Mexican Jesuit priest, was martyred during fierce persecution against the Church.

FROM THE GOSPEL READING: Lk 20: 27 – 39
Then some Sadducees arrived. These people claim that there is no resurrection and they asked Jesus the question, "Master in the Scripture Moses told us: 'If anyone dies leaving a wife but no children, his brother must take the wife, and the child to be born will be regarded as the child of the deceased man.' Now, there were seven brothers; the first married a wife, but he died without children; and the second and the third took the wife; in fact all seven died without leaving any children. Last of all the woman died. On the day of the resurrection, to which of them will the woman be wife? For the seven of them had her as wife."

And Jesus replied, "Taking husband or wife is proper to people of this world, but for those who are considered worthy of the world to come and of resurrection from the dead, there is no more marriage. Besides they cannot die for they are like the angels. They too are sons and daughters of God because they are born of the resurrection.

"Yes, the dead will be raised, and even Moses implied it in the passage about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. For he is God of the living and not of the dead, and for him all are alive."

Some teachers of the Law then agreed with Jesus, "Master, you have spoken well."

REFLECTION
In the Gospel reading the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection asked Jesus who would be the husband in heaven of a woman who, following Mosaic law and practice, married seven brothers and had no children with any of them.

In his reply Jesus told them that there was indeed the resurrection of the dead; he clarified that there would be no more marriage in the after-life. He stressed that the Lord was "God of the living and not of the dead, and for him all are alive."

Clearly the Sadducees were asking Jesus a useless question: they wanted to trap him and get him involved in their controversy with other Jewish groups who held that there was resurrection of the dead.

Let us not waste time on such useless questions but focus on living our lives with our eyes and efforts focused on following the commands of God.

FINALLY, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.

Have a good day!

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