A reading from the second book of Maccabees 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. 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."
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."
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. "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."
SECOND READING
A reading fromt The Second Letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians 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.
Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us, 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. 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. GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to Luke 20:27-38
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."
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER With these words, Jesus means to explain that in this world we live a provisional reality, which ends; conversely, in the afterlife, after the resurrection, we will no longer have death as the horizon and will experience all things, even human bonds, in the dimension of God, in a transfigured way. Even marriage, a sign and instrument of God in this world, will shine brightly, transformed in the full light of the glorious communion of saints in Paradise. (Angelus, 6 november 2016)
FAUSTI - The Christian faith has its beginning in the resurrection of Jesus. The joy that flows from it is the strength to follow him to the cross, so that we can share in the resurrection of the dead (Phil 3:11). This is the beginning and end of the dynamism of Christian life. For "If Christ is not risen, your faith is in vain and you are still in your sins" (1 Cor 15:17). The resurrection consists in "always being with the Lord", for whom we already live in the gift of His Spirit. Paul says: "For me to live is Christ" (Phil 1:21), because "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. I live this life in the flesh in the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me". (Gal 2,20). "Witness to the resurrection" is the most beautiful definition of the apostle. The bodily resurrection met with little favor in the Hellenistic culture, which despised matter. For this reason both Luke and Paul feel the need to underline it (24,39 - 1 Cor 15). The Sadducees, unlike the Pharisees, do not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Their objection tends to ridicule it even as a simple perspective. Jesus answers first of all by saying that it is not absurd. is a new life, without the need for marriage and generation, because death will no longer dominate. There is a succession of seven brothers who die, with the intention of arousing life. In reality, "taking" does not generate life, but sterile death. Fertility comes from "giving". Possession and gift express selfishness and love respectively, and stand together like death and life. Only when we take the Son of the man who gives himself, will our death conceive life. His wood will heal the bitter water of our spring (Ex 15:25). The world is divided into two "eons" (centuries): the present one and the future one. The first is under the sign of taking and dying. Marriage and generation are only a helpless protest against death. The more alive they are generated, the more "mortals" grow. But they are also a sign of the definitive victory over death. living for God and rising again. The second, the future, is under the sign of gift and life: one cannot marry anymore, because one cannot die anymore. Marriage gives life to those who then die. The resurrection instead gives to those who have died a new life, now free from death and generation. Man can renounce marriage because he is a person, constituted as such by his relationship with God. For this reason, his singularity has full value. "I am like angels". Angels are called "children of God." They have the splendor and strength of This. In the next century we too will receive the fullness of divine sonship. It already exists now, but then it will appear in its glory (1 Jn 3:2). In the resurrection of the dead we will have a "spiritual body". image of the celestial man, the last Adam, spirit and giver of life . Our body "is sown corruptible and resurrects incorruptible, is sown ignoble and resurrects glorious, is sown weak and resurrects full of strength ...". The resurrection is our full birth to the condition of children. Root of our resurrection is the fact that God is the "God of". that is, it belongs to us as we belong to Him. Whoever lives for himself dies in selfishness. Whoever lives for the Lord, already now participates in the life that has won death.
READING OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFIRST READING
A reading from the second book of Maccabees
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.
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."
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."
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.
"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."
SECOND READING
A reading fromt The Second Letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians
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.
Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us,
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.
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.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to Luke
20:27-38
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."
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
RispondiEliminaWith these words, Jesus means to explain that in this world we live a provisional reality, which ends; conversely, in the afterlife, after the resurrection, we will no longer have death as the horizon and will experience all things, even human bonds, in the dimension of God, in a transfigured way. Even marriage, a sign and instrument of God in this world, will shine brightly, transformed in the full light of the glorious communion of saints in Paradise. (Angelus, 6 november 2016)
FAUSTI - The Christian faith has its beginning in the resurrection of Jesus.
RispondiEliminaThe joy that flows from it is the strength to follow him to the cross, so that we can share in the resurrection of the dead (Phil 3:11). This is the beginning and end of the dynamism of Christian life.
For "If Christ is not risen, your faith is in vain and you are still in your sins" (1 Cor 15:17).
The resurrection consists in "always being with the Lord", for whom we already live in the gift of His Spirit.
Paul says: "For me to live is Christ" (Phil 1:21), because "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. I live this life in the flesh in the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me". (Gal 2,20).
"Witness to the resurrection" is the most beautiful definition of the apostle.
The bodily resurrection met with little favor in the Hellenistic culture, which despised matter.
For this reason both Luke and Paul feel the need to underline it (24,39 - 1 Cor 15).
The Sadducees, unlike the Pharisees, do not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Their objection tends to ridicule it even as a simple perspective. Jesus answers first of all by saying that it is not absurd.
is a new life, without the need for marriage and generation, because death will no longer dominate. There is a succession of seven brothers who die, with the intention of arousing life. In reality, "taking" does not generate life, but sterile death. Fertility comes from "giving".
Possession and gift express selfishness and love respectively, and stand together like death and life.
Only when we take the Son of the man who gives himself, will our death conceive life.
His wood will heal the bitter water of our spring (Ex 15:25).
The world is divided into two "eons" (centuries): the present one and the future one.
The first is under the sign of taking and dying.
Marriage and generation are only a helpless protest against death. The more alive they are generated, the more "mortals" grow. But they are also a sign of the definitive victory over death. living for God and rising again.
The second, the future, is under the sign of gift and life: one cannot marry anymore, because one cannot die anymore. Marriage gives life to those who then die.
The resurrection instead gives to those who have died a new life, now free from death and generation.
Man can renounce marriage because he is a person, constituted as such by his relationship with God. For this reason, his singularity has full value. "I am like angels". Angels are called "children of God." They have the splendor and strength of This.
In the next century we too will receive the fullness of divine sonship. It already exists now, but then it will appear in its glory (1 Jn 3:2).
In the resurrection of the dead we will have a "spiritual body". image of the celestial man, the last Adam, spirit and giver of life . Our body "is sown corruptible and resurrects incorruptible, is sown ignoble and resurrects glorious, is sown weak and resurrects full of strength ...".
The resurrection is our full birth to the condition of children.
Root of our resurrection is the fact that God is the "God of". that is, it belongs to us as we belong to Him.
Whoever lives for himself dies in selfishness.
Whoever lives for the Lord, already now participates in the life that has won death.