Before thinking about eternal life, it is healthy to focus our attention on analyzing how we are living our days here in this world: how are we living?

 

Before thinking about eternal life, it is healthy to focus our attention on analyzing how we are living our days here in this world: how are we living? What are we doing for the lives of our neighbors? How are we relating to our families? May the Eucharist, a banquet of life in its fullness, strengthen us in love, faith and hope.

First Reading: Revelation 11:4-12

A reading from the Book of Revelation by Saint John – They said to me, John: 4“These two witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5If anyone wants to harm them, fire will come out of their mouths and devour their enemies. Yes, if anyone wants to harm them, that is how they will die. 6They have the power to shut up the sky so that no rain falls during their prophetic mission. They also have the power to turn water into blood. And they may strike the earth with all kinds of plagues as often as they wish. 7 When they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the bottomless pit will make war against them and will overcome them and kill them. 8 And the bodies of the two witnesses will lie exposed in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. 9 People from every people, race, language and nation will look on their bodies for three and a half days and will not allow their bodies to be buried. 10 The inhabitants of the earth will celebrate the death of the witnesses; they will exult and exchange gifts, because these two prophets were causing trouble to the inhabitants of the earth.” 11 After the three and a half days, a breath of life came from God into the two prophets, and they stood up on their feet. All who saw them were terrified. 12 Then I heard a loud voice from heaven calling to the two of them, “Come up here!” They ascended into the sky in the clouds, while their enemies watched. – The Word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm: 143(144)

Blessed be the Lord, my rock!

1. Blessed be the Lord, my rock, † who has trained my hands for war, / and my fingers for battle! – R.

2. He is my love, / my refuge, / my deliverer, / my fortress, / my shield; / he is my hope; / he subdues the nations under my feet. – R.

3. I will sing a new song to you, my God, / on the ten strings of the harp I will praise you, / you who give victory to kings / and save your servant David. – R.

Gospel: Luke 20:27-40

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

Jesus Christ, our Savior, has destroyed evil and death; He made the light and life of the gospel shine forth incorruptible (2 Tim 1:10). – R.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke – At that time, 27some Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection, came to Jesus 28and asked him, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us: ‘If a man’s brother dies childless, he should marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ 29Now there were seven brothers. The first married and died childless. 30The second 31and the third also married the widow. And so it was with the seven: they all died childless. 32Lastly, the woman also died. 33In the resurrection, whose wife will she be? All seven were married to her.” 34Jesus answered the Sadducees, “In this age men and women marry, 35but those who are considered worthy of the resurrection from the dead and of sharing in the age to come neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36They can no longer die, for they are like the angels and are children of God, because they have been raised. 37Moses also indicated that the dead are raised in the passage about the burning bush, when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38God is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live for him.” 39Some of the teachers of the law said to Jesus, “Teacher, you have said very well.” 40But no one dared to ask Jesus any more questions. – Word of salvation.

Reflection:

The Sadducees, who do not believe in the resurrection, attack Jesus on the religious front. They want to show that it is absurd to believe in the resurrection. Based on the Law of Moses, they present Jesus with a complicated case about a certain woman who had seven brothers as husbands in succession. After this life, whose wife will she be? No one. A man and a woman marry for this earthly life; they procreate children and continue the human race. In the future life, people no longer die; they are like angels, “and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.” Quoting Exodus 3:2.6, Jesus emphasizes the resurrection of every human being: God is not connected to the dead, but to the living, because “all live for God.” In the letter to the Romans, Paul writes: “If we live, we live for the Lord” (Rom 14:8).

(Daily with the Gospel 2024)