NOVEMBER 7, 2010 32nd SUNDAY  OF  THE  YEAR (Cycle - C)       ENTRANCE ANTIPHON Let my prayer come before you, Lord; listen, and answer me. PENITENTIAL RITE All three Readings of today’s Mass deal with the theme of eternal life. As Christians our hope of resurrection is founded on the love God has shown us in Jesus. This splendid hope enables us to treasure life without clinging to it. And it should spur us on to live it rightly. As we prepare ourselves to encounter our risen Christ in the Eucharist, let us ask God’s pardon for our sins against faith, hope and love. (Pause) I confess... Glory to God... OPENING PRAYER God of power and mercy, protect us from all harm. Give us freedom of spirit and health in mind and body to do your work on earth. We ask this… FIRST READING (The seven Jewish brothers demonstrate their loyalty to God by preferring death to violating one of God’s laws. They drew their strength from their faith in the resurrection.) A reading from the Second Book of the Maccabees    (7:1-2,9-14) Seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swine’s flesh. One of them, acting as their spokesman, said, “What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers.” And when the second was at his last breath, he said, “You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws.” After him, the third was the victim of their sport. When it was demanded, he quickly put out his tongue and courageously stretched forth his hands, and said nobly, “I got these from Heaven, and because of his laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back again.” As a result the king himself and those with him were astonished at the young man’s spirit, for he regarded his sufferings as nothing. When he too had died, they maltreated and tortured the fourth in the same way. And when he was near death, he said, “One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life!” This is the Word of the Lord PSALM   (16) Response: I shall be filled, when I awake, with the sight of your glory, O Lord. Lord, hear a cause that is just, pay heed to my cry. Turn your ear to my prayer: no deceit is on my lips. R./ I kept my feet firmly in your paths; there was no faltering in my steps. I am here and I call, you will hear me, O God. Turn your ear to me; hear my words. R./ Hide me in the shadow of your wings. As for me, in my justice I shall see your face and be filled, when I awake, with the sight of your glory. R./ SECOND READING (St Paul prays for the Thessalonians that they may remain steadfast in the pursuit of goodness and holiness, and he asks them to pray for his missionary efforts.) A reading from the Second Letter of St Paul to the Thessalonians   (2:16–3:5) May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. Brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed on and triumph, as it did among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men; for not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from evil. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things which we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. This is the Word of the Lord ACCLAMATION    (Mt 24:42,44) Alleluia, alleluia! Watch and be ready, for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Alleluia! GOSPEL (Jesus deals with a question posed by the Sadducees about the existence of an afterlife.)         A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Luke    (20:27-38) There came to Jesus some Sadducees, those who say that there is no 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 wife and raise up children 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. Afterward 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 accounted 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 the 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.” This is the Gospel of the Lord I believe in God,/the Father Almighty,/ Creator of heaven and earth./ I believe in Jesus Christ,/his only Son, our Lord./ He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit/ and born of the Virgin Mary./He suffered under Pontius Pilate,/was crucified, died, and was buried./He descended to the dead./On the third day he rose again./He ascended into Heaven,/and is seated at the right hand of the Father./He will come again to judge the living and the dead./I believe in the Holy Spirit,/the Holy Catholic Church,/the communion of saints,/the forgiveness of sins,/the resurrection of the body,/and the life everlasting./ Amen. PRAYER OF THE FAITHFUL Cel: Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, through His Holy Spirit, God raised Jesus from the dead and He will give life to our own mortal bodies. With confidence let us pray to Him for all our needs: Response: Lord, increase our faith, hope and love. 1. Lord, your Son Jesus sent his disciples into the world to bear witness to his resurrection; grant that our Pope, bishops and priests may faithfully proclaim throughout the world the Gospel of salvation. R./ 2. Lord, in your mercy reveal the riches of our hidden life in Christ; enable all people to see the signs of the new heaven and the new earth. R./ 3. Lord, you sent your Son Jesus to bear witness to the truth; may your Holy Spirit guide the leaders of all nations in the path of truth and justice. R./ 4. Lord, through the resurrection of your Son Jesus, you have opened our way to everlasting life; may our hearts and minds be filled with the hope of your eternal Kingdom. R./   5. Lord, you nourished the faithful departed with the body and blood of Christ; may they also share in his glory on the day of resurrection. R./ (Pray for local and personal needs) Cel: Heavenly Father, through your Son Jesus, you have revealed to us the knowledge of everlasting life; may we leave behind our sinful habits; grant us true repentance of our sins that we may walk in newness of life. We ask this... PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS God of mercy, in this Eucharist we proclaim the death of the Lord. Accept the gifts we present and help us follow him with love, for he is Lord for ever and ever. PREFACE    (30) Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord. Out of love for sinful man, he humbled himself to be born of the Virgin. By suffering on the cross he freed us from unending death, and by rising from the dead he gave us eternal life. And so, with all the choirs of angels in heaven we proclaim your glory and join in their unending hymn of praise: All: Holy, holy, holy... COMMUNION ANTIPHON The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want. In green pastures he gives me rest, he leads me beside the waters of peace. PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION Lord, we thank you for the nourishment you give us through your holy gift. Pour out your Spirit upon us and in the strength of this food from heaven keep us single-minded in your service. We ask this...     LITURGY  AND  LIFE   In today’s Gospel, the Sadducees, who base all their beliefs on a literal interpretation of the Law of Moses and who deny any life after death, pose a question to Jesus in order to prove that there is no life after death and they substantiate it with a ridiculous problem of a woman who had seven husbands in life. But Jesus refutes them and quotes the Scripture to claim that the dead do rise to life. In correcting an erroneous idea of the Sadducees, Jesus gives us the essential facts concerning our future after death. We shall all rise to a new and eternal life, in a form and an existence very different from that of our present life. Thus, the question of ownership of wives or property cannot, and will not, arise in our new life. He also gives us a brief but basic description of what our risen bodies will be. First, Jesus affirms that all those who have proved themselves worthy while in this life will rise to an eternal life. In that life we will become like angels. Second, Jesus clearly affirms that those risen from the dead will no longer be liable to death. God created us not for death but for eternal life. ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life’ (Jn 3:16). The thing that best helps us to confront the reality of death is our Christian faith. Faith enables us to face death with courage and hope, because we know we can overcome it with the risen Christ. But the faith and courage of people such as the woman and her seven sons (First Reading) also serve as a powerful example to us who follow them in faith. The martyrs, by their witness to Christ, show that life is stronger than the forces of death. Death is the passage to a new life, which, as Jesus says in the Gospel, utterly transcends the life we know now. For the Christian, the real ground of immortality is fellowship with the risen Christ and with the living God. As St Paul says: “Our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope” (Second Reading). And St Paul has something more to say: “So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable…it is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body” (I Cor 15: 42-44). St Peter explains further: “By His great mercy God has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...” (I Pet 1:3-5). Again, we have the great promise of Jesus: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him up at the last day” (Jn 6:54). One of the most painful agonies of the people who lose a loved one in death is the sense of loss. And the only possible consolation to offer the bereaved is that their departed loved one lives on with God and will rise again. Our earthly life is not a journey to nowhere. It is a journey to the promised land of eternal life. This faith and hope rest not on anything human, but on the word and power of God. Let us pause for a moment and ask ourselves a question: ‘How would I face death if it should claim me today’? —Fr Sebastian Kattackal, ssp     November 2010     READINGS  OF  THE  WEEK      Psalter Week  4 8 Mon (G)   Tit 1:1-9; Ps 23:1-2,3-4ab,5-6; Lk 17:1-6 9 Tue (W)   DEDICATION OF THE LATERAN BASILICA, Fst      Ezek 47:1-2,8-9,12 or 1 Cor 3,9c-11,16-17; Ps 45:2-3,5-6,8-9; Jn 2:13-22 10 Wed (W)  St Leo the Great, mem Tit 3:1-7; Ps 22:1-3a,3b-4,5,6; Lk 17:11-19 11 Thu (W)   St Martin of Tours, mem                       Phlm 7-20; Ps 145:6c-7,8abc-9a,9bc-10; Lk 17:20-25 12 Fri (W)  St Josaphat, mem 2 Jn 4-9; Ps 118:1-2,10-11,17-18; Lk 17:26-37 13 Sat (G)    3 Jn 5-8; Ps 111:1-2,3-4,5-6; Lk 18:1-8