Learn to be silent sometimes for the edification of others, that you may learn how to speak sometimes.
~~St. Vincent Ferrer
Learn to be silent sometimes for the edification of others, that you may learn how to speak sometimes.
~~St. Vincent Ferrer
November 21, 2020
Memorial of the
Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Lectionary: 502
I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me:
Here are my two witnesses:
These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands
that stand before the Lord of the earth.
If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths
and devours their enemies.
In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain.
They have the power to close up the sky
so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying.
They also have power to turn water into blood
and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish.
When they have finished their testimony,
the beast that comes up from the abyss
will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them.
Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city,
which has the symbolic names “Sodom” and “Egypt,”
where indeed their Lord was crucified.
Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation
will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days,
and they will not allow their corpses to be buried.
The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them
and be glad and exchange gifts
because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth.
But after the three and a half days,
a breath of life from God entered them.
When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them.
Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “Come up here.”
So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 144:1, 2, 9-10
R.
(1b) Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
My mercy and my fortress,
my stronghold, my deliverer,
My shield, in whom I trust,
who subdues my people under me.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
O God, I will sing a new song to you;
with a ten stringed lyre I will chant your praise,
You who give victory to kings,
and deliver David, your servant from the evil sword.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
Alleluia 2 Tm 1:10
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Our Savior Jesus
Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to
light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Lk 20:27-40
Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection,
came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying,
“Teacher, Moses wrote for us,
If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child,
his brother must take the wife
and raise up descendants for his brother.
Now there were seven brothers;
the first married a woman but died childless.
Then the second and the third married her,
and likewise all the seven died childless.
Finally the woman also died.
Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?
For all seven had been married to her.”
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 ‘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.”
Some of the scribes said in reply,
“Teacher, you have answered well.”
And they no longer dared to ask him anything.
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The scribes and Sadducees thought they had given Jesus a trick question in this Saturday's Gospel reading. He handled it with grace, though. Of course. Don’t we all wish we could do that as easily? An often over-looked but funny part of this scripture is near the end: “Teacher, you have answered well.” I mean, really guys? Who’s the teacher? The scribes gave their approval as if Jesus were the student. Clearly, they didn’t recognize Jesus’ superior wisdom, and certainly not his divinity. We see the same thing happening all around us today. It’s called the “idolatry of self”.
The idolatry of self reveals itself most often in moral relativism. People fail to recognize Jesus’ superior wisdom when deciding for themselves what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s a sin and what’s not a sin (if they even think of the word “sin” at all). What God says is evil is now considered good, and what God says is good is now considered evil and anyone who takes God’s side publicly is believed to be evil (we see this happening in the controversies about abortion and homosexual marriages).
But it’s not just the non-Christians who are caught up in the idolatry of self. We all need to examine our consciences about it. If we pray for God’s help and then tell him how he should help, getting angry or disappointed if he doesn’t do it our way, we’ve succumbed to the idolatry of self. If we disregard scripture-based Church teachings, because they are inconvenient (such as living in a marriage-type of relationship without the Sacrament of Marriage), we’ve succumbed to the idolatry of self.
The reason why we succumb is because we have failed to recognize Jesus’ superior wisdom on the topic. But this is easily remedied!
Someone once asked me: “I had my first marriage annulled, but my new wife never had her first marriage annulled. Therefore, we could not get married in the Church, but I was disappointed when I asked my pastor to bless the rings we were going to use for our wedding and he told me that he couldn’t bless them. Can you please explain to me why he was not able to do that?”
This is a good question! The man asking about it was humbly seeking greater understanding. He was standing on the bridge between the idolatry of self and the holiness of doing things God’s way even though it felt inconvenient.
Today's Prayer
Take my life Lord and cleanse me of everything that obscures the greatness of You in me. Amen.
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God Bless You.....
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