MASS READINGS & SAINT QUOTE OF THE DAY : Saturday - November 20, 2021

Saturday - November 20, 2021

In order to acquire tranquility in action it is necessary to carefully consider what we are capable of accomplishing and never to undertake more than that. It is self-love, ever more anxious to do much rather than to do well and this self-love that wishes to undertake everything and accomplishes nothing!

~~St. Francis DeSales

November 20, 2021

Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 502

 

Reading 1                                                     1 Mc 6:1-13

As King Antiochus was traversing the inland provinces,

he heard that in Persia there was a city called Elymais,

famous for its wealth in silver and gold,

and that its temple was very rich,

containing gold helmets, breastplates, and weapons

left there by Alexander, son of Philip,

king of Macedon, the first king of the Greeks.

He went therefore and tried to capture and pillage the city.

But he could not do so,

because his plan became known to the people of the city

who rose up in battle against him.

So he retreated and in great dismay withdrew from there

to return to Babylon.

 

While he was in Persia, a messenger brought him news

that the armies sent into the land of Judah had been put to flight;

that Lysias had gone at first with a strong army

and been driven back by the children of Israel;

that they had grown strong

by reason of the arms, men, and abundant possessions

taken from the armies they had destroyed;

that they had pulled down the Abomination

which he had built upon the altar in Jerusalem;

and that they had surrounded with high walls

both the sanctuary, as it had been before,

and his city of Beth-zur.

 

When the king heard this news,

he was struck with fear and very much shaken.

Sick with grief because his designs had failed, he took to his bed.

There he remained many days, overwhelmed with sorrow,

for he knew he was going to die.

 

So he called in all his Friends and said to them:

“Sleep has departed from my eyes,

for my heart is sinking with anxiety.

I said to myself: ‘Into what tribulation have I come,

and in what floods of sorrow am I now!

Yet I was kindly and beloved in my rule.’

But I now recall the evils I did in Jerusalem,

when I carried away all the vessels of gold and silver

that were in it, and for no cause

gave orders that the inhabitants of Judah be destroyed.

I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me;

and now I am dying, in bitter grief, in a foreign land.”

 

Responsorial Psalm                                              9:2-3, 4 and 6, 16 and 19

 

R.    (see 16a)  I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord.

 

I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart;

    I will declare all your wondrous deeds.

I will be glad and exult in you;

    I will sing praise to your name, Most High.

R.     I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord.

Because my enemies are turned back,

    overthrown and destroyed before you.

You rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;

    their name you blotted out forever and ever.

R.     I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord.

The nations are sunk in the pit they have made;

    in the snare they set, their foot is caught.

For the needy shall not always be forgotten,

    nor shall the hope of the afflicted forever perish.

R.     I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord.

 

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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OUR GOD IS A LIVING GOD!

Opening Prayer: Good Jesus, you are faithful and you never tire of coming out to meet me. Once more, you open your heart to me in these moments of prayer. I wish to open my heart to you, too. I believe that you have something to say to me today and I tell you once more that I trust in you. And I love you, Jesus. Let me grow in love. 

Encountering Christ: 

1. From the Fullness of the Heart: En route to Jerusalem, Jesus was preparing his heart to offer himself to the Father for the redemption of all the world. Meanwhile, the leaders of the people were plotting the very death that awaited him. What a contrast between their hearts—Jesus’ heart filling and overflowing with love while the Pharisees’ hearts were closed in ever more with bitterness. The Pharisees framed a question they thought would trap Jesus and make the promise of eternal life look ridiculous. But Jesus reminded them of who the children of God are—those who hear his word and accept it. 

2. God’s Desires for His Children: The union between man and wife in marriage, faithful and rooted in mutual self-giving, is a symbol of the very love God wishes to offer us. God desires that we be united to him. The Sadducees in this passage saw Jesus as one opposed to their well-being, disrupting their skewed but comfortable order of things. Jesus patiently answered their question, welcoming them even though they were not yet ready to welcome him, extending yet again his hand in friendship, seeking union with them the way he seeks union with us. 

3. Jesus Knows Our Hearts: So great is his desire for friendship with them (us!), that he even answered the question they didn’t ask, the question they kept harbored in their hearts. Sadducees believed neither in the resurrection of the dead, nor spirits, nor the immortality of the soul, but on this score, Jesus set them right. “The dead will rise,” Jesus affirmed, for “he is not God of the dead but of the living.” This proclamation of Jesus should touch our souls, too. It can be easy to pretend he is a dead God, one who was important in past times but who doesn’t really touch our lives today. Not true! Jesus wants to connect with us intimately. He wants to be present, and a part of each day, each moment in our lives.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you are God of the living and not of the dead. You are alive in my heart, in your Church, in our world today. Though others may be indifferent to you, though I myself often am, today I do not wish to be so. Today, I wish to open my heart to receive your word and welcome your invitation to be more closely united to you. 

Resolution: Lord, by your grace I will pause for a moment of prayer during or at the end of my day to reflect on where you have made yourself present. I will thank you for being there and ask you to help me discover your presence anew tomorrow. 

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God Bless You.....

The Rosary Family

The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”