Living
God,
you are the God of the covenant
of life and loyal love.
Keep us in your love
and keep the promise of life
which you have given us
through your Son Jesus Christ
Let his life gush forth in us,
fully and richly,
until it blooms forth into life without end.
We ask this in the name of Christ our Lord.
Liturgy
of the Word
First
Reading Introduction
For
a few days we shall hear excerpts from Paul's second letter
to Timothy. It is ascribed to Paul but probably written
by his disciple or scribe. It insists on the role of both
priests and laity to serve the Gospel without fear.
First
Reading: 2 Tm 1:1–3, 6 –12
Paul,
an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God for the
promise
of life in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my dear child:
grace, mercy,
and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
I am grateful to God, whom I worship with a clear conscience
as my ancestors did, as I remember you constantly in
my prayers, night and day.
For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame the
gift of
God that you have through the imposition of my hands.
For
God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather
of power
and love and self-control. So do not be ashamed of your
testimony to our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for his
sake; but
bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the
strength
that comes from God.
He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according
to
our works but according to his own design and the grace
bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began, but
now
made manifest through the appearance of our savior Christ
Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality
to light through the Gospel, for which I was appointed
preacher
and Apostle and teacher. On this account I am suffering
these
things; but I am not ashamed, for I know him in whom
I have
believed and am confident that he is able to guard what
has
been entrusted to me until that day.
Responsorial
Psalm: Ps 123:1b – 2ab, 2cdef
R./
To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.
To
you I lift up my eyes
who are enthroned in heaven.
Behold, as the eyes of servants
are on the hands of their masters. R./ To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.
As
the eyes of a maid
are on the hands of her mistress,
So are our eyes on the LORD, our God,
till he have pity on us. R./ To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.
Gospel
Reading Introduction
With
arguments that are a bit difficult to follow, Jesus upholds
the resurrection of the dead. God is a God of the living;
his promises are not given in vain. Jesus is harsh with
those who are interested in religion for the sake of arguing
about doctrine but are not interested in faith.
Gospel
Reading: Mk 12:18 – 27
Some
Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to
Jesus and put this question to him, 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 and died, leaving no descendants. So the second
brother married her and died, leaving no descendants,
and the
third likewise. And the seven left no descendants. Last
of all
the woman also died. At the resurrection when they arise
whose
wife will she be? For all seven had been married to
her.” Jesus
said to them, “Are you not misled because you do not
know
the Scriptures or the power of God? When they rise from
the
dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage,
but they
are like the angels in heaven. As for the dead being
raised,
have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage
about
the bush, how God told him, I am the God of Abraham,
the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not God of
the dead
but of the living. You are greatly misled.”
Commentary
Many
things lie beyond our ability to understand. We err, in
fact, when we try to reduce the mysteries of God to our
own size.
What will our relationships with our loved ones be like
in heaven? Only God knows! But the Lord does assure us
that we will be ourselves in heaven (not absorbed into
the energy of the cosmos) and that there exists now a
communion of saints that will only be perfected in heaven.
We will know one another in heaven the way the Lord wants
us to know one another: freed from the corruption of sin
and death.
General
Intercessions
- That
we may keep up the good fight against all that is deadly
to Christian life: dehumanizing kinds of labor, suppression
of freedom, paralyzing fear, love that is destroyed, we
pray:
- That our beloved dead may live on in the life they gave
us, in the good we do, and in the intimate love of God himself,
we pray:
- That all suffering and dying people may share in our resurrection
faith and find strength in the knowledge that God loves
them in life and beyond death, we pray:
Prayer
over the Gifts
Lord
our God,
your Son Jesus Christ has brought us
the Good News of life and immortality.
Through your Holy Spirit of power and life,
let this bread and wine become
the body and blood of your Son,
that we may overcome death with Jesus
and that we may live his risen life
until you let us share
in the fullness of your glory and happiness
for ever and ever.
Prayer
after Communion
God
of the living,
by the strength of this Eucharist
fan in us the flame of your gifts.
Change us, timid people,
into people of courage,
fully alive, unafraid and not ashamed
to bear witness before all who want to see
and hear your Good News
about our Lord Jesus Christ,
your Son and our Savior for ever.
Blessing
Some
groups of the early Christian community called themselves
"the living ones." Our faith, our sharing in the
resurrection of Christ, makes us living people, who live
for life without end. May God bless you, the Father, and
the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Claretian Publications MACAU