FIRST READING
“These two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. ”
A reading from the Book of Revelation (Revelation 11 : 4-12)
I, John, was told: “[Behold, my two witnesses;]” these are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands which stand before the Lord of the earth. And if any one would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes; if any one would harm them, thus he is doomed to be killed. They have power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to afflict the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the bottomless pit will make war upon them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which is allegorically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three days and a half men from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And in the sight of their foes they went up to heaven in a cloud.
The word of the Lord.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM Psalm 114: 1.2.9-10 (R. 1a)
R/. Blest be the Lord, my rock.
Blest be the Lord, my rock,
who trains my hands for battle,
who prepares my fingers for war. R/.
He is my merciful love, my fortress;
he is my stronghold, my saviour,
my shield in whom I take refuge.
He brings peoples under my rule. R/.
R/. Blest be the Lord, my rock.
To you, O God, will I sing a new song;
I will play on the ten-stringed harp
to you who give kings their victory,
who set David your servant free
from the evil sword. R/.
ALLELUIA 2 Timothy 1:10
Alleluia. Our Saviour Christ Jesus abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
“’He is not God of the dead, but of the living,”
A reading from the Gospel according to Luke (Luke 20:27-40)
At that time: 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 its 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 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.” And some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” For they no longer dared to ask him any question.’
The Gospel of the Lord.
TODAY’S REFLECTION
In today’s gospel, Jesus outsmarted the Sadducees who put a trap to catch him going wrong. He taught that marriage is not destined to exceed earthly existence. People are transformed when they die. He taught that resurrection is real after this life and that God is the God of the living and not of the dead. Those who live according to the will of God will be rewarded with eternal life. Mary was a disciple par excellence. She loved God and obeyed the laws of God throughout her earthly life. Let us imitate her virtues of deep faith, humility, obedience, and surrender to the will of God etc.