Messalin
C pp 438
Reading 1 - 2 MAcabees 7:1-2, 9-14
It happened
that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and
scourges by the king, to force them to eat pork in violation of God's law. One
of the brothers, speaking for the others, said: "What do you expect to
achieve by questioning us? We are ready
to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors." At the point of
death he said: "You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present
life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws that we are dying." After
him the third suffered their cruel sport. He put out his tongue at once when
told to do so, and bravely held out his hands, as he spoke these noble words: "It
was from Heaven that I received these; for the sake of his laws I disdain them;
from him I hope to receive them again." Even the king and his attendants
marveled at the young man's courage, because he regarded his sufferings as
nothing. After he had died, they tortured and maltreated the fourth brother in
the same way. When he was near death, he
said, "It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives
of being raised up by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to
life." This is the Word of the Lord.
L-Ewwel Lezzjoni - 2 Ktieb tal-Makkabej 7, 1-2, 9-14
F'dak iż-żmien, qabdu sebat
aħwa u 'l ommhom; u s-sultan beda biex jisfurzhom bid-daqqiet tas-swat u
tan-nerv biex jieklu l-laħam tal-majjal li ma jiswiex. Wieħed minnhom beda
jitkellem f'isem l-oħrajn u qal: "X'int tfittex tistaqsi u trid taf
minna? Aħna lest mmutu, imma m'aħniex
lesti niksru l-liġijiet ta' missirijietna." U t-tieni wieħed, kif kien
fl-aħħar nifs, qallu: "Int, bniedem mill-agħar, int se ċċaħħadna mill-ħajja
ta' issa, imma s-sultan tad-dinja għad iqajjimna għall-ħajja ta' dejjem, lilna
li se mmutu għal-liġijiet tiegħu."Imbagħad wara dan bdew jittorturaw
it-tielet wieħed u malli talbuh ħareġ minnufih ilsienu u bla biża' ta' xejn
midd idejh u ta' qalbieni li kien għajjat: "Mis-sema ksibthom ksibthom
dawn, u għal-liġijiet tiegħu jien nistmerrhom, għax mingħandu nittama li għad
nerġa' niksibhom." Saħansitra
s-sultan u dawk ta' madwaru stagħġbu bil-qawwa ta' dan iż-żgħażugħ, kif l-uġiegħ
ma kien iqisu xejn. Meta miet dan bdew
jittorturaw u jbiċċru r-raba' wieħed bl-istess mod. Meta wasal fl-aħħar qal: "Aħjar li wieħed imut b'idejn
il-bnedmin Meta
jkollu t-tama mingħand Alla li għad iqajmu mill-ġdid.Imma għalik m'hemmx
qawmien għall-ħajja." Il-Kelma tal-Mulej
Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15
R. (15b) Lord, when your
glory appears, my joy will be full.
Hear, O
LORD, a just suit;
attend to my outcry;
hearken to my prayer from lips without deceit. R/
attend to my outcry;
hearken to my prayer from lips without deceit. R/
My steps have been steadfast in your paths,
my feet have not faltered.
I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
incline your ear to me; hear my word. R/.
Keep me as
the apple of your eye,
hide me in the shadow of your wings.
But I in justice shall behold your face;
on waking I shall be content in your presence. R/
hide me in the shadow of your wings.
But I in justice shall behold your face;
on waking I shall be content in your presence. R/
Salm Responsorjali - Salm 16 (17)
R/ Meta
nqum nithenna bid-dehra tiegħek.
Isma', Mulej, il-kawża ġusta
tiegħi,
ilqa' l-għajta tiegħi,
agħti widen għat-talb tiegħi;
bla qerq huma xuffetejja. R/
Il-mixi tiegħi żammejt fi
triqatek,
qatt ma għotru riġlejja.
Insejjaħlek, għax int tweġibni,
o Alla;
ressaq widintek lejja, isma
kliemi. R/
Għad-dell ta' ġwenħajk
kenninni.
Jien, fil-ħaqq, għad nara
meta nqum, nithenna
bid-dehra tiegħek. R/
Reading 2 - 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5
Brothers
and sisters: May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has
loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his
grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word. Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us, so
that the word of the Lord may speed forward and be glorified, as it did among
you, and that we may be delivered from perverse and wicked people, for not all have
faith. But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the
evil one. We are confident of you in the
Lord that what we instruct you, you are doing and will continue to do. May the
Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ. This is the Word of the Lord.
It-Tieni Lezzjoni - 2 Ittra lit-Tessalonikin /2. 16-17; 3, 1-5
Ħuti, Sidna Ġesu' Kristu
stess u Alla Missierna, li ħabbna u tana l-kuraġġ ta' dejjem u t-tama sħiħa bil-grazzja, jqawwilkom qalbkom u jsaħħaħkom f'kull għemil u kelma tajba.
Mill-bqija, ħuti, itolbu għalina biex il-kelma tal-Mulej tiġri l-ġirja tagħha u tkun milqugħa bil-ġieħ bħalma
ġara fostkom. Itolbu biex inkunu meħlusa
minn
Gospel - Luke 20:27-38
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 out '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." This is the Word of the
Lord.
L-Evanġelju
- San Luqa 20, 27-38
F'dak iż-żmien, resqu fuqu
xi wħud mis-sadduċej, dawk li jiċħdu l-qawmien mill-imwiet, u staqsewh:
"Mgħallem, Mose' ħallielna miktub: 'Jekk wieħed imutlu ħuħ miżżewweġ u dan
ikun bla tfal, dak ikollu jiżżewweġ l-armla biex inissel ulied lil ħuħ. Issa
jkun hemm sebat aħwa, u l-kbir iżżewweġ u miet bla tfal. It-tieni wieħed, u mbagħd it-tielet,
f'kelma waħda, is-sebgħa li kienu, ħadu l-armla, u mietu bla ma ħallew
tfal. Fl-aħħar mietet il-mara
wkoll. Issa din, fil-qawmien
tal-imwiet,mart min minnhom tkun? Għax
is-sebgħa jkunu żżewġuha." Weġibhom Ġesu':
"Il-bnedmin f'din id-dinja jiżżewġu u jżewġu; imma dawk li jkun
jistħoqqilhom jgħaddu għad-dinja l-oħra u jqumu mill-imwiet, dawn la jżewġu u
lanqas jiżżewġu. Għax anqas jistgħu
jmutu iżjed, għaliex ikunu bħall-anġli,
u huma wlied Alla ladarba qamu mill-imwiet. U li l-mejtin iqumu, Mose' wkoll urieh,
fir-rakkont tax-xitla tal-għollieq, għax lill-Mulej isejjaħlu Alla ta' Abraħam, Alla ta' Iżakk, u Alla ta' Ġakobb. Issa hu mhuwiex Alla tal-mejtin, iżda tal-ħajjin, għax għalih kulħadd jgħix. Il-Kelma tal-Mulej
------------------ COMMENTARY------------
God Is Not God of the Dead
Gospel Commentary
for the 32rd Sunday in Ordinary Time By Father Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap
In reply to the question that the Sadducees had posed to
trap him about the woman who had had seven husbands on earth, Jesus above all
reaffirms the fact of the resurrection, correcting at the same time the
Sadducees' materialistic caricature of it.
Eternal beatitude is not just an increase and prolongation of terrestrial joys, the maximization of the pleasures of the flesh and the table. The other life is truly another life, a life of a different quality. It is true that it is the fulfillment of all man's longings on earth, yet it is infinitely more, on a different level. "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."
Eternal beatitude is not just an increase and prolongation of terrestrial joys, the maximization of the pleasures of the flesh and the table. The other life is truly another life, a life of a different quality. It is true that it is the fulfillment of all man's longings on earth, yet it is infinitely more, on a different level. "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."
At the end of the Gospel passage, Jesus
explains the reason why there must be life after death. "That the dead
will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called
out '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."
Where in that is the proof that the dead rise? If God is defined as the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and is a God of the living, not of the dead, then this
means that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are alive somewhere, even if they have been
dead for centuries at the time that God talks to Moses.
Interpreting Jesus' answer to the
Sadducees in an erroneous way, some have claimed that marriage has no follow-up
in heaven. But with his reply Jesus rejects the caricature that the Sadducees
present of heaven, a caricature that suggests that it is a simple continuation
of the earthly relationships of the spouses. He does not deny that they might
rediscover in God the bond that united them on earth.
Is it possible that a husband and wife,
after a life that brought them into relation with God through the miracle of
creation, will not in eternal life have anything more in common, as if all were
forgotten, lost? Would this not be contrary to Jesus' word according to which
that which God has united must not be divided? If God united them on earth, how
could he divide them in heaven? Could an entire life spent together end in
nothing without betraying the meaning of this present life, which is a preparation
for the kingdom, the new heaven and the new earth?
It is Scripture itself, and not only the
natural desire of the husband and wife, that supports this hope. Marriage,
Scripture says, is "a great sacrament" because it symbolizes the
union between Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:32). Is it possible that it be
eliminated in the heavenly Jerusalem
According to this vision, matrimony does
not entirely end with death but is transfigured, spiritualized -- it loses
those limits that mark life on earth -- in the same way that the bonds between
parents and children or between friends will not be forgotten. In the preface
of the Mass for the dead, the liturgy says that with death "life is
changed, not taken away"; the same must be said of marriage, which is an
integral part of life.
But what about those who have had a
negative experience of earthly marriage, an experience of misunderstanding and
suffering? Should not this idea that the marital bond will not break at death
be for them, rather than a consolation, a reason for fear? No, for in the
passage from time to eternity the good remains and evil falls away. The love that
united them, perhaps for only a brief time, remains; defects,
misunderstandings, suffering that they inflicted on each other, will fall away.
Many spouses will experience true love for each other only when they will be
reunited "in God," and with this love there will be the joy and
fullness of the union that they did not know on earth. This is also what
happens to the love between Faust and Margaret in Goethe's story: "Only in
heaven the unreachable -- that is, the total and pacific union between two creatures
who love each other -- will become reality." In God all will be
understood, all will be excused, all will be forgiven.
And
what can be said about those who have been legitimately married to different
people, widowers and widows who have remarried. (This was the case presented to
Jesus of the seven brothers who successively had the same woman as their wife.)
Even for them we must repeat the same thing: That which was truly love and
self-surrender between each of the husbands or wives, being objectively a good
coming from God, will not be dissolved. In heaven there will not be rivalry in
love or jealousy. These things do not belong to true love but to the intrinsic
limits of the creature.
---------------------------------------- (Translation from the Italian original by
Zenit)
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