Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
32nd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Cycle C)
Readings:
2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14
Psalm 17:1, 5-6, 8
2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5
Luke 20:27-38 or 20:27, 34-38
Abbreviations: NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), NABRE (New American Bible Revised St. Joseph Edition), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments, which is why we read and relive the events of salvation history contained in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that the Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Theme of this Sunday's Readings ~ The Hope of Resurrection
and Deliverance from Persecution
The First Reading and the Gospel Reading focus on the hope
of resurrection, while the Psalm and the Second Reading call for perseverance
and faith in God's justice amid trials and suffering. Both the First Reading
and the hypothetical story in the Gospel Reading involve the fate of seven brothers.
The story in our First Reading has a historical basis. Ancient secular documents attest to the suffering endured by the Jews in the 2nd century BC during the period of Seleucid Greek domination of Judah. The Greek Seleucids were intent in their efforts to eradicate the Jewish religion and culture centered on their belief in one God to be replaced by Hellenistic culture and the worship of pagan Greek idols. The reading from the 2nd Book of Maccabees records the faith of a woman's seven sons in defending their belief in the God of Israel and their obedience to the Law of Moses. Each son, in turn, endured torture and martyrdom rather than deny the One True God. The story should invite each of us to an examination of conscience in asking ourselves, "Am I prepared to suffer martyrdom for Christ, believing that there is an eternal life open to me beyond this temporal life?" and, "Is denying Christ in this temporal life worth risking my eternal salvation?" Jesus promised us that if we deny Him before others, He will deny us on the Day of Judgment. However, if we acknowledge Him, He will defend us in the presence of angels before the throne of His heavenly Father (Luke 12:8-9).
In the Psalm Reading, attributed to King David, the psalmist, whom his enemies have unjustly attacked, seeks refuge before the justice seat of Yahweh within God's Holy Temple. The psalmist cries out for God's just judgment and confidently petitions God's divine aid against his enemies. He trusts in God's special care, using the metaphor of God's protective wings. This image comes from God's dwelling place between the outstretched wings of the cherubim above the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant in the Jerusalem Temple's Holy of Holies. The same loving intervention is open to all God's children who seek His divine justice when unjustly persecuted. Even if we are denied justice in this life, we have God's assurance that we will receive His divine justice in the resurrection that is to come (Rev 7:15, 17).
The Second Reading is from St. Paul's second letter to the faith community he founded at Thessalonica in Macedonia (Acts 17:19). Paul encouraged the congregation to continue in good works and share God's word in the Gospel. Paul promised that these righteous acts would strengthen them in faith and bring them closer to the glory of God. He also asked for their prayers for him and his missionary team. Paul asked them to pray that the Gospel message of salvation they preached would spread quickly and be received in faith as it was among the members of their community. He also asked them to pray that God would protect the missionary team from persecution by those who rejected Jesus's Gospel of salvation. Today, we must continue St. Paul's same petitions for the servants of Jesus Christ who carry the Gospel message of salvation to communities and across the face of the earth.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus rebuked the Sadducees who rejected the doctrine of the resurrection. Correcting their misconceptions, He told them that resurrected life would be very different from life on earth. Marriage and children were only blessings in the material world. Since life is eternal, there would no longer be any need to produce more generations in the heavenly kingdom. Resurrected life in both body and spirit is eternal; therefore, in Heaven, it will no longer be necessary for the sacrament of marriage, which is an earthly partnership with God to increase the population on earth.
The hope of humanity's physical resurrection in the Second Advent of Christ is one of the great gifts of our promised eternal salvation. Just before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, a promise of our future resurrection at the end of the Age of Man, He told Lazarus's grieving sister Martha: "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die." And then, Jesus asked her, "Do you believe this?" (Jn 11:25-26). This is the question that our readings ask us today: "Can you persevere in suffering to continue in faith, taking strength from the promises of God?" and "Do you believe when Jesus returns in His Second Advent that He has the power to raise you from death to a new and eternal life in both body and spirit?" Your entire eternal future depends on your answers to these questions.
The First Reading 2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14 ~ Heroic
Martyrdom for the sake of the Resurrection
1 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. 2 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." [...] 9 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." 10 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, 11
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." 12
Even the king and his attendants marveled at the young man's courage, because
he regarded his sufferings as nothing. 13 After he had died, they tortured and
maltreated the fourth brother in the same way. 14 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."
Two centuries after the Persians allowed the Jews to return to Judah from their exile in Babylon, the armies of Alexander the Great defeated the Persians in the 4th century BC. When Alexander died, four of his generals divided his empire. When the books of 1 and 2 Maccabees were written, the Jews were suffering under the domination of the Syrian Greek Empire of the Seleucids. In the 2nd century BC, Seleucid ruler Antiochus Epiphanes tried to impose Greek culture and religion on all the subjects in his empire. He set up a statue of Zeus in the Jerusalem Temple, offered sacrifices to the Greek gods, and tried to force observant Jews to break the Law of Moses by eating ritually unclean foods like pork (see Lev 11:1-8). The penalty for non-compliance was torture and death, even for women and children (1 Mac 1:60ff). The story in our reading has a historical basis, and ancient secular documents have attested to the suffering the Jews endured in this period (see, for example, Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 12:5.3-4; 12.6.1-3; Wars of the Jews, 1.1.1-2).
The seven brothers had a good mother who instilled in them the virtue of selfless love for God and the commitment to live in obedience to His Law. The seven brothers in the story professed their belief in the resurrection of the righteous and the promise of eternal life by the Creator's power. Each brother bravely accepted martyrdom rather than defying the commands of God under the Sinai covenant, and each brother was confident that God would keep His promise that they would live again. It is a promise foretold by the Archangel Michael to the prophet Daniel in the 6th century BC: Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace. But the wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament. And those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever (Dan 12:1-2). Jesus spoke of the two destinies for the resurrected dead in Matthew 25:31-46: eternal life for the obedient righteous and eternal death for the unrepentant sinners. They deny Christ by denying his obligation to the poor and suffering. Which destiny will be yours?
Responsorial Psalm 17:1, 5-6, 8 ~ A Prayer for Rescue
from Persecutors
The response is: "Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will
be full."
1 Hear, O LORD, a just suit; attend to my outcry; harken
to my prayer from lips without deceit.
Response:
5 My steps have been steadfast in your paths; my feet
have not faltered. 6 I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline
your ear to me; hear my word.
Response:
8 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.
Response:
Psalm 17 is a prayer attributed to King David. The psalmist was unjustly attacked and sought refuge before the judgment seat of Yahweh, the righteous judge, within the Jerusalem Temple. Confident of being found innocent of the charges against him, the psalmist cries out for God's justice (verses 1-5). He confidently petitions God's divine aid against his enemies (verses 6-8). In verse 8, he calls out: 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, using familiar images of God's special care (see Dt 32:10; Prov 7:2; and Is 49:2). The metaphor of God's protective wings comes from what was God's dwelling place between the outstretched wings of the cherubim above the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant in the Jerusalem Temple's Holy of Holies (1 Kng 6:23-28; 8:6-7). Jesus would use the same metaphor of God's protective wings in His lament over the fate of Jerusalem (Mt 23:37).
The Second Reading 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5 ~
Encouragement to Persevere
16 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, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and
word. 3:1 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, 2 and that we may
be delivered from perverse and wicked people, for not all have faith. 3 But the
Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. 4 We
are confident of you in the Lord that what we instruct you, you are doing and
will continue to do. 5 May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and
to the endurance of Christ.
The reading is from St. Paul's second letter to the faith community he founded at Thessalonica in Macedonia (Acts 17:19). In this passage, Paul encourages the congregation to continue producing good "deeds" and sharing God's "word" in the "good news" of the Gospel (verse 17). These righteous acts would strengthen them in faith and bring them closer to the glory of God. Next, Paul requested their prayers for him and his missionary team. He asks for them to pray:
Paul directed the second prayer request for protection from "perverse and wicked people" who do not have faith (2:2). He and his companions have suffered for Christ in spreading the Gospel of salvation. In 2 Corinthians, Paul wrote: Five times at the hands of the Jews I received forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I passed a night and a day on the deep; on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own race, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights, through hunger and thirst, through frequent fastings, through cold and exposure. And apart from these things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches ... naming seven dangers (2 Cor 11:25-28).
Paul also prayed for the Thessalonians in 3:3-5 that:
He knew that Satan would tempt them to do evil, but he also knew that God's promised He would not allow them to be tempted beyond their powers of resistance (1 Cor 10:13).
Finally, Paul told the Thessalonians that the missionary team had confidence in them to be an obedient and faithful community in Christ. He gave them his blessing in verse 5: May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ. May Paul's blessing for the 1st-century church at Thessalonica be ours today, that we committed ourselves selflessly to the love of God and continued to endure for the sake of our salvation in Christ Jesus!
The Gospel of Luke 20:27-38 ~ The Sadducees
question Jesus on the Resurrection
27 Some Sadducees, those who deny there is a
resurrection, came forward and put this question to him, 28 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.' 29 Now
there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. 30 Then
the second 31 and the third married her, and likewise, all the seven died
childless. 32 Finally the woman also died. 33 Now at the resurrection whose
wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her." 34 Jesus said
to them, "The children of this age marry and remarry; 35 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. 36 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 [being sons of the resurrection]. 37 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; 38 and he is not God of the
dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive." 39 Some of the scribes said
in reply, "Teacher, you have answered well." 40 And they no longer dared to ask
him anything. [...] = Greek translation (Interlinear Bible Greek-English,
vol. IV, page 230).
The Sadducees were the religious/political party that was, for the most part, composed of the chief priests. Information concerning the beliefs of the Sadducees appears in Scripture and the writings of Flavius Josephus, a Jewish priest and historian (c. 34/37-100 AD). The Sadducees:
27 Some Sadducees, those who deny there is a
resurrection, came forward and put this question to him, 28 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.'
To press their belief in the absurdity of a physical
resurrection, the Sadducees allude to a passage in Deuteronomy 25:1-5. In the
Latin Vulgate, the statute on marriage in Deuteronomy 25:5-10 came to be known
as "levirate marriage," since the word levir means "brother-in-law,"
designating the husband's brother in Latin. According to the Law, a man was forbidden
to marry his brother's wife if she had borne children to his brother, but there
was an exception to the Law if the brother died without an heir. In that case,
it was his closest relative's obligation to marry the widow and give his deceased
relative an heir (see the Book of Ruth 4:5). The Sadducees then propose an extreme
hypothetical case of a woman who married seven times in turn to seven brothers.
After their story, intending to debunk the doctrine of the resurrection and to
make Jesus look foolish, they asked whose wife the woman would be in the
resurrection.
In this same exchange in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus gave them a shockingly sharp rebuke (remember, these are chief priests of the ministerial priesthood). In Matthew 22:29, Jesus told the chief priests You are misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. The "power of God" refers to the resurrection of the dead. Jesus then instructed them in reverse order, telling them they did not understand the resurrection, nor did they know the Pentateuch/the Torah of Moses. He would continue to prove His point on their failure to understand the Scriptures in His exchange with the religious leaders in Luke 20:17-18 and 41-44. The Sadducees, who believed they were the authoritative interpreters of the Torah of Moses and the "shepherds of Israel," must have been highly insulted.
34 Jesus said to them, "The children of this age marry
and remarry; 35 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. 36 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 [being sons of the resurrection].
Resurrected life will be very different from life on earth. Since
life is eternal, there would no longer be any need to produce more generations
of the living, and, therefore, there was no longer any need for marriage in
Heaven (see 2 Cor 15:35-40).
Jesus rebuked them, saying, "37 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; 38 and he is not God of
the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."
Knowing that the Sadducees considered the Torah of Moses to
be Spirit-inspired Scripture, Jesus used the Torah to prove their incorrect
understanding of the resurrection of the dead. As a proof-text to correct their
misunderstanding of Scripture and the resurrection, Jesus referred to what
God told Moses to tell the children of Israel concerning God's identity (verse
37). The exchange between God and Moses that Jesus referred to is from Moses's experience
of God in the incident of the bush that did not burn up when God told Moses to go
and liberate His people in Exodus 3:15-16. Jesus's point in referring to this
passage was that since God continues a personal relationship with the
Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob after their physical death, there must be
a form of life for them in the future. For other Old Testament passages about
the resurrection, see Isaiah 25:8; 26:19;
Psalm 73:24-25; and Daniel 12:1-3.
Jesus demonstrated that the Sadducees did not understand the meaning of resurrected life, nor did they appear to know that the Torah of Moses contained evidence for belief in the resurrection. Jesus was "coming against the shepherds of Israel," who were not correctly "tending the sheep" of Israel. God incarnate (Jesus the Davidic Messiah) was now the Shepherd of God's flock (see Jn chapter 10) as prophesied by the 6th century BC prophet Ezekiel: The Lord Yahweh says this: Look, I am against the shepherds. I shall take my flock out of their charge and henceforth not allow them to feed my flock. And the shepherds will stop feeding themselves, because I shall rescue my sheep from their mouths to stop them from being food for them. For the Lord Yahweh says this: Look, I myself shall take care of my flock and look after it (Ezek 34:10-11 NJB).
Catechism References (* indicates Scripture quoted or
paraphrased in the citation):
2 Maccabees 7:9 and 14 (CCC 992*)
2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5 (CCC 162)
Luke 20:27-38 and the resurrection of the dead (CCC 330*, 366, 990-991*, 997-998*)
The progressive revelation of resurrection (CCC 992*, 993*, 994*, 995*, 996*)
Our resurrection in Christ (CCC 997, 998*, 999*, 1000, 1001*, 1002*, 1003*, 1004*)
Heaven (CCC 1023*, 1024, 1025*, 1026, 1027*, 1028, 1029*)
Purgatory, the final purification (CCC 1030, 1031*, 1032*)
Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2013; revised 2022 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.