Daily Scripture, November 23, 2024
Scripture:
Revelation 11:4-12
Luke 20:27-40
Reflection:
In our Gospel reading for today, the Sadducees, who don’t believe in the Resurrection, take their turn in trying to stump Jesus. They offer him a hypothetical situation in which a woman winds up marrying seven brothers because she has been widowed seven times without bearing children. They ask Jesus, “Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?” They think they’ve got Him. But Jesus responds that in the afterlife, things will not be as they are here on earth: “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.” And then Jesus offers another proof for belief in resurrection: “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.”
Our belief in the Resurrection reminds us that our God is always oriented towards life and wants us to be oriented the same way. As Jesus says, all are alive to God. All are precious to God. All are beloved by God, even those who reject God.
The challenge for us is to look at the choices we make, about what we say, about what we do, about how we relate to others and to all of creation and determine whether they support life or death. May all our choices lead us to support life, as God supports us.
Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior of the Passionist Community in Birmingham, Alabama.
Scripture:Jeremiah 28:1-17Matthew 14:13-21Reflection:What is the mission of the Church? Back in my student days, I had a teacher who asked this question a couple of times a semester. After giving » Continue Reading.
Scripture:Exodus 16:2-4,12-15Ephesians 4:7, 20-24John 6:24-35Reflection:A Hearty Appetite for the LordThe readings for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary time stretch our faith using a very familiar human reality: food. The selection » Continue Reading.
Scripture:Jeremiah 26:11-16, 24Matthew 14:1-12Reflection:It is innocent blood you bring on yourselves, on this city and its citizens. For in truth, it was the Lord who sent me to you, to » Continue Reading.
Scripture:Jeremiah 26:1-9Matthew 13:54-58Reflection: Two whistleblowers, Allan McDonald and Roger Boisjoly, engineers at Morton Thiokol Inc., testified before the Rogers Commission investigating the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. They said there » Continue Reading.
Scripture:Jeremiah 18:1-6Matthews 13:47-53Reflection:Jesus, in the 13th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, shares seven parables with the crowds and the apostles. In today’s reading, we hear about the net cast into the » Continue Reading.
Scripture:Jeremiah 15:10, 16-21Matthew 13:44-16Reflection:Happy Wednesday in the 17th Week of Ordinary Time!“What would you do for a Klondike Bar?”Do you remember the ad campaign for a chocolate-dipped square of vanilla » Continue Reading.
Scripture:Jeremiah 14:17-22Matthew 13:36-43Reflection:Once again our Scriptures give us a blueprint to help us grow in relationship with our God if we so choose.We read in the Alleluia verse:“The seed is » Continue Reading.
Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary and LazarusScripture:1 John 4:7–16Luke 10:38–42Reflection: “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.” 1Jn 4:16Growing up in California » Continue Reading.
Scripture:2 Kings 4:42-44Ephesians 4:1-6John 6:1-15Reflection:Our readings today reflect the generosity of a loving, nurturing God. Twenty barley loaves brought from a man from Baal-shalishah fed over a hundred people with » Continue Reading.
Scripture:Jeremiah 7:1-11Matthew 13:24-30Reflection:In our Gospel reading for today, Jesus tells a parable about weeds and wheat. An enemy of a landowner has sowed weeds among the wheat of his field. » Continue Reading.