Daily Reflection – Nov 21, 2015

Saturday 21 November 2015

First Reading: 1 Maccabees 6:1-13
Psalm Response:
I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord
Ps 9A:2-4, 6, 16, 19
Gospel Reading: Luke 20:27-40

Today’s Feast: The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Memorial)

Gospel Reading:

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 ‘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.”
Some of the scribes said in reply,
“Teacher, you have answered well.”
And they no longer dared to ask him anything.

Reflection:

‘Who is my mother? Who are my brothers and sisters?’

Lord, were you putting down your mother and your disciples when you asked this question? Not at all. The gospel here is asking us to consider the relationships with you that are more than physical.

Because you took your human nature from Mary, your mother is revered as Mother of God and Queen of Heaven. Because you died for each one of us, you are the world’s redeemer. Because you rose from the dead, you call us to share in your risen life in time and eternity. And by your indwelling Spirit you make us temples of God, members of Christ’s body, offering us grace and virtue for our every need.

In a ‘letter to the faithful’ St Francis wrote, ‘We are Christ’s mother when we carry him about in our heart and person by means of love and a pure and sincere conscience, and we give birth to him by the good that he works in us which acts in us as an example to others.’