20241123 WITNESSES TO THE RESURRECTION
First reading |
Apocalypse 11:4-12 |
The prophets will die who have been a plague to the world
I, John, heard a voice saying: ‘These, my two witnesses, are the two olive trees and the two lamps that stand before the Lord of the world. Fire can come from their mouths and consume their enemies if anyone tries to harm them; and if anybody does try to harm them he will certainly be killed in this way. They are able to lock up the sky so that it does not rain as long as they are prophesying; they are able to turn water into blood and strike the whole world with any plague as often as they like. When they have completed their witnessing, the beast that comes out of the Abyss is going to make war on them and overcome them and kill them. Their corpses will lie in the main street of the Great City known by the symbolic names Sodom and Egypt, in which their Lord was crucified. Men out of every people, race, language and nation will stare at their corpses, for three-and-a-half days, not letting them be buried, and the people of the world will be glad about it and celebrate the event by giving presents to each other, because these two prophets have been a plague to the people of the world.’
After the three-and-a-half days, God breathed life into them and they stood up, and everybody who saw it happen was terrified; then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, ‘Come up here’, and while their enemies were watching, they went up to heaven in a cloud.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 143(144):1-2,9-10 |
Blessed be the Lord, my rock.
Blessed be the Lord, my rock,
who trains my arms for battle,
who prepares my hands for war.
Blessed be the Lord, my rock.
He is my love, my fortress;
he is my stronghold, my saviour
my shield, my place of refuge.
He brings peoples under my rule.
Blessed be the Lord, my rock.
To you, O God, will I sing a new song;
I will play on the ten-stringed lute
to you who give kings their victory,
who set David your servant free.
Blessed be the Lord, my rock.
Gospel Acclamation | cf.Lk8:15 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are those who,
with a noble and generous heart,
take the word of God to themselves
and yield a harvest through their perseverance.
Alleluia!
Or: | cf.2Tim1:10 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Our Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death
and he has proclaimed life through the Good News.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 20:27-40 |
In God all men are alive
Some Sadducees – those who say that there is no resurrection – approached Jesus and they put this question to him, ‘Master, we have it from Moses in writing, that if a man’s married brother dies childless, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother. Well then, there were seven brothers. The first, having married a wife, died childless. The second and then the third married the widow. And the same with all seven, they died leaving no children. Finally the woman herself died. Now, at the resurrection, to which of them will she be wife since she had been married to all seven?’
Jesus replied, ‘The children of this world take wives and husbands, but those who are judged worthy of a place in the other world and in the resurrection from the dead do not marry because they can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels, and being children of the resurrection they are sons of God. And Moses himself implies that the dead rise again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all men are in fact alive.’
Some scribes then spoke up. ‘Well put, Master’ they said – because they would not dare to ask him any more questions.
23 November 2024, Saturday, 33rd Week in Ordinary Time
WITNESSES TO THE RESURRECTION
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [REV 11:4-12; LUKE 20:27-40 ]
The answer to the riddles of suffering and death is in the resurrection. This is why the resurrection of our Lord is the most important doctrine of the Church. Christianity stands or falls with faith in the resurrection. If Christ were not raised, then all the teachings of Christ would be placed in doubt. Most of all, as St Paul wrote, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ – whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.” (1 Cor 15:13-15)
Indeed, faith in the resurrection only became clearer in Christ. It was a doctrine that grew in the later part of the Old Testament although it was alluded in the book of Job and the prophet Ezekiel. Some scholars suggest that the two witnesses mentioned in today’s first reading could be an allusion to Enoch and Elijah as both were taken up to heaven at the end of their earthly life. It became more widespread during the inter-testamental period when we read that prayers were offered for the purification of the souls of those Maccabean martyrs. By the time of Christ, the resurrection of the dead was already a doctrine accepted by the Pharisees and the Scribes, but not the Sadducees who only accepted the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah.
It is within this context that the Lord underscored the truth of the resurrection of the dead when the Sadducees sought to discredit those who believed in it. Using their very example which they cited to put up a ludicrous case of the resurrection, Jesus made it clear that a resurrected life is different from a resuscitated life. The Lord said, “The children of this world take wives and husbands, but those who are judged worthy of a place in the other world and in the resurrection from the dead do not marry because they can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels, and being children of the resurrection, they are sons of God.” So the resurrection is a transfigured life. There is no death and so there is no question of procreation. Life is inclusive, and there is no question of marriage.
Citing from their own scriptures, the Lord took His argument from scripture where in the Book of Exodus, “Moses himself implies that the dead rise again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all men are in fact alive.” God could only be the God of our forefathers provided they were still alive. Of course, the real case for the resurrection of the dead is not simply faith in this doctrine but the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Faith in the resurrection of the dead is not the basis for faith in the resurrection of Christ. Rather it is Christ’s resurrection from the dead that substantiates that belief in the resurrection of the dead is true.
Consequently, the early Christians found encouragement from the resurrection of Christ for their martyrdom on account of their faith. Earlier on, John was asked to eat the scroll which was sweet in his mouth but turned sour in his stomach. He was then told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.” (Jn 10:9-11) John then heard a voice saying: “These, my two witnesses, are the two olive trees and the two lamps that stand before the Lord of the world. Fire can come from their mouths and consume their enemies if anyone tries to harm them; and if anybody does try to harm them he will certainly be killed in this way.” Two witnesses were necessary to verify the truth. These two witnesses could be an allusion to Elijah who brought fire to the holocaust and stopped rain from falling in Israel, or Moses who sent the plagues to Egypt. Eventually they would be transfigured as we saw them again in the Transfiguration scene.
Indeed, it is the resurrection that conquers our fear of death. It is death that man fears most in life. Not only is man tormented by pain and by the advancing deterioration of his body, but even more so by a dread of perpetual extinction. He rightly follows the intuition of his heart when he abhors and repudiates the utter ruin and total disappearance of his own person. He rebels against death because he bears in himself an eternal seed which cannot be reduced to sheer matter. All the endeavors of technology, though useful in the extreme, cannot calm his anxiety; for prolongation of biological life is unable to satisfy that desire for higher life which is inescapably lodged in his breast.” (Gaudium et Spes, No 18)
In the light of what we have said, it means that we, too, are called to be witnesses of the resurrection. Like the two witnesses, we all have a prophetic calling as well. In a world where evil men seek to destroy life through war, abortion, euthanasia and violence, we are called to protect life in all its stages. Like the early Church, we will face persecution from the Antichrist. This is why the Church, more than any other religions, are persecuted by the world. They find the gospel a nuisance to their desire for complete freedom to do anything they want. Today, the world wants absolute freedom and to exercise their personal rights even at the expense of the common good. The world prefers to live in deception rather than hear the unpleasant truth. Those who boldly challenge them would have to suffer the same fate as the two witnesses in the Book of Revelation. The beast in the book of revelation represents the ungodly world as a whole.
However, it is the martyrdom of Christians, hence, they are called “witnesses”, that the Church confirms the truth of her message about Jesus with signs and by suffering. By their martyrdom, they overcame the evil of the world. Christian witness and suffering go together, and they precede the end of the world. We read, “when they have completed their witnessing, the beast that comes out of the Abyss is going to make war on them and overcome them and kill them. Their corpses will lie in the main street of the Great City known by the symbolic names Sodom and Egypt, in which their Lord was crucified. Men out of every people, race, language and nation will stare at their corpses, for three-and-a-half days, not letting them be buried, and the people of the world will be glad about it and celebrate the event by giving presents to each other, because these two prophets have been a plague to the people of the world.” This is an allusion to the crucifixion of our Lord when the world stared at His cross.
More and more, the Church would have to confront the powers of the world. But the book of Revelation tells us not to fear. That the beast overpowers or conquers the saints is merely temporal and from a human perspective. In God’s eyes, the suffering and death of martyrs would bring about a restoration of the world. We are given an assurance in the passion and death of our Lord. The victory of the world over the prophets of God would be temporary. So we read, “After the three-and-a-half days, God breathed life into them and they stood up, and everybody who saw it happen was terrified; then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, ‘Come up here’, and while their enemies were watching, they went up to heaven in a cloud.” Like Christ, they too would be raised from the dead and enter into the heavenly kingdom of God our Father. So let us remember that the setback is temporary.
Indeed, in our struggles against the evil of this world, as St Paul reminds us, we must “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. Put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication.” (Eph 6:10-18) In the words of the psalmist, we must pray, “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my arms for battle, who prepares my hands for war. He is my love, my fortress; he is my stronghold, my savior my shield, my place of refuge. He brings peoples under my rule. To you, O God, will I sing a new song; I will play on the ten-stringed lute to you who give kings their victory, who set David your servant free.” So with faith, we march on!
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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