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32nd Sunday of the year
2 Maccabees 7:1-2,9-14
Psalm 16
2Thessalonians 2:16-3:5
Luke 20:27-36
As we near the end of the Church's year, our thoughts are drawn
towards the end of time and the after-life. The story of the mother and her
seven sons from the deuterocanonical book of Maccabees, teaches that the just,
unlike the wicked, will rise again. The Jewish people had been forced by the
Greeks to eat pig's flesh, an act contrary to their food laws. Those who
refused were put to death as martyrs, worthy of resurrection by God to eternal
life.
In today's gospel the Sadducees, who did not believe in the
resurrection from the dead, put a proposition before Jesus based on the
Levirate marriage legislation of Deuteronomy. Jesus' reply demonstrates his
authority in interpreting the Mosaic Law and shows that he is in continuity
with the teaching of the Pharisees. This section of Luke's gospel takes place
in the Temple where Jesus entered as he ended his journey to Jerusalem and here
Jesus proclaims his confidence in the God of the living. .
St Paul, in the second reading, encourages the Thessalonians
to develop a confidence in God and prays that the Lord will comfort and
strengthen them in all that they do or say.
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