Archive for November 21, 2020

Solemnity of Christ the King

Posted: November 21, 2020 by CatholicJules in Sunday Reflections
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When the End Comes: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Solemnity of Christ the King

Readings:
Ezekiel 34:11–12, 15–17
Psalm 23:1–3, 5–6
1 Corinthians 15:20–26, 28
Matthew 25:31–46

The Church year ends today with a vision of the end of time. The scene in the Gospel is stark and resounds with Old Testament echoes.

The Son of Man is enthroned over all nations and peoples of every language (see Daniel 7:13–14). The nations have been gathered to see His glory and receive His judgment (see Isaiah 66:18; Zephaniah 3:8). The King is the divine shepherd Ezekiel foresees in today’s First Reading, judging as a shepherd separates sheep from goats.
Each of us will be judged upon our performance of the simple works of mercy we hear in the Gospel today.

These works, as Jesus explains today, are reflections or measures of our love for Him, our faithfulness to His commandment that we love God with all our might and our neighbor as ourselves (see Matthew 22:36–40).

Our faith is dead, lifeless, unless it be expressed in works of love (see James 2:20; Galatians 5:6). And we cannot say we truly love God, whom we cannot see, if we don’t love our neighbor, whom we can (see 1 John 4:20).

The Lord is our shepherd, as we sing in today’s Psalm. And we are to follow His lead, to imitate His example (see 1 Corinthians 1:11; Ephesians 5:1).

He healed our sickness (see Luke 6:19), freed us from the prison of sin and death (see Romans 8:2, 21), welcomed us who were once strangers to His covenant (see Ephesians 2:12, 19). He clothed us in baptism (see Revelation 3:5; 2 Corinthians 5:3–4), and feeds us with the food and drink of His own body and blood.

At “the end,” He will come again to hand over His kingdom to His Father, as Paul says in today’s Epistle.

Let us strive to be following Him in right paths, that this kingdom might be our inheritance, that we might enter into the eternal rest promised for the people of God (see Hebrews 4:1, 9–11).

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: November 21, 2020 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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Listen, believe in Jesus and be saved!

How long shall we close our ears to the call of the prophets amongst us? How long must the Lord our God wait for us to respond to His call for repentance and growth in Holiness? Why do we look for happiness among the dead in spirit? How many souls are lost by our inaction to love as we are called to love?

We are children of an almighty and ever living God our Heavenly Father! Through the blood of the lamb, His only Begotten Son, our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ we have been redeemed! We are able to live liberated lives in the light of the Resurrection and the life!

I consecrate my life to You my Lord Jesus Christ. In body, mind and soul let the work that I do, flow as ceaseless praise of You. As I endeavour each and every day to love my brethren as You love me. Amen alleluia!

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.


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.