SATURDAY OF WEEK 33 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Our Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death
and he has proclaimed life through the Good News. 2 TIM 1:10

APOCALYPSE 11:4-12

My Soul's Beloved,

As a Catholic, as a member of Your Body, the Church, I, by virtue of my baptism, am called to be a living witness of the faith which is a gift and a grace. I am called, endowed with gifts according to my vocation, and sent with a mandate to teach and preach the Good News by my life more than by words. I am called to be salt and light in a world that is growing increasingly dark as it is given over to the power of evil.

Lord Jesus Christ, the lives of the Apostles Peter and Paul as well as every Christian who has lived a heroic life of virtue teaches us that it is possible to stand up boldly to the Enemy even though the world stands against us.

My Lord and my God, You will ensure that there will always be a faithful remnant who shine like stars, and by their willingness to follow in Your footsteps all the way to Calvary and to the tomb, they will be like seed having fallen and died with bring forth an abundant harvest, for as it is rightly said, 'the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.' God has the power to raise the dead to life and the Holy Spirit can breathe on dead bones and raise up an invincible army to rout the Enemy.

King of Kings and Lord of Lords, we are Yours to command as You deem fit. Use us for Your glory and for the coming of Your Kingdom. Amen.

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.

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.

He is my love, my fortress;

he is my stronghold, my saviour
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.

Blessed be the Lord, my rock.

LUKE 20:27-40

My Soul's Beloved,

Like the Sadducees, the world is given up to the things of the flesh, to things that decay, to things that bring death not life. Those who deny You, deny the Church You founded, deny life after death, deny the resurrection, do so out of choice because if they believed then they would have to amend their lives. They know that they will be accountable. They prefer to stick their heads in the sand and pretend that this present life is all there is and after that nothing. While their lifestyles loudly protest the truth of accountability and an afterlife, their spirit is consumed with darkness, restlessness, and gloom. 

The truth, the unvarnished and inexorable truth is that we were created for You O Lord, and our hearts are restless unless they rest in You. The argument of the Sadducees was absurd when they first said it and does not cease being absurd in our time.

The flesh is subject to sickness and death but the soul is immortal. We can choose to believe You, obey the Commandments, and choose eternal and glorious life with You in heaven or we can freely choose to give ourselves over to the desires of the flesh and eternal death. 

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.