Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

The wages of sin is death. In other words, what Adam earned by sinning was death – the passing away of individual human beings. Adam brought death to the human race because he separated his mind and heart from God. God did not create us for death, He created us for life, but that life comes from Him. The highest and most lifegiving source of human life: communion with God – has been severed through the choices of our first parents. Physical death is just one kind of death, there is a kind of emotional death, a kind of spiritual death. We will experience death in various ways during our time on earth – we will also experience life in various ways. God clearly created us for happiness and life, but we are mysteriously drawn to the darkness of sin – tempted – to flirt with death. Death continues to exert power over us even though we’ve been baptised and even though we practice the faith. We continue to experience sorrow and suffering because of our own sin and because of the sins of others.

How does Jesus save us then? What does it mean to be saved? What am I expecting Jesus to change about my life? It is natural to desire happiness in this life, but Jesus doesn’t make any guarantees about that. He does promise us peace though – heavenly peace. That peace comes from him re-establishing communion between us and Our Heavenly Father. The mercy of God removes sin if we ask for it, and heals us from death. The ultimate healing from death happens at our resurrection, but we are also healed from the deaths of sin we’ve experienced. We can receive the peace and communion Jesus wants for us by simply reaching out to Him in faith. Jesus gives an example of how to do that to his disciples in today’s Gospel. He goes off to a solitary place to pray. On the one hand, prayer is an obligation – our duty to express gratitude to our Creator, but it is also the way God strengthens our hearts and teaches us to continue our way back to Him. Prayer isn’t guaranteed to make us happy, but to bring us back into communion with God and give us peace to continue our journey to heaven.

OECUMENIUS:

And how does he rule over death? Since he rules over sin from which death has its power, he also rules over death. Sin, at any rate, is the power of death. Then having a sacrifice for sin and being the agent of the sacrifice, he has the power over death.… Through his own death he rendered sin ineffective and held the devil under his power, who is the strength and power of death. For if sin had not had power over humankind, death would not have entered the world.¹

PHOTIUS:

“He is able to help those who are tempted” … should be interpreted as follows. As the sinless body of the Lord was subjected to the evil and the temptations of suffering befell it … therefore, having the sinless body, having been tried and having suffered, he has the just and blessed power over evil, can deliver humans who are dying under sin from the temptations that fall on them, and he can defend from the temptations. If the Lord had righteous and blessed power over the audacious evil that tempted his sinless body, he also is able to release those who are subject to sin and temptations and to be the helper of those who are tempted.²

ORIGEN:

Jesus prayed and did not pray in vain, since he received what he asked for in prayer when he might have done so without prayer. If so, who among us would neglect to pray? Mark says that “in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed.” And Luke says, “He was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray,’ ” and elsewhere, “And all night he continued in prayer to God.” And John records his prayer, saying, “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.’ ” The same Evangelist writes that the Lord said that he knew “you hear me always.” All this shows that the one who prays always is always heard.³

Footnotes

FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 2.14. Heen, E. M., & Krey, P. D. W. (Eds.). (2005). Hebrews (p. 47). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 2.18. Heen, E. M., & Krey, P. D. W. (Eds.). (2005). Hebrews (pp. 50–51). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
ON PRAYER 13.1. Oden, T. C., & Hall, C. A. (Eds.). (1998). Mark (Revised) (pp. 23–24). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Daily Readings

Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
by USCCB on November 23, 2024 at 9:30 am
Reading Rv 11:4-12 I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me: Here are my two witnesses: These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain. They have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying. They also have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish. When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them. Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city, which has the symbolic names “Sodom” and “Egypt,” where indeed their Lord was crucified. Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days, and they will not allow their corpses to be buried. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange gifts because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth. But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them. When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “Come up here.” So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on. Responsorial Psalm Psalm 144:1, 2, 9-10 R. (1b) Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!Blessed be the LORD, my rock,who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!My mercy and my fortress,my stronghold, my deliverer,My shield, in whom I trust,who subdues my people under me.R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!O God, I will sing a new song to you;with a ten stringed lyre I will chant your praise,You who give victory to kings,and deliver David, your servant from the evil sword.R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock! Alleluia See 2 Tm 1:10 R. Alleluia, alleluia. Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death and brought life to light through the Gospel. R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Lk 20:27-40 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. Readings for the Optional Memorial of Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, priest and martyrReadings for the Optional Memorial of Saint Columban, abbotReadings for the Optional Memorial of Saint Clement I, pope and martyr - - - Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

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