Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Revelation 11:4-12*

These are the two olive trees

And the two lamps which are before the Lord of the earth. If anyone intends to harm them, fire will come out of their mouths to devour their ene­­mies: this is how whoever intends to harm them will perish.

They have the power to close the sky and hold back the rain during the time of their prophetic mission; they also have the power to change water into blood, and punish the earth with a thousand plagues, any­ time they wish.

 But when my witnesses have fulfilled their mission, the beast that comes up from the abyss will make war upon them, and will conquer and kill them. Their dead bodies will lie in the square of the Great City which the be­lievers figuratively call Sodom or Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.

And their dead bodies will be exposed for three days and a half to people of all tribes, races, languages and nations who will be ordered not to have them buried.  Then the inhabitants of the earth will rejoice, congratulate one another and exchange gifts among them­­­­selves because these two prophets were a torment to them.

 But after those three and a half days, a spirit of life coming from God entered them. They then stood up, and those who looked at them were seized with great fear. A loud voice from heaven called them, “Come up here.” So they went up to heaven in the midst of the clouds in the sight of their enemies.

 

Ps 144:1b, 2, 9-10

Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Luke 20:27-40

Then some Sadducees arrived. These peo­ple claim that there is no resurrection   and they asked Jesus this question, “Master, in the Scripture Moses told us: ‘If anyone dies leaving a wife but no children, his brother must take the wife, and the child to be born will be regarded as the child of the de­ceased man.’  

 Now, there were seven brothers; the first married a wife, but he died without children;   and the second  and the third took the wife; in fact all seven died leaving no children.   Last of all the woman died.   On the day of the resurrection, to which of them will the woman be wife? For the seven had her as wife.”

 And Jesus replied, “Taking husband or wife is proper to people of this world,   but for those who are considered worthy of the world to come and of resurrection from the dead, there is no more marriage.   Besides, they cannot die for they are like the angels. They too are sons and daughters of God because they are born of the resurrection.

 Yes, the dead will be raised, and even Moses implied it in the passage about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.   For he is God of the living and not of the dead, and for him all are alive.”

 Some teachers of the Law then agreed with Jesus, “Master, you have spoken well.”   They didn’t dare to ask him anything else.

 

Gospel Reflection：

In early parts of the Old Testament, people assumed that they would live on through their children – i.e., God’s promise to Jacob that his seed would be like the dust of the earth (Genesis 28:14).

As time passed, the Jewish people developed a belief in resurrection, in part, because they believed that God would vindicate good men and women who died without having enjoying the fruits of their goodness.

The word resurrection does not appear in the Old Testament, but the beginnings of the concept are found in Job 19:26; Psalm 16:10; 49:15; Isaiah 25:8; 26:16-19; Daniel 12:2; and 13:14.

Ezekiel 37 tells of dry bones rising to life, but the image is that of the Jewish nation rather than individuals. The idea of resurrection is further developed in the apocrypha (see 2 Maccabees 7).