Memorial of Saint Andrew Dung-Lac, Priest,
and Companions, Martyrs
Lectionary: 502
Lectionary: 502
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.
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
PsalmPS 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!
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!
AlleluiaSEE 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.
Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelLK 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.
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.
Meditation: "All live to him"
Is your life earth-bound or heaven-bound? The
Sadducees had one big problem - they could not conceive of heaven beyond what
they could see with their naked eyes! Aren't we often like them? We don't
recognize spiritual realities because we try to make heaven into an earthly
image. The Sadducees came to Jesus with a test question to make the
resurrection look ridiculous. The Sadducees, unlike the Pharisees, did not
believe in immortality, nor in angels or evil spirits. Their religion was
literally grounded in an earthly image of heaven.
The Scriptures give witness - we will rise again to
immortal life
Jesus retorts by dealing with the fact of the resurrection. The scriptures give proof of it. In Exodus 3:6, when God manifests his presence to Moses in the burning bush, the Lord tells him that he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He shows that the patriarchs who died hundreds of years previously were still alive in God. Jesus defeats their arguments by showing that God is a living God of a living people. God was the friend of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when they lived. That friendship could not cease with death. As Psalm 73:23-24 states: "I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory."
Jesus retorts by dealing with the fact of the resurrection. The scriptures give proof of it. In Exodus 3:6, when God manifests his presence to Moses in the burning bush, the Lord tells him that he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He shows that the patriarchs who died hundreds of years previously were still alive in God. Jesus defeats their arguments by showing that God is a living God of a living people. God was the friend of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when they lived. That friendship could not cease with death. As Psalm 73:23-24 states: "I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory."
The ultimate proof of the resurrection is the Lord
Jesus and his victory over death when he rose from the tomb. Before Jesus
raised Lazarus from the dead, he exclaimed: "I am the
resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he
live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you
believe this?" (John 11:25). Jesus asks us the same question. Do
you believe in the resurrection and in the promise of eternal life with God?
Jesus came to restore Paradise and everlasting life
for us
The Holy Spirit reveals to us the eternal truths of God's unending love and the life he desires to share with us for all eternity. Paul the Apostle, quoting from the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 64:4; 65:17) states: "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him," God has revealed to us through the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). The promise of paradise - heavenly bliss and unending life with an all-loving God - is beyond human reckoning. We have only begun to taste the first-fruits! Do you live now in the joy and hope of the life of the age to come?
The Holy Spirit reveals to us the eternal truths of God's unending love and the life he desires to share with us for all eternity. Paul the Apostle, quoting from the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 64:4; 65:17) states: "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him," God has revealed to us through the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). The promise of paradise - heavenly bliss and unending life with an all-loving God - is beyond human reckoning. We have only begun to taste the first-fruits! Do you live now in the joy and hope of the life of the age to come?
"May the Lord Jesus put his hands on our eyes
also, for then we too shall begin to look not at what is seen but at what is
not seen. May he open the eyes that are concerned not with the present but with
what is yet to come, may he unseal the heart's vision, that we may gaze on God
in the Spirit, through the same Lord, Jesus Christ, whose glory and power will
endure throughout the unending succession of ages." (Prayer of Origen,
185-254 AD)
Daily Quote from the early church fathers: Jesus cites Moses to affirm the resurrection,
by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD)
"The Savior also demonstrated the great ignorance
of the Sadducees by bringing forward their own leader Moses, who was clearly
acquainted with the resurrection of the dead. He set God before us saying in
the bush, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob'
(Exodus 3:6). Of whom is he God, if, according to their argument, these have
ceased to live? He is the God of the living. They certainly will rise when his
almighty right hand brings them and all that are on the earth there. For people
not to believe that this will happen is worthy perhaps of the ignorance of the
Sadducees, but it is altogether unworthy of those who love Christ. We believe
in him who says, 'I am the resurrection and the life' (John 11:25). He will raise
the dead suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, and at the last trumpet. It
shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be
changed (1 Corinthians 15:52). For Christ our common Savior will transfer us
into incorruption, glory and to an incorruptible life." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 136)
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, LUKE
20:27-40
(Revelation 11:4-12; Psalm 144)
(Revelation 11:4-12; Psalm 144)
KEY VERSE: "They are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise" (v. 36).
TO KNOW: A group of Sadducees tried to entrap Jesus regarding the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. Since the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, they proposed an absurd situation in which seven brothers married the same woman in succession leaving her childless at their deaths. Then they sarcastically asked Jesus whose wife she would be in the supposed resurrection. Jesus silenced his opponents by exposing their ignorance of the scriptures. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had all died but they were eternally alive in God (Ex 3:6), as were all who had faith. The Sadducees must forfeit their position as teachers since Jesus was the authentic interpreter of God's word. The Sadducee’s sect is believed to have become extinct sometime after the destruction of Herod's Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. Our relationship with Christ should transcend all earthly ones.
TO LOVE: Can I explain my belief in the resurrection to those who question it?
TO SERVE: Lord Jesus, I pray that I and my loved ones will share eternal life with you one day.
Memorial of Saint Andrew
Dung-Lac, priest and martyr, and his companions, martyrs
Christian missionaries first brought the Catholic faith to Vietnam during the sixteenth century. During the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, Vietnamese Christians were tortured and martyred for their beliefs. Andrew Dung-Lac was a Vietnamese diocesan priest, one of 117 people who were martyred in Vietnam between 1820 and 1862. The last of the martyrs were 17 laypersons, one of them a 9-year-old, who was executed in 1862. Between 100,000 and 300,000 Catholics were killed or subjected to great hardship. Persistent persecution in North Vietnam forced some 670,000 Catholics to flee to the south where Catholics were enjoying the first decade of religious freedom in centuries. During the Vietnamese war, Catholics again suffered in the north, and again moved to the south in great numbers. Now reunited, the entire country is under Communist rule. Andrew Dung-Lac represents this group of heroes who were proclaimed saints by Pope John Paul II on June 19, 1988. The martyrs of Vietnam suffered to bring the people the greatest treasure that they possessed: their Catholic faith.
Saturday 24
November 2018
Sts Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions.
Apocalypse 11:4-12. Psalm 143(144):1-2, 9-10. Luke 20:27-40.
Apocalypse 11:4-12. Psalm 143(144):1-2, 9-10. Luke 20:27-40.
Blessed be the Lord, my Rock! – Psalm
143(144):1-2, 9-10.
‘God breathed life into them.’
Today’s Gospel confirms that our God is the God of the living,
so our prayer can be a quiet reflection on the being of God.
We could begin with the words ‘Be still and know that I am God’.
For each one of us, God is personal, ever close, ever wanting his being and our
being to become one living reality. The true nature of our being is a mystery
beyond our comprehension; but his will to identify with us is clear.
The psalm for today is confident of this: ‘Blessed be the Lord,
my rock and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield in whom I
take refuge’. We can place our day-to-day lives lovingly into the hands of God.
Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions
Saint of the Day for November 24
(1791 – December 21, 1839; Companions d. 1820 – 1862)
 |
| St Andrew Dung-Lac and Companion Martyrs | photo by Lawrence OP | flickr |
Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions’ Story
Andrew Dung-Lac, a Catholic convert ordained to the priesthood,
was one of 117 people martyred in Vietnam between 1820 and 1862. Members of the
companions group gave their lives for Christ in the 17th, 18th, and 19th
centuries, and received beatification during four different occasions between 1900
and 1951. All were canonized during the papacy of Saint John Paul II.
Christianity came to Vietnam through the Portuguese. Jesuits
opened the first permanent mission at Da Nang in 1615. They ministered to
Japanese Catholics who had been driven from Japan.
Severe persecutions were launched at least three times in the
19th century. During the six decades after 1820, between 100,000 and 300,000
Catholics were killed or subjected to great hardship. Foreign missionaries
martyred in the first wave included priests of the Paris Mission Society, and
Spanish Dominican priests and tertiaries.
In 1832, Emperor Minh-Mang banned all foreign missionaries, and
tried to make all Vietnamese deny their faith by trampling on a crucifix. Like
the priest-holes in Ireland during English persecution, many hiding places were
offered in homes of the faithful.
Persecution broke out again in 1847, when the emperor suspected
foreign missionaries and Vietnamese Christians of sympathizing with a rebellion
led by of one of his sons.
The last of the martyrs were 17 laypersons, one of them a
9-year-old, executed in 1862. That year a treaty with France guaranteed
religious freedom to Catholics, but it did not stop all persecution.
By 1954, there were over a million Catholics—about seven percent
of the population—in the north. Buddhists represented about 60 percent.
Persistent persecution forced some 670,000 Catholics to abandon lands, homes
and possessions and flee to the south. In 1964, there were still 833,000
Catholics in the north, but many were in prison. In the south, Catholics were
enjoying the first decade of religious freedom in centuries, their numbers
swelled by refugees.
During the Vietnamese war, Catholics again suffered in the
north, and again moved to the south in great numbers. Now reunited, the entire
country is under Communist rule.
Reflection
It may help a people who associate Vietnam only with a
20th-century war to realize that the cross has long been a part of the lives of
the people of that country. Even as some people ask again the unanswered
questions about United States involvement and disengagement, the faith rooted
in Vietnam’s soil proves hardier than the forces that willed to destroy it.
LECTIO DIVINA: LUKE 20:27-40
Lectio Divina:
Saturday, November 24, 2018
Ordinary Time
1) Opening prayer
Father of all that is good,
keep us faithful in serving you,
for to serve you is our lasting joy.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
keep us faithful in serving you,
for to serve you is our lasting joy.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
2) Gospel reading - Luke 20:27-40
Some Sadducees who argue that there is
no resurrection, approached Jesus and put this question to him, “Master, Moses
wrote for us, 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, whose wife
will she be, 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 children of God.
And Moses showed 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 everyone is alive.”
Some scribes then spoke up. They said, “Well put, Master.” They did not dare to ask Him any more questions.
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 children of God.
And Moses showed 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 everyone is alive.”
Some scribes then spoke up. They said, “Well put, Master.” They did not dare to ask Him any more questions.
3) Reflection
• The Gospel today gives us the
discussion of the Sadducees with Jesus on faith in the resurrection.
• Luke 20, 27: The ideology of the Sadducees. The Gospel today begins with the following affirmation: “The Sadducees affirm that there is no resurrection”. The Sadducees were an elite type of aristocrat. They were conservative, insisting on a literal interpretation of the Law, and were invested in Roman rule and order. They did not accept faith in the resurrection. At that time, this faith was beginning to be valued by both the Pharisees and by ordinary people. This motivated people to resist the dominion of the Romans and of the priests, elders, and the Sadducees.for whom the Messianic Kingdom was already present in the status quo. The Saducees were typically well off and content with the way things were at the time. They wanted religion to remain immutable like God himself. To ridicule faith in the resurrection, they created fictitious cases in which faith in the resurrection seemed absurd.
• Luke 20, 28-33: The fictitious case of the woman who married seven times. According to the law of the time, if the husband died without leaving any children, his brother had to marry the widow of the deceased man. This was done in case someone died without any descendants. In such cases, the dead man’s property would go to another family (Dt 25, 5-6). The Sadducees invented the story of a woman who buried seven husbands, brothers among themselves, and then she herself also died without children. And they asked Jesus: “This woman then, in the resurrection, whose wife will she be? Because the seven of them had her as wife”. This was invented in order to show that faith in the resurrection creates absurd situations, and exemplifies the literal interpretation the Saducees gave to the Law..
• Luke 20, 34-38: The response of Jesus which leaves no doubts. The response of Jesus displays the irritation of one who cannot bear pretense or deceit. Jesus cannot bear hypocrisy on the part of the elite which manipulates and ridicules faith in God to legitimize and defend its own interests. The response contains two parts. (a) you understand nothing of the resurrection: “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 children of God” (vv. 34-36). Jesus explains that the condition of persons after death will be totally different from the current condition. After death, there will be no marriages and all will be like angels in heaven. (b) The Sadducees imagined life in Heaven the same as life on earth. You understand nothing about God: “That the dead will rise, Moses has also showed this in regard to the bush, when he calls the Lord: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not God of the dead, but of the living, because all live in him”. The disciples are attentive and learn! Those who are on the side of the Sadducees find themselves on the opposite side of God.
• Luke 20, 39-40: The reaction of others before the response of Jesus. “Then some of the scribes said: “Master you have spoken well. And they no longer dared to ask Him any more questions”. It is possible that some of these scribes were Pharisees, because the Pharisees believed in the resurrection (cf. Ac 23, 6). Either way, Jesus reduced his opponents to silence.
• Luke 20, 27: The ideology of the Sadducees. The Gospel today begins with the following affirmation: “The Sadducees affirm that there is no resurrection”. The Sadducees were an elite type of aristocrat. They were conservative, insisting on a literal interpretation of the Law, and were invested in Roman rule and order. They did not accept faith in the resurrection. At that time, this faith was beginning to be valued by both the Pharisees and by ordinary people. This motivated people to resist the dominion of the Romans and of the priests, elders, and the Sadducees.for whom the Messianic Kingdom was already present in the status quo. The Saducees were typically well off and content with the way things were at the time. They wanted religion to remain immutable like God himself. To ridicule faith in the resurrection, they created fictitious cases in which faith in the resurrection seemed absurd.
• Luke 20, 28-33: The fictitious case of the woman who married seven times. According to the law of the time, if the husband died without leaving any children, his brother had to marry the widow of the deceased man. This was done in case someone died without any descendants. In such cases, the dead man’s property would go to another family (Dt 25, 5-6). The Sadducees invented the story of a woman who buried seven husbands, brothers among themselves, and then she herself also died without children. And they asked Jesus: “This woman then, in the resurrection, whose wife will she be? Because the seven of them had her as wife”. This was invented in order to show that faith in the resurrection creates absurd situations, and exemplifies the literal interpretation the Saducees gave to the Law..
• Luke 20, 34-38: The response of Jesus which leaves no doubts. The response of Jesus displays the irritation of one who cannot bear pretense or deceit. Jesus cannot bear hypocrisy on the part of the elite which manipulates and ridicules faith in God to legitimize and defend its own interests. The response contains two parts. (a) you understand nothing of the resurrection: “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 children of God” (vv. 34-36). Jesus explains that the condition of persons after death will be totally different from the current condition. After death, there will be no marriages and all will be like angels in heaven. (b) The Sadducees imagined life in Heaven the same as life on earth. You understand nothing about God: “That the dead will rise, Moses has also showed this in regard to the bush, when he calls the Lord: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not God of the dead, but of the living, because all live in him”. The disciples are attentive and learn! Those who are on the side of the Sadducees find themselves on the opposite side of God.
• Luke 20, 39-40: The reaction of others before the response of Jesus. “Then some of the scribes said: “Master you have spoken well. And they no longer dared to ask Him any more questions”. It is possible that some of these scribes were Pharisees, because the Pharisees believed in the resurrection (cf. Ac 23, 6). Either way, Jesus reduced his opponents to silence.
4) Personal questions
• Today, how do the groups which have
power imitate the Sadducees and prepare traps in order to prevent changes in
the world and in the Church?
• Do you believe in the resurrection? When you say that you believe in the resurrection, do you think about something of the past, of the present or of the future? Have you ever had an experience of resurrection in your life?
• Do you believe in the resurrection? When you say that you believe in the resurrection, do you think about something of the past, of the present or of the future? Have you ever had an experience of resurrection in your life?
5) Concluding prayer
This I believe: I shall see the goodness
of Yahweh,
in the land of the living.
Put your hope in Yahweh, be strong, let your heart be bold,
put your hope in Yahweh. (Ps 27,13-14)
in the land of the living.
Put your hope in Yahweh, be strong, let your heart be bold,
put your hope in Yahweh. (Ps 27,13-14)
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