AD SENSE

32 Sunday C: Liturgy

1. People of the Resurrection
2. The God of the Living

Greeting (See Second Reading)
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself,
and God our Father, who has given us his love,
comfort you and strengthen you
in everything good that you do and say.
His joy and hope be always with you. R/ And also with you.
Introduction by the Celebrant
1. People of the Resurrection
No belief, no doctrine of faith is more fundamental to us Christians than that our Lord Jesus is risen and is alive. Together with this goes our belief, which seems much more difficult for the pragmatic people of our age to accept, that after death we will rise again. We are the people of a God of life. We are the people of the resurrection. We are the people who hope for an endless future of happiness and joy and love. Let us ask the Lord in the Eucharist today to strengthen this faith in us.

2. The God of the Living
At the death of someone very dear it is very hard for most people to accept that the beloved person is gone for ever. We wish to see the deceased one again. For a Christian, though death is a cruel separation, this is not a mere pious wish. For we believe that physical death is not the end; we believe in the resurrection. Just as Jesus died but rose from the dead, so will we rise again. This is a certainty of faith that gives meaning to life. God is a God of the living. We express this quiet but firm faith as we are gathered here around our risen Lord.



Penitential Act
Let us pray to the Lord to restore us to full life
by forgiving us all our sins.
(PAUSE)
Lord Jesus, you defeated death
by rising to life again:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Jesus Christ, firstborn of the dead,
you will raise us up to eternal life with you:
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you want us to be
people of the resurrection,
who raise up the downcast and downtrodden:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Have mercy on us, Lord,
and lift us above our sins.
Lead us to the joys of everlasting life. R/ Amen.

Opening Prayer
Let us pray to the God of life
(PAUSE)
God of the living,
you have created us for life, love and joy.
As we share also in the cross of Jesus,
in the pains and sorrows of life,
keep our hope alive that your faithful love
will have the final say,
and that life will overcome death,
for you have raised Jesus from the dead.
Give us the firm longing and faith
that you will raise us up with him
and let this conviction be our strength
every day of our life.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

First Reading: God Will Raise Us Up to Live Forever
Even before Christ’s coming, women and youngsters chose to die rather than deny their faith in God and go against his law. For they were certain that God would raise them up and restore their tortured bodies.

Reading 1 2 Mc 7:1-2, 9-14
It happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested
and tortured with whips and scourges by the king,
to force them to eat pork in violation of God's law.
One of the brothers, speaking for the others, said:
“What do you expect to achieve by questioning us?
We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors.”

At the point of death he said:
“You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life,
but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever.
It is for his laws that we are dying.”

After him the third suffered their cruel sport.
He put out his tongue at once when told to do so,
and bravely held out his hands, as he spoke these noble words:
“It was from Heaven that I received these;
for the sake of his laws I disdain them;
from him I hope to receive them again.”
Even the king and his attendants marveled at the young man's courage,
because he regarded his sufferings as nothing.


After he had died,
they tortured and maltreated the fourth brother in the same way.
When he was near death, he said,
“It is my choice to die at the hands of men
with the hope God gives of being raised up by him;
but for you, there will be no resurrection to life.”

Responsorial Psalm Ps 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15
R. (15b) Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
Hear, O LORD, a just suit;
attend to my outcry;
hearken to my prayer from lips without deceit.
R. Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
My steps have been steadfast in your paths,
my feet have not faltered.
I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
incline your ear to me; hear my word.
R. Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
Keep me as the apple of your eye,
hide me in the shadow of your wings.
But I in justice shall behold your face;
on waking I shall be content in your presence.
R. Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.

Second Reading: Hope in God’s Love Sustains Us
Paul encourages the Christians of Thessalonica to remain firm in faith and hope, even in trials, for God’s love is eternal.

Reading 2 2 Thes 2:16-3:5
Brothers and sisters:
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father,
who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement
and good hope through his grace,
encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed
and word.

Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us,
so that the word of the Lord may speed forward and be glorified,
as it did among you,
and that we may be delivered from perverse and wicked people,
for not all have faith.
But the Lord is faithful;
he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.
We are confident of you in the Lord that what we instruct you,
you are doing and will continue to do.
May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God
and to the endurance of Christ.

Alleluia Rev 1:5a, 6b
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Jesus Christ is the firstborn of the dead;
to him be glory and power, forever and ever.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.


Gospel: The God of the Living
As they did not believe in the resurrection, the sect of the Sadducees tried to ridicule belief in it. Jesus answers that they are too materialistic to understand the resurrection. Those raised up will live not as on earth but with a totally new life.

Gospel Lk 20:27-38
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 out ‘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.”

Or Lk 20:27, 34-38
Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection,
came forward.

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 out ‘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.”

General Intercessions
God is a God not of the dead but a God of the living. We pray to him for everything that makes life valuable and meaningful. Let us say: R/ Lord of life, hear our prayer.
– That God may renew his blessings over all married couples in the whole Church, that their faithfulness and unity may be a sign of God’s lasting love, let us pray: R/ Lord of life, hear our prayer.
– That we may keep up the good fight against all that is deadly to Christian life: dehumanizing kinds of labor, suppression of freedom, paralyzing fear, love that is destroyed, let us pray: R/ Lord of life, hear our prayer.
– That our beloved dead may live on in the life they gave us, in the good we do, and in the intimate love of God himself, let us pray: R/ Lord of life, hear our prayer.
– That all suffering and dying people may share in our resurrection faith and find strength in the knowledge that God loves them in life and beyond death, let us pray: R/ Lord of life, hear our prayer.
– That all those persecuted for the Lord’s name may stand firm in their hope and inherit eternal life, let us pray: R/ Lord of life, hear our prayer.
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; God of Jesus; God of the apostles and the saints; God of our forefathers and all our beloved ones; God of life, keep us all in your love, now and for ever. R/ Amen. (Concluding prayer by Marcel Verhelst.)

Prayer over the Gifts
God our Father,
we come before you with the gifts
that you yourself have given us:
bread and wine, food and drink,
the symbols of life and joy.
Change them into the gifts of everlasting life,
the bread of life, Jesus himself,
that from him we may learn to live
for you and for one another,
until you take us up with him
into your own happiness without shadow.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer
Both in the preface and after the consecration, we express our firm faith and hope in the resurrection of the Lord and, thereby, in our own resurrection.

After the consecration
Let us proclaim our faith and hope in our risen Lord: R/ Christ has died... (or another acclamation)

Deliver Us
Deliver us, Lord, from every evil
and from the fear of death.
Grant us the serene peace
of trust in the promise of Jesus,
that he is the resurrection and the life
and that he will raise us up on the last day.
For we prepare with joy for the full coming
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. R/ For the kingdom…

Invitation to Communion (See Jn 11:25-26)
This is our Lord who says to us:
“I am the resurrection and the life.
All who believe in me will live
and those who live and believe in me
will never die.” R/ Lord, I am not worthy...

Prayer after Communion
God of the living,
you want us to live even beyond death
as fully human and complete persons,
and yet made totally different by your love.
By this eucharist give us a quiet but firm faith
that life is meaningful and worthwhile,
and that death is not the end
but a completely new beginning.
May this certainty encourage us
to share our hope with those
for whom life makes little sense.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Blessing
We should be people of hope and joy,
for Christ is risen.
On account of our risen Lord
we are sure that we too
shall rise with him one day.
Let this certainty fill us
with indestructible hope in life
and in the love of God.
And may almighty God bless you:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.

Let us go in the peace and joy of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.