33rd Week, Saturday, Nov 20
1 Maccabees 6:3-13 / Luke 20:27-40
Antiochus dies grief-stricken; He paid dearly for his sins against Israel.
When the United States announced the inauguration of a space program, program officials were swamped with letters. Many of them were from people offering to sacrifice their lives for the cause. One letter was from an ex-convict in Houston, Texas. He began by saying that he had a high IQ and was all alone in the world. Then, after offering himself as a guinea pig, he said, "Perhaps in this way I will be able to truly atone for my mistakes.” Antiochus didn't atone for his sins in his lifetime. It wasn't until the hour of death that he realized how foolish he had been.
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What are we doing to atone for our sins? What sins are we
especially sorry for? “When we lay our faults at God's feet, it feels as though
we have taken wings.” Eugenie de Guerin
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We are told in the first reading about the end of King
Antiochus IV. After he had failed to rob the temple of Artemis in Mesopotamia
and heard about the restoration of Jerusalem and its Temple, he died in
discouragement.
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The ambition of man can be so astounding and amazing, and can even have no bounds. Man has even gone out of his world and gone to the moon and even explored the solar system. Yet he may have gone so far out of himself that he may not be able to see what is so near and so important to him.
In the 1st reading, we heard how king Antiochus had great ambitions in his military campaigns. But when everything fell apart, he also fell into a lethargy from acute disappointment and melancholy until he understood that he was dying.
He regretted the wrong he did, especially the wrong he did
to God in Jerusalem. He regretted, but was it too late? We too have our
ambitions in life and plans for the future. But are these plans just about the
future or are they about eternity?
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As Jesus said in the gospel, God, is not God of the dead,
but of the living. If our lives and our plans are all just about ourselves,
then we may not know who the God of the living is. King Antiochus is showing us
a very important lesson today. Don't wait till it is too late and end up
regretting it. Because it might be for eternity.
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“God is the God of the living,” says Jesus. He calls back to
life those who die; death is overcome since Jesus rose from the dead. The
witnesses of the first reading are put to death by the mighty of this earth
because they contest the abuse of power, but God raises them up. The
resurrection is the core of our faith, not only as a promise to live on in
God’s joy after death but already now as a power of building up one another in
human dignity, justice, peace, and serving love. We cannot die forever, because
God cannot stop loving us.
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The Gospel passage of today affirms the truth of the
resurrection. Jesus says that our God is God “not of the dead, but of the
living; for to Him everyone is alive”. This statement of the Lord confirms life
beyond death and gives us a realistic vision of the future. He tells us that
life in the future will be different from the present. Marriage and giving in
marriage are necessities of earthly life. In the resurrection, we are in the
presence of God, and life in the presence of God is a life of bliss with no
other desire to be fulfilled. Hence today we are invited to strengthen our
belief in Jesus’ resurrection and our own resurrection.
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Prayer
God, source, and purpose of all life, you have committed
yourself to us, with a love that never ends.
Give us the indestructible hope that you have prepared for us life and happiness beyond the powers of death. May
this firm hope sustain us to find joy in life and to face its difficulties and
challenges resolutely and fearlessly, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen
