Reading I 1 Mc 6:1-13
As King Antiochus was
traversing the inland provinces,
he heard that in Persia there
was a city called Elymais,
famous for its wealth in
silver and gold,
and that its temple was very
rich,
containing gold helmets,
breastplates, and weapons
left there by Alexander, son
of Philip,
king of Macedon, the first
king of the Greeks.
He went therefore and tried to
capture and pillage the city.
But he could not do so,
because his plan became known
to the people of the city
who rose up in battle against
him.
So he retreated and in great
dismay withdrew from there
to return to Babylon.
While he was in Persia, a
messenger brought him news
that the armies sent into the
land of Judah had been put to flight;
that Lysias had gone at first
with a strong army
and been driven back by the
children of Israel;
that they had grown strong
by reason of the arms, men,
and abundant possessions
taken from the armies they had
destroyed;
that they had pulled down the
Abomination
which he had built upon the
altar in Jerusalem;
and that they had surrounded
with high walls
both the sanctuary, as it had
been before,
and his city of Beth-zur.
When the king heard this news,
he was struck with fear and
very much shaken.
Sick with grief because his
designs had failed, he took to his bed.
There he remained many days,
overwhelmed with sorrow,
for he knew he was going to
die.
So he called in all his
Friends and said to them:
“Sleep has departed from my
eyes,
for my heart is sinking with
anxiety.
I said to myself: ‘Into what
tribulation have I come,
and in what floods of sorrow
am I now!
Yet I was kindly and beloved
in my rule.’
But I now recall the evils I
did in Jerusalem,
when I carried away all the
vessels of gold and silver
that were in it, and for no
cause
gave orders that the
inhabitants of Judah be destroyed.
I know that this is why these
evils have overtaken me;
and now I am dying, in bitter
grief, in a foreign land.”
Responsorial Psalm 9:2-3, 4 and
6, 16 and 19
R. (see 16a)
I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord.
I will give thanks to you, O
LORD, with all my heart;
I will declare all your wondrous deeds.
I will be glad and exult in
you;
I will sing praise to your name, Most High.
R. I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord.
Because my enemies are turned
back,
overthrown and destroyed before you.
You rebuked the nations and
destroyed the wicked;
their name you blotted out forever and
ever.
R. I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord.
The nations are sunk in the
pit they have made;
in the snare they set, their foot is
caught.
For the needy shall not always
be forgotten,
nor shall the hope of the afflicted forever
perish.
R. I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord.
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.