November 6, 2022

Second Maccabees 7: 1-2, 9- 14

7:1 And it happened also that seven brothers, united with their mother, were apprehended and compelled by the king to eat the flesh of swine against divine law, being tormented with scourges and whips.
7:2 But one of them, who was first, spoke in this way: “What would you ask, or what would you want to learn from us? We are ready to die, rather than to betray the laws that our fathers received from God.”
7:9 And when he had reached his last breath, he spoke in this way: “You, indeed, O most wicked man, are destroying us in this present life. But the King of the world will raise us up, in eternal life at the resurrection, for we die on behalf of his laws.”
7:10 After this one, the third was ridiculed, and when he was asked, he quickly offered up his tongue, and he resolutely extended his hands.
7:11 And he said with confidence, “I possess these from heaven, but, because of the laws of God, I now despise them, for I hope to receive them again from him.”
7:12 So then, the king and those who were with him, wondered at the soul of this youth, because he considered the torments as if they were nothing.
7:13 And after he had died in this way, they afflicted the fourth with similar tortures.
7:14 And when he was about to die, he spoke in this way: “It is preferable, being put to death by men, to wait for hope from God, so as to be revived again by him. But the resurrection to life will not be for you.

Second Thessalonians 2: 16- 3: 5

2:16 exhort your hearts and confirm you in every good word and deed.
3:1 Concerning other things, brothers, pray for us, so that the Word of God may advance and be glorified, just as it is among you,
3:2 and so that we may be freed from pertinacious and evil men. For not everyone is faithful.
3:3 But God is faithful. He will strengthen you, and he will guard you from evil.
3:4 And we have confidence about you in the Lord, that you are doing, and will continue to do, just as we have instructed.
3:5 And may the Lord direct your hearts, in the charity of God and with the patience of Christ.

Luke 20: 27- 38

20:27 Now some of the Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection, approached him. And they questioned him,
20:28 saying: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us: If any man’s brother will have died, having a wife, and if he does not have any children, then his brother should take her as his wife, and he should raise up offspring for his brother.
20:29 And so there were seven brothers. And the first took a wife, and he died without sons.
20:30 And the next one married her, and he also died without a son.
20:31 And the third married her, and similarly all seven, and none of them left behind any offspring, and they each died.
20:32 Last of all, the woman also died.
20:33 In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be? For certainly all seven had her as a wife.”
20:34 And so, Jesus said to them: “The children of this age marry and are given in marriage.
20:35 Yet truly, those who shall be held worthy of that age, and of the resurrection from the dead, will neither be married, nor take wives.
20:36 For they can no longer die. For they are equal to the Angels, and they are children of God, since they are children of the resurrection.
20:37 For in truth, the dead do rise again, as Moses also showed beside the bush, when he called the Lord: ‘The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’
20:38 And so he is not the God of the dead, but of the living. For all are alive to him.”