Personal Relationship

The WORD today (see http://usccb.org/bible/readings/111916.cfm) reminds me how important it is to have a personal relationship with God to fight the evil of this earth. 

During parties and gatherings, one if the usual games played is a test of how well you know your partner, parent or sibling. Questions would be asked, and contestants would write their answers separately. Points will be given to those who are in sync with each other. The game shows how well you know the other person. And you will only know the other person well if you have a deep and personal relationship with them. This is what we should have with God. 

In the gospel, people were trying to trap and make fun Jesus. The Sadducees, who do not believe in the resurrection, presents Jesus with a hypothetical scenario. They want to prove a point that there really is no resurrection, as opposed to what Jesus was saying. They wanted to prove that there could possibly be no resurrection where a woman will be wife of seven men, because based on the law, she married seven men and died childless. No resurrection because she died childless. They also want to discredit Jesus from the increasing number of people who are beginning to take notice of him. They want to embarrass and humiliate Jesus. They thought Jesus would not know the answer to their question, and people would see they they are smarter than Jesus. And they could prove the point that there really is no resurrection. We then see how great God is. 

God's wisdom is infinite. 

We see and realize that Jesus is really God in human form. We see his wisdom by his answer, answer that others could not think of or could not explain. Jesus tells them upfront that they are misled. They did not understand the resurrection. It is NOT a continuation of life on earth. In the resurrection, we will be like angels. We will be spiritual beings. God has different plans for us in the resurrection. 

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Just as the Sadducees quoted Moses in their question, to prove his point and his wisdom, Jesus also quoted Moses in explaining and answering them. Some people believed st that time that immortality was connected with the existence of the physical body. Thus, the Sadducees did not believe that the patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob still exist or are immortal. Jesus quotes the Scripture – I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is the Present and living God. And that these people are alive, that they are resurrected, thus the present tense. God did not say I WAS the God. I AM the God means HE is still alive until now, that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are also alive in their resurrection until now, and that he is the same God who guided Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 

We see how infinite God's wisdom is. In seemingly impossible situations, Jesus not not escapes, but glorifies God. He corrected the wrong notion of the sadducees, and explained how powerful snd loving God is. 

Jesus was able to do this because if his relationship with God. He has an intimate and close relationship with God. So he knows what God wants. He knows the truth. And he can hear God talking to him. This is why we should also strive to have a close and intimate relationship with God. Amidst the seemingly impossible situation, God can save us and will glorify his name through us. We just need to know his voice. 

May we do our part to work on our relationship with God and allow him to live in and through us.

Father  God,

Thank you for today. Thank you for another day to live. Thank you for another inspiring message. Thank you for the reminder. Thank you that you are always with me during times of troubles and persecution. Lord, sorry for the times I forget. Sorry for doubting you. Sorry for not working hard enough to build and strengthen my relationship with you. Help me remember your love and greatness especially when times are tough. you are there with me even if I don’t always feel it. May I never forget all that you have done for me and my loved ones.  May I always have that faith in you, and live my life in honor and glory of you – the one true living God. Help me build and work on my relationship with you. And  I ask that you use me to make your love more real and more alive to others. Amen.

Blessed day!

In Christ,

-g-

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November 19, 2016
Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 502

Reading 1 Rv 11:4-12

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.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 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!

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.