It's a Matter of Time

Nov. 25: Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Today is the feast of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers—a group I had never heard of until today!

The Fourteen "Auxiliary Saints" have been efficacious in assisting in trials and sufferings, collectively invoked against various ailments and dangers. Devotion to these Fourteen Holy Helpers began in 14th-century Germany, which was suffering under bubonic plague at the time. Called the “Nothelfer”—“Helpers in Need” —in German, devotion to them eventually spread to other countries.

Engelbert Humperdinck wrote a devotional prayer in his fairy opera, Hansel and Gretel, to the Fourteen Holy Helpers—

When at night I go to sleep,
Fourteen angels watch do keep,
Two my head are guarding,
Two my feet are guiding;
Two upon my right hand,
Two upon my left hand.
Two who warmly cover
Two who o'er me hover,
Two to whom 'tis given
To guide my steps to heaven.

St. Catherine was both a princess and a noted scholar who became a Christian around the age of 14. She converted hundreds of people to Christianity and was martyred around the age of eighteen. More than 1,100 years after her death, Joan of Arc identified her as one of the saints who appeared to and counselled her! Catherine is the patron of, among other things, female students, and people suffering from diseases of the tongue.

I think you can see where this is going. Amelia has always enjoyed learning, and was a great student before she even started school. She’s also lost her ability to speak, which isn’t literally a disease of the tongue, but in ancient times, that is how they would often refer to people who couldn’t speak.

So today, please spare a prayer for St. Catherine, asking for her intercession, and that of her fellow Holy Helpers.

Reading 1

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."

God’s justice comes in its own time. King Antiochus had turned Israel into a vasal state, and tried to force the people to worship foreign gods. To continue his plan of conquest, he moved on to other territories.

Things don’t go well for him there. Meanwhile, the Maccabees revolted, taking Israel back. Everything falls apart for Antiochus in the end, dying in a foreign land.

We’ll all get what we deserve. Eventually.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 9:2-3, 4 and 6, 16 and 19

R. 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.

This is a song praising God for His justice. The enemies of Israel worked against God’s design, which is a trap will all fall into sometimes. And that trap will spring on us, eventually, if we’re not careful.

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.

God is just, but also merciful. Jesus redeems us not because it’s something we’re owed, but because He loves us.

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.

Our lives in Heaven aren’t going to be like our lives on Earth. They’ll be so different, in fact, it’s hard to even imagine. As Trent Horn wrote: “Sacraments like marriage are ‘road signs’ that point us to our final heavenly destination and give us the grace to continue that journey. But when you reach your destination, road signs are no longer needed, and so sacraments such as baptism, confession, and even marriage will not exist in heaven.”

Our closeness to each other, even our spouses, won’t be able to rival our closeness to God in the end.