Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings 22-November-2025

King Antiochus was making his way across the upper provinces; he had heard that in Persia there was a city called Elymais, renowned for its riches, its silver and gold, and its very wealthy temple containing golden armour, breastplates and weapons, left there by Alexander son of Philip, the king of Macedon, the first to reign over the Greeks. He therefore went and attempted to take the city and pillage it, but without success, since the citizens learnt of his intention, and offered him a stiff resistance, whereupon he turned about and retreated, disconsolate, in the direction of Babylon. But while he was still in Persia news reached him that the armies that had invaded the land of Judah had been defeated, and that Lysias in particular had advanced in massive strength, only to be forced to turn and flee before the Jews; these had been strengthened by the acquisition of arms, supplies and abundant spoils from the armies they had cut to pieces; they had overthrown the abomination he had erected over the altar in Jerusalem, and had encircled the sanctuary with high walls as in the past, and had fortified Bethzur, one of his cities. When the king heard this news he was amazed and profoundly shaken; he threw himself on his bed and fell into a lethargy from acute disappointment, because things had not turned out for him as he had planned. And there he remained for many days, subject to deep and recurrent fits of melancholy, until he understood that he was dying. Then summoning all his Friends, he said to them, ‘Sleep evades my eyes, and my heart is cowed by anxiety. I have been asking myself how I could have come to such a pitch of distress, so great a flood as that which now engulfs me – I who was so generous and well-loved in my heyday. But now I remember the wrong I did in Jerusalem when I seized all the vessels of silver and gold there, and ordered the extermination of the inhabitants of Judah for no reason at all. This, I am convinced, is why these misfortunes have overtaken me, and why I am dying of melancholy in a foreign land.’

I will rejoice in your saving help, O Lord.

I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart;

I will recount all your wonders.

I will rejoice in you and be glad,

and sing psalms to your name, O Most High.

I will rejoice in your saving help, O Lord.

See how my enemies turn back,

how they stumble and perish before you.

You have checked the nations, destroyed the wicked;

you have wiped out their name for ever and ever.

I will rejoice in your saving help, O Lord.

The nations have fallen in the pit which they made,

their feet caught in the snare they laid;

for the needy shall not always be forgotten

nor the hopes of the poor be in vain.

I will rejoice in your saving help, O Lord.

Blessed are those who,

with a noble and generous heart,

take the word of God to themselves

and yield a harvest through their perseverance.

Our Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death

and he has proclaimed life through the Good News.

Some Sadducees – those who say that there is no resurrection – approached Jesus and they put this question to him, ‘Master, we have it from Moses in writing, that if a man’s married brother dies childless, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother. Well then, there were seven brothers. The first, having married a wife, died childless. The second and then the third married the widow. And the same with all seven, they died leaving no children. Finally the woman herself died. Now, at the resurrection, to which of them will she be wife since she had been married to all seven?’

Jesus replied, ‘The children of this world take wives and husbands, but those who are judged worthy of a place in the other world and in the resurrection from the dead do not marry because they can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels, and being children of the resurrection they are sons of God. And Moses himself implies that the dead rise again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all men are in fact alive.’

Some scribes then spoke up. ‘Well put, Master’ they said – because they would not dare to ask him any more questions.

I am going to lead her out into the wilderness

and speak to her heart.

There she will respond to me as she did when she was young,

as she did when she came out of the land of Egypt.

I will betroth you to myself for ever,

betroth you with integrity and justice,

with tenderness and love;

I will betroth you to myself with faithfulness,

and you will come to know the Lord.

Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words.

The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet Christ the Lord.

Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words:

forget your own people and your father’s house.

So will the king desire your beauty:

He is your lord, pay homage to him.

Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words.

The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet Christ the Lord.

The daughter of the king is clothed with splendour,

her robes embroidered with pearls set in gold.

She is led to the king with her maiden companions.

Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words.

The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet Christ the Lord.

They are escorted amid gladness and joy;

they pass within the palace of the king.

Sons shall be yours in place of your fathers:

you will make them princes over all the earth.

Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words.

The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet Christ the Lord.

This is the wise virgin whom the Lord found watching;

she went in to the wedding feast with him when he came.

Jesus told this parable to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of heaven will be like this: Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were sensible: the foolish ones did take their lamps, but they brought no oil, whereas the sensible ones took flasks of oil as well as their lamps. The bridegroom was late, and they all grew drowsy and fell asleep. But at midnight there was a cry, “The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him.” At this, all those bridesmaids woke up and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, “Give us some of your oil: our lamps are going out.” But they replied, “There may not be enough for us and for you; you had better go to those who sell it and buy some for yourselves.” They had gone off to buy it when the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall and the door was closed. The other bridesmaids arrived later. “Lord, Lord,” they said “open the door for us.” But he replied, “I tell you solemnly, I do not know you.” So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.’

For your reading, reflection, faith-sharing, comments, questions, discussion.

1 posted on 11/23/2025 11:18:09 AM PST by annalex

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Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

CHAP. 19

20:27–40

27. Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection; and they asked him,

28. Saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man’s brother die, having a wife, and he die without children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.

29. There were therefore seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and died without children.

30. And the second took her to wife, and he died childless.

31. And the third took her; and in like manner the seven also: and they left no children, and died.

32. Last of all the woman died also.

33. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them is she? for seven had her to wife.

34. And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage:

35. But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:

36. Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

37. Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

38. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

39. Then certain of the Scribes answering said, Master, thou hast well said.

40. And after that they durst not ask him any question at all.

BEDE. There were two heresies among the Jews, one of the Pharisees, who boasted in the righteousness of their traditions, and hence they were called by the people, “separated;” the other of the Sadducees, whose name signified “righteous,” claiming to themselves that which they were not. When the former went away, the latter came to tempt Him.

ORIGEN. The heresy of the Sadducees not only denies the resurrection of the dead, but also believes the soul to die with the body. Watching then to entrap our Saviour in His words, they proposed a question just at the time when they observed Him teaching His disciples concerning the resurrection; as it follows, And they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote to us, If a brother, &c.

AMBROSE. According to the letter of the law, a woman is compelled to marry, however unwilling, in order that a brother may raise up seed to his brother who is dead. The letter therefore killeth, but the Spirit is the master of charity.

THEOPHYLACT. Now the Sadducees resting upon a weak foundation, did not believe in the doctrine of the resurrection. For imagining the future life in the resurrection to be carnal, they were justly misled, and hence reviling the doctrine of the resurrection as a thing impossible they invent the story, There were seven brothers, &c.

BEDE. (ut sup.) They devise this story in order to convict those of folly, who assert the resurrection of the dead. Hence they object a base fable, that they may deny the truth of the resurrection.

AMBROSE. Mystically, this woman is the synagogue, which had seven husbands, as it is said to the Samaritan, Thou hadst five husbands, (John 4:18.) because the Samaritan follows only the five books of Moses, the synagogue for the most part seven. And from none of them has she received the seed of an hereditary offspring, and so can have no part with her husbands in the resurrection, because she perverts the spiritual meaning of the precept into a carnal. For not any carnal brother is pointed at, who should raise seed to his deceased brother, but that brother who from the dead people of the Jews should claim unto himself for wife the wisdom of the divine worship, and from it should raise up seed in the Apostles, who being left as it were unformed in the womb of the synagogue, have according to the election of grace been thought worthy to be preserved by the admixture of a new seed.

BEDE. Or these seven brothers answer to the reprobate, who throughout the whole life of the world, which revolves in seven days, are fruitless in good works, and these being carried away by death one after another, at length the course of the evil world, as the barren woman, itself also passes away.

THEOPHYLACT. But our Lord shews that in the resurrection there will be no fleshly conversation, thereby overthrowing their doctrine together with its slender foundation; as it follows, And Jesus said unto them, The children of this world marry, &c.

AUGUSTINE. (de Quæst. Ev. l. ii. cap. 49.) For marriages are for the sake of children, children for succession, succession because of death. Where then there is no death, there are no marriages; and hence it follows, But they which shall be accounted worthy, &c.

BEDE. Which must not be taken as if only they who are worthy were either to rise again or be without marriage, but all sinners also shall rise again, and abide without marriage in that new world. But our Lord wished to mention only the elect, that He might incite the minds of His hearers to search into the glory of the resurrection.

AUGUSTINE. (de Quæst. Ev. ubi sup.) As our discourse is made up and completed by departing and succeeding syllables, so also men themselves whose faculty discourse is, by departure and succession make up and complete the order of this world, which is built up with the mere temporal beauty of things. But in the future life, seeing that the Word which we shall enjoy is formed by no departure and succession of syllables, but all things which it has it has everlastingly and at once, so those who partake of it, to whom it alone will be life, shall neither depart by death, nor succeed by birth, even as it now is with the angels; as it follows, For they are equal to the angels.

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. For as the multitude of the angels is indeed very great, yet they are not propagated by generation, but have their being from creation, so also to those who rise again, there is no more necessity for marriage; as it follows, And are the children of God.

THEOPHYLACT. As if He said, Because it is God who worketh in the resurrection, rightly are they called the sons of God, who are regenerated by the resurrection. For there is nothing carnal seen in the regeneration of them that rise again, there is neither coming together, nor the womb, nor birth.

BEDE. Or they are equal to the angels, and the children of God, because made new by the glory of the resurrection, with no fear of death, with no spot of corruption, with no quality of an earthly condition, they rejoice in the perpetual beholding of God’s presence.

ORIGEN. But because the Lord says in Matthew, which is here omitted, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, (Mat. 22:29.) I ask the question, where is it so written, They shall neither marry, nor be given in marriage? for as I conceive there is no such thing to be found either in the Old or New Testament, but the whole of their error had crept in from the reading of the Scriptures without understanding; for it is said in Esaias, My elect shall not have children for a curse. (Isai. 65:23.) Whence they suppose that the like will happen in the resurrection. But Paul interpreting all these blessings as spiritual, knowing them not to be carnal, says to the Ephesians, Ye have blessed us in all spiritual blessings. (Eph. 1:3.)

THEOPHYLACT. Or to the reason above given the Lord added the testimony of Scripture, Now that the dead are raised, Moses also shewed at the bush, (Exod. 3:6.) as the Lord saith, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. As if he said, If the patriarchs have once returned to nothing so as not to live with God in the hope of a resurrection, He would not have said, I am, but, I was, for we are accustomed to speak of things dead and gone thus, I was the Lord or Master of such a thing; but now that He said, I am, He shews that He is the God and Lord of the living. This is what follows, But he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him. For though they have departed from life, yet live they with Him in the hope of a resurrection.

BEDE. Or He says this, that after having proved that the souls abide alter death, (which the Sadducees denied,) He might next introduce the resurrection also of the bodies, which together with the souls have done good or evil. But that is a true life which the just live unto God, even though they are dead in the body. Now to prove the truth of the resurrection, He might have brought much more obvious examples from the Prophets, but the Sadducees received only the five books of Moses, rejecting the oracles of the Prophets.

CHRYSOSTOM. (de Anna, Serm. 4.) As the saints claim as their own the common Lord of the world, not as derogating from His dominion, but testifying their affection after the manner of lovers, who do not brook to love with many, but desire to express a certain peculiar and especial attachment; so likewise does God call Himself especially the God of these, not thereby narrowing but enlarging His dominion; for it is not so much the multitude of His subjects that manifests His power, as the virtue of His servants. Therefore He does not so delight in the name of the God of heaven and earth, as in that of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now among men servants are thus denominated by their masters; for we say, ‘The steward of such a man,’ but on the contrary God is called the God of Abraham.

THEOPHYLACT. But when the Sadducees were silenced, the Scribes commend Jesus, for they were opposed to them, saying to Him, Master, thou hast well said.

BEDE. And since they had been defeated in argument, they ask Him no further questions, but seize Him, and deliver Him up to the Roman power. From which we may learn, that the poison of envy may indeed be subdued, but it is a hard thing to keep it at rest.

Catena Aurea Luke 20

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Portrait of an Old Woman

Hans Memling

1468-70
Oil on wood, 25.6 x 17.7 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

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The Story of Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr

Birth
c. 200 AD

Death
c. 230 AD

Patroness of Musicians • Protector of Sacred Song • Bride of Christ

Her name has been sung for nearly two thousand years.
Before she was a saint, before she was a legend, she was a young Roman girl with one desire alone: to belong entirely to Jesus Christ.

A Consecrated Heart in a Pagan Empire
Cecilia was born into a noble Roman family in the second or third century, a time when Christians worshiped in hiding and every Mass carried the risk of death. From childhood she consecrated her virginity to God. The ancient Acts of her life say that she carried the Gospel in her heart and kept it always on her lips.

Hidden beneath her noble garments she wore a rough hairshirt in penance for sinners. In the silence of her home she lifted her voice in hymns to God, a young girl singing toward eternity.

But her parents had other plans.

The Forced Marriage
When she came of age her family arranged for her to marry a young pagan nobleman named Valerian. On her wedding day, while musicians played and guests celebrated, Cecilia sang silently to God to preserve her vow. Tradition says the hymn she offered in her heart is the reason she became the patroness of music.

That night she revealed her vow to Valerian. She told him that an angel protected her and that he could see this angel only if he were baptized. Moved and shaken, Valerian sought out Pope Urban I, received instruction, and was baptized. When he returned home he saw a radiant angel crowned with roses and lilies standing beside her.

Conversions in the Face of Death
Valerian’s brother Tiburtius soon converted as well after witnessing the purity and conviction of Cecilia. The two brothers used their wealth to bury Christian martyrs, an act forbidden by Roman law. They were arrested and commanded to renounce Christ. They refused. Through Cecilia’s witness both brothers and their executioner Maximus embraced the faith. All three were martyred.

Only Cecilia remained.

The Martyrdom of Cecilia
Cecilia was arrested for preaching Christ openly in her home, for converting many, and for refusing to worship idols. The prefect attempted to break her but could not. She was condemned to death by suffocation in the baths, sealed inside a room heated to an inferno. The next morning soldiers opened the doors expecting ashes. Instead they found her alive and unharmed, singing hymns to God.

An executioner was sent to behead her. He struck her three times, the legal limit, yet her head did not sever. Cecilia fell to the floor bleeding but alive. For three days she preached Christ from the ground of her home as Christians gathered to hear her final testimony. She gave her possessions to the poor and asked that her house be turned into a church. Then she gave her soul to God.

The Incorrupt Body
In the year 1599, when Pope Clement the Eighth ordered her tomb to be opened, her body was found incorrupt and lying exactly as she had fallen. One hand showed three fingers in honor of the Trinity and the other showed one finger for the unity of God. She appeared as one peacefully asleep.

The sculptor Stefano Maderno created the famous statue depicting her in that exact posture, a silent declaration of the truth of her martyrdom. Cecilia died in the posture of a witness, her final sermon preached entirely by her body.

What Saint Cecilia Teaches Us
Purity carries tremendous spiritual power. Her consecrated heart drew warriors, nobles, and even executioners to Christ.

Courage is contagious. The fire meant to destroy her could not extinguish her song.

Every Christian home can become a church. Her dying request turned her home into an altar of worship.

The songs of the heart reach heaven. Cecilia’s hidden hymns became her path to glory.

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NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY(RSV)

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

Link to Navarre Bible Commentary for November 22, 2025

9 posted on 11/23/2025 12:06:58 PM PST by fidelis (Ecce Crucem Domini! Fugite partes adversae! Vicit Leo de tribu Juda, Radix David! Alleluia!)

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Readings at Mass

'I remember the wrong I did in Jerusalem'

In God all men are alive

I will betroth you to myself for ever

The wise and foolish virgins

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

CHAP. 19

The Story of Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr