Faith and Truth

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to examine our tendency to have “our version of the truth” to limit our exploration of the Way we are invited to follow by Jesus.

Faith and Family

The Reading from  1 Maccabees 6.1-13 relates the death of the Seleucid king, Antiochus.

a. [6:1–13] 2 Mc 1:13–17; 9:1–29; Dn 11:40–45. (1 Maccabees, CHAPTER 6 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 9 states loosely connected themes: the rescue of the helpless poor from their enemies, and God’s worldwide judgment and rule over the nations.

* [Psalms 9–10] Ps 9 and Ps 10 in the Hebrew text have been transmitted as separate poems but they actually form a single acrostic poem and are so transmitted in the Greek and Latin tradition. Each verse of the two Psalms begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet (though several letters have no corresponding stanza). The Psalm states loosely connected themes: the rescue of the helpless poor from their enemies, God’s worldwide judgment and rule over the nations, the psalmist’s own concern for rescue (Ps 9:14–15). (Psalms, PSALM 9 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus responds to the Question About the Resurrection.

* [20:28–33] The Sadducees’ question, based on the law of levirate marriage recorded in Dt 25:5–10, ridicules the idea of the resurrection. Jesus rejects their naive understanding of the resurrection (Lk 20:35–36) and then argues on behalf of the resurrection of the dead on the basis of the written law (Lk 20:37–38) that the Sadducees accept. See also notes on Mt 22:23–33.

* [20:36] Because they are the ones who will rise: literally, “being sons of the resurrection.” (Luke, CHAPTER 20 | USCCB, n.d.)

Eileen Wirth notes that today Jesus asks us to consider if we are asking the right questions so that our concerns align more closely with God’s.

When I picture God judging me, I hope he doesn’t nail me for all my garden variety faults. Yes, I gossiped. Yes, I lost my temper etc.

I HOPE God will be concerned with things that Ignatian spirituality asks us to focus on like whether we have tried to be men and women for and with others or tried to change the world for the good. (Wirth, 2025)

Don Schwager quotes “Jesus cites Moses to affirm the resurrection,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD)

"The Savior also demonstrated the great ignorance of the Sadducees by bringing forward their own leader Moses, who was clearly acquainted with the resurrection of the dead. He set God before us saying in the bush, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob' (Exodus 3:6). Of whom is he God, if, according to their argument, these have ceased to live? He is the God of the living. They certainly will rise when his almighty right hand brings them and all that are on the earth there. For people not to believe that this will happen is worthy perhaps of the ignorance of the Sadducees, but it is altogether unworthy of those who love Christ. We believe in him who says, 'I am the resurrection and the life' (John 11:25). He will raise the dead suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, and at the last trumpet. It shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed (1 Corinthians 15:52). For Christ our common Savior will transfer us into incorruption, glory and to an incorruptible life."(excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 136) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 20:27-40 comments that the One who fills our hearts and guides our lives here on earth will not condemn us to a life of eternal boredom or reluctant celibacy. No, heaven will be the “fulfillment of the deepest human longings” in ways we don’t yet fully understand (Catechism, 1024).

It’s not exactly clear how our loved ones fit into the picture, but we can be confident that all our relationships will be perfected. We will know nothing but joy and perfect unity among all the redeemed. For now, all Jesus wants is that we trust in his promises and fix our hope on the glory to come.

“Lord, I long for the day when I will be with you forever!” (Meditation on Luke 20:27-40, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler recalls how Seleucid king Antiochus persecuted the Jews, retreats to Babylon, confesses that he is being punished and then dies. This probably is not actually biographical, but fictional, to teach that God will protect his people. Some Sadducees, who only accept the Pentateuch as the Bible, try to trap Jesus. Jesus rejects the premise of the problem of the widow. We rise like angels without exclusive love and human traps. Jesus reminds the Sadducees of Moses' encounter with “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” as proclaimed in the Pentateuch. Friar Jude notes their response to Jesus “You have answered well” as appreciating Jesus' cleverness.

Fr. Mike Schmitz discusses the ministry of the apostles and encourages us to allow God to work in our lives in the same way. He also reminds us that through Baptism, we are set free from our fallen human nature and given the freedom to live according to the spirit. Today’s readings are from Acts 5, Romans 8, and Proverbs 27:7-9.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, Introduces Pastor Molly Baskette who urges us to let go of rigid binaries in our thinking. All claims to the contrary, Jesus did not preach from a place of rigid binaries and judgments but from a place of continual becoming.

The churches I’ve served strive to follow Jesus in this “third way”: neither returning evil for evil nor caving in to it. Our God does not hate all the same people we do, nor does our God particularly want us to be rich or admired. Our faith, frail as it is sometimes, is also flexible. It is self-correcting as we have profound encounters with people who are different from us and are exposed to new experiences and ideas. If we are willing to be humble, we can continuously root out our own biases, the weeds of white supremacy that are deeply seeded into the soil of our culture, religion, and country.  

Staying in the liminal place of holy uncertainty is deeply uncomfortable. But certainty in the life of faith doesn’t serve us well. (Rohr, n.d.)

We seek the Wisdom of the Spirit to consider what might be beyond the simple binaries that we accept and Jesus rejects.

References

Luke, CHAPTER 20 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved November 22, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/20?27 

Meditation on Luke 20:27-40. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved November 22, 2025, from https://wau.org/meditations/2025/11/22/1433216/ 

1 Maccabees, CHAPTER 6 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved November 22, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1maccabees/6?1 

Psalms, PSALM 9 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved November 22, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/9?2 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Recognising our Bias. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved November 22, 2025, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/recognizing-our-biases-weekly-summary/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). All Live to Him. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved November 22, 2025, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/ 

Wirth, E. (2025, November 22). Daily Reflection November 22, 2025 | Creighton Online Ministries. Creighton Online Ministries. Retrieved November 22, 2025, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-november-22-2025 

 

Resistance Contemplation and Action

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today present us with possible responses to persecution and imprisonment of people in our community.

Action to Resist

In the Reading from 1 Maccabees, Pagan Worship is Refused and Resisted.

* [2:18] The King’s Friends: a regular order of nobility at Hellenistic courts (see 10:65; 11:27).

* [2:29] The wilderness: the sparsely inhabited mountain country southward from Jerusalem and west of the Dead Sea, in the region where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. (1 Maccabees, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 50 exhorts the sacrifice of praise accompanied by genuine obedience.

* [Psalm 50] A covenant lawsuit stating that the sacrifice God really wants is the sacrifice of praise accompanied by genuine obedience (cf. Mi 6:1–8). It begins with a theophany and the summoning of the court (Ps 50:1–6). Then in direct address God explains what is required of the faithful (Ps 50:7–15), rebukes the hypocritical worshiper (Ps 50:16–21), and concludes with a threat and a promise (Ps 50:22–23; cf. Is 1:19–20). (Psalms, PSALM 50 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus prays a Lament for Jerusalem.

* [19:41–44] The lament for Jerusalem is found only in Luke. By not accepting Jesus (the one who mediates peace), Jerusalem will not find peace but will become the victim of devastation.

* [19:43–44] Luke may be describing the actual disaster that befell Jerusalem in A.D. 70 when it was destroyed by the Romans during the First Revolt. (Luke, CHAPTER 19 | USCCB, n.d.)

Mike Cherney comments that today’s readings present faithfulness from two very different perspectives. The Old Testament passage portrays a fierce and even violent defense of fidelity to God’s covenant. The Gospel, however, reveals another kind of faithfulness, God’s compassionate response to our blindness and stubbornness.

I think of a group of retired nuns who I greatly admire. Their lives offer me a model of response. I see in them a deep lament for the world’s pain and for their own shortcomings in stewardship. Yet they remain steadfast as an aging group of women who are active in service, unafraid to openly speak against injustice, mutually supportive, and rooted in prayer. Their witness reminds me that faithfulness is both contemplation and action, grounded in love.

My prayer today is to seek my own faithful response.

Dear Lord, Give me a heart free from hardness. 

Rooted in the Ignatian way of contemplation and action, 

open my eyes, my ears, and my spirit as I pray, 

and show me the path of faithful service. 

Grant me the courage of Mattathias 

and the compassion of Christ. (Cherney, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “Jesus fulfills the beatitude for those who weep,” by Origen of Alexandria (185-254 AD)

"When our Lord and Savior approached Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept... By his example, Jesus confirms all the Beatitudes that he speaks in the Gospel. By his own witness, he confirms what he teaches. 'Blessed are the meek,' he says. He says something similar to this of himself: 'Learn from me, for I am meek.' 'Blessed are the peacemakers.' What other man brought as much peace as my Lord Jesus, who 'is our peace,' who 'dissolves hostility' and 'destroys it in his own flesh' (Ephesians 2:14-15). 'Blessed are those who suffer persecution because of justice.'

"No one suffered such persecution because of justice as did the Lord Jesus, who was crucified for our sins. The Lord therefore exhibited all the Beatitudes in himself. For the sake of this likeness, he wept, because of what he said, 'Blessed are those who weep,' to lay the foundations for this beatitude as well. He wept for Jerusalem and said,'If only you had known on that day what meant peace for you! But now it is hidden from your eyes,' and the rest, to the point where he says, 'Because you did not know the time of your visitation'" (excerpt from HOMILY ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 38.1-2) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 19:41-44 comments how comforting to remember that Jesus weeps with us!

Day after day, God continues to reach out to his children. Every day is a new “visitation” (Luke 19:44). Every moment, he offers your loved ones a fresh opportunity to return to him. And he will never stop.

“Thank you, Lord, that you love the person I am praying for even more than I do. Help them to see you and to welcome your salvation.” (Meditation on Luke 19:41-44, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler  comments that 1 Maccabees presents the breakout of the rebellion and the response of leaders called to offer sacrifice to pagan gods. Mattathias reacts and kills the offending Jews to keep the faith of Israel against the Seleucid ruler, Antiochus IV, who persecuted Jews and tried to suppress their religion and outlawed Jewish practices. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is heading to the spiritual centre, Jerusalem. He tells them of the coming destruction. Friar Jude notes that Luke wrote the Gospel after the destruction in 70 AD. A lot of the description is fulfilled in that event and the Evangelist probably filled out Jesus' prediction with actual events.

Fr. Mike Schmitz reminds us that God gives us gifts so he can be known in the world and all great miracles are attributed to the name of Jesus. Fr. Mike also tells us why our suffering matters, and how God wastes nothing. Today’s readings are Acts 3, Romans 4-5, and Proverbs 27:1-3. 

Father Richard explains how learning to see beyond our biases is essential for the ongoing conversion of faith. Brian McLaren describes why Jesus’ teachings so effectively freed people from an over-attachment to their own way of seeing.

Jesus inspired and “abducted” people through immersive and imaginative experiences—including parables and powerful metaphors, respectful conversations, encounters with “the other,” field trips, and other forms of experiential learning. Following his example, we discover that it’s usually a far more effective portal out of confirmation bias than purely intellectual arguments. 

When you aggressively attack people’s familiar ideas, they tend to respond defensively. They dig in their heels and become even more firmly attached to the very ideas that they need to be liberated from. The doorway out of confirmation bias is not argument but imagination.  

That’s why Jesus, like other effective communicators, constantly told stories, stories that grabbed people by the imagination and transported them into another imaginative world:

 

… there once was a woman who put some yeast into a huge batch of dough [Matthew 13:33] 

… there once was a man who had two sons [Luke 15:11] 

… this man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho [Luke 10:30] 

… a woman once lost a coin [Luke 15:8] …

 

Through these short “imaginative vacations” to another world, Jesus helped people see from a new vantage point. He used imagination to punch a tiny hole in their walls of confirmation bias, and through that tiny hole, some new light could stream in and let them know of a bigger world beyond their walls…. (McLaren, n.d.)

We seek the guidance of the Spirit in our contemplation of the change we hope to create and the action we need to overcome resistance from our community.

References

Cherney, M. (n.d.). Daily Reflection. Creighton Online Ministries: Home. Retrieved November 20, 2025, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-november-20-2025 

Luke, CHAPTER 19 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved November 20, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/19?41 

McLaren, B. (n.d.). Moving Beyond What We Already Know. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved November 20, 2025, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/moving-beyond-what-we-already-know/ 

Meditation on Luke 19:41-44. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved November 20, 2025, from https://wau.org/meditations/2025/11/20/1432630/ 

1 Maccabees, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved November 20, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1maccabees/2?15 

Psalms, PSALM 50 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved November 20, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/50?1 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Know the Time of Your Visitation. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved November 20, 2025, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/