Please be patient
as page loads

Please be patient
as page loads

Please be patient
as page loads

Please be patient
as page loads

Please be patient
as page loads

Please be patient
as page loads

Please be patient
as page loads

Please be patient
as page loads

Please be patient
as page loads

32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C)

SCRIPTURE STUDY

Click above to access reflection & discussion questions (PDF)

1. In the Gospel Reading, why would the Sadducees pose a question like this to Jesus? What are they really asking him? How do the scribes respond to Jesus’ answer (Luke 20:9-40)? Why?
2. How seriously does Jesus treat this absurd question? What if he had ridiculed it?
3. How do you deal with someone who wants to argue about religion? What if the person has honest questions and you don’t have the answer?
4. What does Jesus teach about life after death (Luke 20:34-36)? How does he then “prove” the resurrection (note the verb tense in his quote from Exodus 3:6 and recall when this burning bush incident took place)?
5. How do you picture the resurrection, or the life to come? What, if anything, in your personal experience has confirmed your belief in life after death?
6. Does your belief in the world to come affect your priorities? Should it? How?

SOURCE: Sunday Scripture Study for Catholics © 2010 Vince Contreras

32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C)

RCIA SEEKERS

Team RCIA Questions

Michael Marchall

BACKGROUND: The pointless self-righteousness of the Pharisees is a dominant theme in Luke’s Gospel. This Sunday, though, it is the Sadducees’ narrow concept of God which is being portrayed for us. By setting up a rhetorical situation which can easily lead to ridicule, they try to diminish the overall credibility of Jesus. His response is clear: God’s kingdom is not of this world. It begins here but stretches into eternity. Like Jesus on his way to a shameful death on the cross, we too must surrender to the Father’s will no matter where it leads us.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. When have you doubted that your life really had any meaning?
2. When did you look beyond the values of this world and of our society and tried to see how God might be working in your life?
3. Which people in your personal life have been for you role models for the power of hope?
4. Which people in our larger society have been role models of hope and why? And which ones have not and why?

SOURCE: TEAM RCIA

32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C)

CATHOLIC DOCTRINE

Heaven and Hell

We believe that death is not an end to life. When we die our lives change. We pass into a new existence beyond our lives on earth. Catholic teaching holds that in the next life there are three modes of existence, heaven, purgatory and hell. Our focus for today is heaven and hell.

Hell is the everlasting separation from God. We believe that we are united with God when we freely choose to love God and others. We can choose to separate from God. When we sin we separate from God by our own free choice. Jesus warns that if we do not love our neighbor and care for the needs of others we will be separated from his presence. God is a loving God and acts to save all, but some choose to reject God. Hell is the inheritance of all who knowingly turn away from God’s love.

Heaven is eternal life and happiness with God. We believe that those who die in friendship with God live in union with God forever. By his saving death and resurrection Jesus Christ has opened the gates of heaven for us. Union with God is accomplished through Christ. Eternal life with God fulfills our deepest desire for happiness.

• What happens when we sin?
• How can we choose to love God and others?
• Why does living in friendship with God make us happy?

SOURCE: RCL Benziger — YEAR A | YEAR B | YEAR C

32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C)

ACCORDING TO POPE FRANCIS…

God Has a Weakness for
the Humble Ones

Anne Osdieck

The Sadducees thought the present life was the standard for eternity. What does Pope Francis say God has in store for us, that turns the Sadduccees’ way of looking at eternity on its head?

This is why Jesus affirms: “he is not the God of the dead, but of the living: for all live to him” (Luke 20:38). And the most important tie is with Jesus: he is the alliance, he is the Life and the Resurrection, because with his crucified love he defeated death. In Jesus God gives us eternal life: he gives it to everyone, and everyone can, thanks to him, hope to live a life even more real than this one. The life that God has in store for us is not simply a better version of this one: it goes beyond our imagination, because God continually surprises us with His love and mercy.

Pope Francis, Angelus, Nov. 10, 2013

MORE QUESTIONS

SOURCE: Sunday Web Site – Saint Louis University

32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C)

FAITH SHARING

Ascension Catholic

Fr. Eamon Tobin

1. Turn to the person next to you and share what word/s or image/s in the readings caught your attention? Did they comfort or challenge you or touch you in some way? The facilitator can decide which is more helpful: to share the next questions with the whole group, or to share in smaller groups of three or four.

2. Name examples of heroic faith in our time. In your life, is there a person that stands out who kept the faith despite enormous suffering?

3. In the second reading, Paul prays to be delivered from false teachers. Who are false teachers today?

4. What difference does belief in the afterlife make to the way we live our lives here on earth?

5. What questions do you have about the next life? 6. Name one thing today’s Gospel says to us that we disciples of Jesus need to heed and act on.

JOURNALING.

Having listened to God’s Word and listened to others’ reflections on it, take a quiet moment to reflect on what you are hearing God say to you. Your response will be what you bring to Eucharist on Sunday, asking Jesus to help you respond as he asks of you. When ready, jot down your reflections.

RESPONDING TO THE WORD

Share with the person next to you one way you can act on this week’s readings. Suggestions: Pray this week for the dying and for all who work with the dying. If you do not have a Last Will & Testament, draw one up.

STUDY GUIDE (PDF)

SOURCE: Ascension Catholic

Please be patient
as page loads

Please be patient
as page loads