Daily Reading
First Reading
Galatians 4:22-24, 26-27, 31–5:1
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free woman. One, the child of the slave, was born according to the flesh; the other, the child of the free woman, was born through the promise. Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants. One woman, in fact, is Hagar, from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery.
But the other woman corresponds to the Jerusalem above; she is free, and she is our mother. For it is written,
“Rejoice, you childless one, you who bear no children,
burst into song and shout, you who endure no birth pangs;
for the children of the desolate woman are more numerous
than the children of the one who is married.”
So then, friends, we are children, not of the slave but of the free woman.
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Psalm
Psalm 113:1b-2, 3-4, 5a, 6-7
Praise the Lord!
Praise, O servants of the Lord;
praise the name of the Lord.
Blessed be the name of the Lord
from this time on and forevermore.
From the rising of the sun to its setting
the name of the Lord is to be praised.
The Lord is high above all nations,
and his glory above the heavens.
Who is like the Lord our God,
who is seated on high,
who looks far down
on the heavens and the earth?
He raises the poor from the dust,
and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
Gospel Reading
Luke 11:29-32
When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here! The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here!
Reflection
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the crowd that no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah, a vague hint of his resurrection. The resurrection means that Jesus of Nazareth, who claimed throughout his public life to be speaking and acting in the very person of God, and who was brutally put to death by Roman executioners, rose bodily from the dead.
One implication of the resurrection is that we have a real advocate in heaven. The biblical imagination on this score is not Greek—that is to say, not marked by sharp dualisms of matter and spirit. The great hope of Israel is not a jailbreak, not an escape from this world, but precisely the coming together of heaven and earth.
The bodily resurrection of Jesus—as the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep—is the great sign that the two orders are coming together. A body that can be touched and that can consume baked fish has found its way into the realm of heaven. And thus bodies are not finally alien to God. We have indeed an advocate in the heavenly places.