3 June 2026 (Wednesday)
Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs.
Saints Charles Lwanga and his Companions, Martyrs on Wednesday of week 9 in Ordinary Time.
Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs Obligatory Memorial.
Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church:
First Reading: 2 Timothy 1: 1-3, 6-12
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 122(123):1‐2
Gospel acclamation: Alleluia: John 11: 25a, 26
Gospel: Mark 12: 18-27
Liturgical year 2026 (Cycle A/II)
Liturgical color: Red.
First Reading : 2 Timothy 1:1‐3,6‐12
(Reader) A reading from the second Letter of Paul to Timothy.
From Paul, appointed by God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus in his design to promise life in Christ Jesus; to Timothy, dear child of mine, wishing you grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our Lord.
Night and day I thank God, keeping my conscience clear and remembering my duty to him as my ancestors did, and always I remember you in my prayers. That is why I am reminding you now to fan into a flame the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. God’s gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love, and self‐control. So you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord, or ashamed of me for being his prisoner; but with me, bear the hardships for the sake of the Good News, relying on the power of God who has saved us and called us to be holy – not because of anything we ourselves have done but for his own purpose and by his own grace. This grace had already been granted to us, in Christ Jesus, before the beginning of time, but it has only been revealed by the Appearing of our saviour Christ Jesus. He abolished death, and he has proclaimed life and immortality through the Good News; and I have been named its herald, its apostle and its teacher.
It is only on account of this that I am experiencing fresh hardships here now; but I have not lost confidence, because I know who it is that I have put my trust in, and I have no doubt at all that he is able to take care of all that I have entrusted to him until that Day.
(Reader) The Word of the Lord.
(All) Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 122(123):1‐2
To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.
To you have I lifted up my eyes,
you who dwell in the heavens;
my eyes, like the eyes of slaves
on the hand of their lords.
To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.
Like the eyes of a servant
on the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes are on the Lord our God
till he show us his mercy.
To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.
Alleluia: John 11: 25a, 26
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
25a, 26 I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord; whoever believes in me will never die.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Catholics believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity (God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit). They believe He is truly God and truly man and having become flesh to redeem humanity from sin, dying on the cross, and rising from the dead.
Gospel : Mark 12:18‐27
(Reader) A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark.
(All) Glory to you, O Lord.
Some Sadducees – who deny that there is a resurrection – came to him and they put this question to him, ‘Master, we have it from Moses in writing, if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first married a wife and then died leaving no children. The second married the widow, and he too died leaving no children; with the third it was the same, and none of the seven left any children. Last of all the woman herself died. Now at the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be, since she had been married to all seven?’
Jesus said to them, ‘Is not the reason why you go wrong, that you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry; no, they are like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising again, have you never read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the Bush, how God spoke to him and said: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? He is God, not of the dead, but of the living. You are very much mistaken.’
(Reader) The Gospel of the Lord.
(All) Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
For our reflection today:
The words of the Popes.
Although physical human bodies die, human souls never die. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that every spiritual soul “is immortal: It does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection” (CCC 366).
So at the moment of death, the soul separates from the body, is judged immediately, and enters either heaven (immediately or through purgatory) or hell.
Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven—through a purification or immediately—or immediate and everlasting damnation. (CCC 1022)
(For scriptural evidence of this, see Luke 16:22; 23:43; 2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23.)
Every soul will unite with its resurrected body just prior to the Last Judgment (“Judgment Day”) when Christ returns:
In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man’s relationship with God will be laid bare. The Last Judgment will reveal even to its furthest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during his earthly life.
The Last Judgment will come when Christ returns in glory. Only the Father knows the day and the hour; only he determines the moment of its coming. Then through his Son Jesus Christ he will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the marvelous ways by which his Providence led everything towards its final end. The Last Judgment will reveal that God’s justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures and that God’s love is stronger than death. (CCC 1039-1040)
Here, Christ encounters men who consider themselves expert and authoritative interpreters of the Scriptures. To these men – that is, to the Sadducees – Jesus replies that a mere literal knowledge of Scripture is not enough. In fact, Scripture is above all a means of knowing the power of the living God, who reveals Himself in it, just as he revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush. In this revelation, He called himself “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and of Jacob” – that is, of those who had been the forefathers of Moses in the faith that springs from the revelation of the living God. All of them have long since died; yet Christ completes the reference to them with His affirmation that God “is not the God of the dead, but of the living”. This key statement, in which Christ interprets the words addressed to Moses from the burning bush, can only be understood if one acknowledges the reality of a life that death does not bring to an end. Moses’ forefathers in the faith, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, are living persons for God, even though, by human standards, they must be counted among the dead. To read Scripture correctly, and in particular the aforementioned words of God, means to know and accept by faith the power of the Giver of life, who is not bound by the law of death, which reigns supreme in the earthly history of mankind. (Saint John Paul II, General Audience, 18 November 1981)
Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Pelayan Atasan Tertinggi / Most High Servant,
Yesus, Maria, Yusuf Pelayanan Kasih / Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love
(Blessed and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)
My vocation is Blessed and Saints.
"I am the most humble of all the Saints in Heaven" Mary, Mother of God."
"I am the handmaid of the Lord, said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me."
Mother Mary is the most humble Saint in Heaven and she is also the Mother of God for us all
(Luke 1:38)
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