Bible Diary

Daily Reading

Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs

LECTIONARY
355

FIRST READING

2 Timothy 1:1-3, 6-12

Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God
for the promise of life in Christ Jesus,
to Timothy, my dear child:
grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father
and Christ Jesus our Lord.

I am grateful to God,
whom I worship with a clear conscience as my ancestors did,
as I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day.

For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame
the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. 
For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control.
So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord,
nor of me, a prisoner for his sake;
but bear your share of hardship for the Gospel
with the strength that comes from God.

He saved us and called us to a holy life,
not according to our works
but according to his own design
and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began,
but now made manifest
through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus,
who destroyed death and brought life and immortality
to light through the Gospel,
for which I was appointed preacher and Apostle and teacher.
On this account I am suffering these things;
but I am not ashamed,
for I know him in whom I have believed
and am confident that he is able to guard
what has been entrusted to me until that day.
 

PSALM

Psalm 123:1b-2ab, 2cdef

Response: To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.

To you I lift up my eyes
who are enthroned in heaven.
Behold, as the eyes of servants
are on the hands of their masters.
R. To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.
As the eyes of a maid
are on the hands of her mistress,
So are our eyes on the LORD, our God,
till he have pity on us. 
R. To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.
 

GOSPEL

Mark 12:18-27

Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection,
came to Jesus and put this question to him, saying,
"Teacher, Moses wrote for us,
If someone's brother dies, leaving a wife but no child,
his brother must take the wife
and raise up descendants for his brother.
Now there were seven brothers.
The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants.
So the second brother married her and died, leaving no descendants,
and the third likewise.
And the seven left no descendants.
Last of all the woman also died.
At the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be?
For all seven had been married to her."
Jesus said to them, "Are you not misled
because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?
When they rise from the dead,
they neither marry nor are given in marriage,
but they are like the angels in heaven.
As for the dead being raised,
have you not read in the Book of Moses,
in the passage about the bush, how God told him,
I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, 
and the God of Jacob?
He is not God of the dead but of the living.
You are greatly misled."


 

Daily Reflection

3rd June 2026

Memorial of Sts Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs

The resurrection of the dead is an essential belief of our Christian faith. At the conclusion of the Nicene Creed, we pray: “We look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.” We probably recite these words without giving them thought. But what if we were challenged to explain the resurrection?

The question the Sadducees put to Jesus was another attempt to trip Him up; this time it concerned life after death. But when they pose the hypothetical case of a woman marrying and outliving each of seven husbands, they are not seeking clarity of thought. Nevertheless, Jesus responds to the Sadducees: They are missing the point because life after death is not the same as life lived on earth. We are called to live eternally in the presence of our God. Life is simply changed, not ended.

Today’s Psalm suggests that we lift our eyes to the Lord. In doing so, we will see with the eyes of faith and beyond the confines of our literal understanding.