Daily Gospel Reflection
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November 22, 2025
Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection,
came forward and put this question to Jesus, 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 but died childless.
Then the second and the third married her,
and likewise all the seven died childless.
Finally the woman also died.
Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?
For all seven had been married to her.”
Jesus said to them,
“The children of this age marry and remarry;
but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age
and to the resurrection of the dead
neither marry nor are given in marriage.
They can no longer die,
for they are like angels;
and they are the children of God
because they are the ones who will rise.
That the dead will rise
even Moses made known in the passage about the bush,
when he called ‘Lord’
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;
and he is not God of the dead, but of the living,
for to him all are alive.”
Some of the scribes said in reply,
“Teacher, you have answered well.”
And they no longer dared to ask him anything.
“Heaven and earth in little space” is a lyric from the song “Rosa Mystica” by Chrysogonus Waddell, which I would sing every Advent in the Notre Dame Folk Choir. It was written in dedication to Mary, who gave birth to Jesus, fully God and fully man, in a tiny stable.
Every Sunday, as we sang at noon Mass in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, creating complex harmonies in tandem with poetic lyrics, I felt heaven meeting earth in our choir loft. Above me were stars and angels depicted on the Basilica’s ceiling, and below me were pews filled with a congregation brimming with faithful peers, families, and visitors. For me, creating music both gives me insight into God’s nature and brings me closer to God.
St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music, also saw art as an access point to the divine. After her conversion to Christianity, she dedicated her earthly gift of song to God and converted hundreds through her testament to her faith. Her complete trust in God and her hope of heaven allowed her to endure brutal torture by the Romans. Despite facing extreme heat in a chamber meant to suffocate her, St. Cecilia’s body showed no sign of blemish or perspiration until she was finally beheaded. On her feast day today, we celebrate the gifts, especially in the arts, that grant us a preview of God’s beauty.
As St. Cecilia looked towards the divine and dedicated her musical gifts to God, in today’s gospel, Jesus urges the Sadducees to point their attention beyond earthly matters and relationships. Our earthly gifts should not be ends in themselves, but means to growing closer to God. Our lives do not end in death, but begin in resurrection.
Prayer
You are the God of the living. Don’t let me think otherwise, by lingering on futile questions that put that truth to the test. Without your vision of what is to come, I’m limited to what is and to letting so many things hold me back. Free me to go beyond my own limited understanding to the world to which you draw us more and more each day. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Cecilia is one of the most venerated martyrs from early Christianity, and one of the few who is invoked in a Eucharistic prayer during the celebration of the Mass. She is the patron saint of musicians.
There are a few historically verified details in Cecilia's biography, but the legends surrounding her life have persisted throughout the ages. A notable church named in her honor, Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, is traditionally believed to have been built on the site of her home, where Cecilia’s body is said to rest.
While Cecilia was still young, her parents arranged a marriage for her with a wealthy Roman named Valerian, who was not a Christian. It is said that when she heard the music play around her during her raucous Roman wedding celebration, Cecilia barely noticed, as she was singing a hymn of love in her heart for Jesus the entire time. Cecilia had committed herself as a spouse to Christ before her marriage to Valerian. This is one of the legends that caused her to be invoked as a patron saint of musicians.
On their wedding night, Cecilia told Valerian of her commitment to God and taught him the Christian faith. Valerian converted that very night, requesting to be baptized along with his brother.
Valerian and his brother were both wealthy Roman citizens; thus, after their conversion, they dedicated their fortune to support Christian families who had suffered the death of a loved one in martyrdom. Eventually, the two brothers were captured and sentenced to death. The soldier charged with killing them was converted by their great faith, however, and, instead of killing them, took them into his house, begging that they would baptize him and his whole family.
The next day, Valerian, his brother, and the soldier were all beheaded. Cecilia made sure they were buried properly and distributed the goods of their households among the poor.
Eventually, Cecilia herself was captured for her bold proclamation of the faith, and she was condemned to die by suffocation in steam baths. Despite remaining in the baths for a day and a half, Cecilia remained unharmed and able to breathe freely.
Legend has it that a soldier was sent to behead Cecilia, but after the three blows of the sword allowed by law, her head was not severed. She appeared incapacitated but peaceful, joyfully awaiting her death and union with Christ. Faithful friends gathered around her and waited with her until she died three days later. She was buried by the pope himself.
In 1599, when Cecilia's body was exhumed from under the church in Rome, it was reportedly found incorrupt, as though she had just been laid in the ground.
Some of St. Cecilia’s relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Cecilia, patron saint of musicians—pray for us!
Bibliography
1. Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. "Cecilia." In The Encyclopedia of Saints, 71-72. New York: Visionary Living, Inc., 2001.
