24
November
SS Andrew Dũng-Lac and his Companions, Martyrs
(d. 1839)
Red
Andrew Dung Lac was born in Vietnam in 1785. He became a Catholic priest. He was beheaded on 21st December 1839 in Hanoi, Vietnam, for the offense of being a priest. Many martyrs died at the hands of religious persecutors following Andrew’s death. We remember them all today.
Entrance Antiphon : Cf. Gal 6: 14; cf. 1 Cor 1: 18
May we never boast, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the word of the Cross is the power of God to us who have been saved.
Collect
O God, source and origin of all fatherhood, who kept the Martyrs Saint Andrew Dũng-Lac and his companions faithful to the Cross of your Son, even to the shedding of their blood, grant, through their intercession, that, spreading your love among our brothers and sisters, we may be your children both in name and in truth. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
First reading: Daniel 5:1-6,13-14,16-17,23-28
King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for his noblemen; a thousand of them attended, and he drank wine in company with this thousand. As he sipped his wine, Belshazzar gave orders for the gold and silver vessels to be brought which his father Nebuchadnezzar had looted from the sanctuary in Jerusalem, so that the king, his noblemen, his wives and his singing women could drink out of them. The gold and silver vessels looted from the sanctuary of the Temple of God in Jerusalem were brought in, and the king, his noblemen, his wives and his singing women drank out of them. They drank their wine and praised their gods of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone. Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared, and began to write on the plaster of the palace wall, directly behind the lamp-stand; and the king could see the hand as it wrote. The king turned pale with alarm: his thigh-joints went slack and his knees began to knock. Daniel was brought into the king’s presence; the king said to Daniel, ‘Are you the Daniel who was one of the Judaean exiles brought by my father the king from Judah? I am told that the spirit of God Most Holy lives in you, and that you are known for your perception, intelligence and marvellous wisdom. As I am told that you are able to give interpretations and to unravel difficult problems, if you can read the writing and tell me what it means, you shall be dressed in purple, and have a chain of gold put round your neck, and be third in rank in the kingdom.’ Then Daniel spoke up in the presence of the king. ‘Keep your gifts for yourself,’ he said, ‘and give your rewards to others. I will read the writing to the king without them, and tell him what it means. You have defied the Lord of heaven, you have had the vessels from his Temple brought to you, and you, your noblemen, your wives and your singing women have drunk your wine out of them. You have praised gods of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone, which cannot either see, hear or understand; but you have given no glory to the God who holds your breath and all your fortunes in his hands. That is why he has sent the hand which, by itself, has written these words. The writing reads: Mene, Mene, Tekel and Parsin. The meaning of the words is this: Mene: God has measured your sovereignty and put an end to it; Tekel: you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting; Parsin: your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.’
Daniel 3:62-67
R/ Give glory and eternal praise to him!
1. Sun and moon! bless the Lord.
2. Stars of heaven! bless the Lord.
3. Showers and dews! all bless the Lord.
4. Winds! all bless the Lord.
5. Fire and heat! bless the Lord.
6. Cold and heat! bless the Lord.
Gospel Acclamation: Lk21:36
Alleluia, alleluia! Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to stand with confidence before the Son of Man. Alleluia!
Gospel: Luke 21:12-19
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Men will seize you and persecute you; they will hand you over to the synagogues and to imprisonment, and bring you before kings and governors because of my name – and that will be your opportunity to bear witness. Keep this carefully in mind: you are not to prepare your defence, because I myself shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relations and friends; and some of you will be put to death. You will be hated by all men on account of my name, but not a hair of your head will be lost. Your endurance will win you your lives.’
Prayer over the Offerings
Receive, O holy Father, the offerings we bring as we venerate the passion of the holy Martyrs, so that amid the trials of this life we may always be found faithful and may offer ourselves to you as an acceptable sacrifice. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon : Mt 5: 10
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Prayer after Communion
Renewed by the one Bread as we commemorate the holy Martyrs, we humbly beseech you, O Lord, that, abiding as one in your love, we may merit, by endurance, an eternal prize. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
Our God is a jealous God who does not share his glory (Dt 6:15). In the first reading, King Balthazar desecrates the vases dedicated solely to Yahweh. For this, God rejects him. We have to abandon our different divinities and turn to the one and only true God: The God of Jesus Christ. He never abandons his own during troubled moments because his rod and his staff reassure us. Jesus says he is the way, the truth and the life (Jn 14:6). We are to live by his life and to witness to his truth by walking on his way and he will defend us against adversity. It is this truth that St. Andrew Dũng-Lac and his companions defended to the point of laying down their lives. And as a reward, they share the glory of Christ in his Kingdom.