GOD OF THE LIVING  

June 2, Wednesday

 

NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

God is near to those who trust in him and cry out their anguish to him in their hour of need. This is one of the several lessons that the edifying romance of Tobit tries to convey.

With arguments that are a bit difficult to follow, Jesus upholds the resurrection of the dead. God is a God of the living; his promises are not given in vain. Jesus is harsh with those who are interested in religion for the sake of arguing about doctrine but are not interested in faith.

 

First Reading: Tobit 3:1-11a, 16-17a

In the midst of my troubles, as was my custom when feeling sorry for myself, I burst into tears and lapsed into an overblown lament.

“You’re just, o Lord. All your works are just. All your ways demonstrate mercy and truth. You’re the judge of the world; take up my case and rule leniently. don’t take the rod to me for the sins and negligence of me and my forebears that were committed right under your very nose. We didn’t obey the letter of your Law, so you handed us over to pillagers and plunderers. You kicked us out of the land you promised our ancestors, landing us where we knew nobody. You made us a joke to the Gentiles.

“Now your judgments are upon us, many and true, wringing from me and my people the precise amount of punishment our sins deserved; you wouldn’t have had to do that if we’d acted properly and walked justly in your presence. Now do with me what you want; take my life if you will; whisk me from the face of the earth. It’s better for me to die than to live. only sadness flows in my veins. only complaints f low from  my  mouth. See to it, Lord, that I get released from my anguish. Send me off to that hovel at the far end of the heavenly estate. don’t turn your face from me now!”

So much for Tobit’s story in Nineveh. Simultaneously in Ecbatana, Media, somebody’s ear was getting scorched. Sarah, the daughter of Raguel and Edna, had to listen to a diatribe from one of the female staff in her parents’ house.

“You’re just the sort of girl who suffocates her husbands! Serves you right. You’ve had seven and enjoyed none. So what gives you the right to whip us when you should be whipping yourself? You’re the one who killed them. Why don’t you kill yourself and leave us with the happiness of never having to deal with your sons and daughters?”

Sarah had been given in marriage—consecutively—to  seven  differ-  ent men. Before each of them had made love to her even once, however, Asmodeus, the wickedest of all demons, claimed her for himself, killing each of the husbands in turn before they could reach the marriage bed.

Never had Sarah been so viciously attacked by the tongue of another. Teary-eyed, she climbed the stairs to the upper room of her parents’ house, fully intending to put her head into a noose and hang herself.

Then she had second thoughts.

“If I do this, they’ll never let my parents forget it: You had one darling daughter, but she hanged herself when things went bad. I’d lead them in  their old age right to the gates of Hades. It would be far better for them if I pray to the Lord for a natural death; that way they wouldn’t have to listen to the sort of reproach that would surely be tossed over the fence by their neighbors.”

With her hands raised toward Jerusalem, Sarah offered her prayer. “Bountiful and merciful are you, Lord; honored and revered is your

name down through the ages. May all your works bless you! And now, to the heart of my prayer. I look up to you as you look down upon me. Grant me what I wish. Send me to the underworld. I can’t stand one more snide remark about my marriages! You know that I’m pure; I’ve never consummated any of my marriages; I’ve never tarnished my own name nor that   of my parents throughout this entire situation. I’m my father’s only child; he doesn’t have a son to leave an inheritance to; he doesn’t have a brother or close relative who might need me as a replacement wife. I’ve been married to seven men; why should I wait around for an eighth? But if killing me isn’t the sort of thing you want to be associated with, then look kindly upon me and render me deaf, plug up my ears, do anything that will pre- vent me from hearing the verbal slings and arrows of my enemies!”

As it happened, at the same exact moment, the prayers of Tobit and Sarah were delivered into the presence of God, and God responded by sending the archangel Raphael with a healing touch for both. For Tobit, the cure was to remove the white scales that covered his eyes so that he could clearly see the light of God. For Sarah, it was to meet Toby, Tobit’s son, who was, in fact, the closest relative eligible to marry her, even  though  she didn’t even know he existed. But Raphael had a third mission, which was to pack up and drive off, once and for all, Asmodeus, the wickedest of demons.

So simultaneously, in two different cities, Tobit left the courtyard and entered his house in Nineveh and Sarah descended from the upper room  to the ground f loor of her parents’ house in Ecbatana. Their prayers were about to be answered.

 

Gospel: Mark 12:18-27

Our Intimacies Will Be with God

Some Sadducees, the party that denies any possibility of resurrection, came up and asked, “Teacher, Moses wrote that if a man dies and leaves a wife but no child, his brother is obligated to marry the widow and have children. Well, there once were seven brothers. The first took a wife. He died childless. The second married her. He died, and still no child. The same with the third. All seven took their turn, but no child. Finally the wife died. When they are raised at the resurrection, whose wife is she? All seven were her husband.”

Jesus said, “You’re way off base, and here’s why: One, you don’t know your Bibles; two, you don’t know how God works. After the dead are raised up, we’re past the marriage business. As it is with angels now, all our ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God. And regarding the dead, whether or not they are raised, don’t you ever read the Bible? How God at the bush said to Moses, ‘I am—not was—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? The living God is God of the living, not the dead. You’re way, way off base.”

 

Prayer

Living God,
you are the God of the covenant
of life and loyal love.
Keep us in your love
and keep the promise of life
which you have given us
through your Son, Jesus Christ.
Let his life gush forth in us,
fully and richly,
until it blooms forth into life without end.
We ask this in the name of Christ, our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection

Our words, our actions and our attitudes

Just like yesterday, there is a cunning question, a deceitful ‘why?’ in today’s gospel passage. Yesterday it was the Pharisees; today it is the Sadducees. The Sadducees were not a clearly defined group within Judaism. They were generally chief priests and members of the Jerusalem aristocracy. But they didn’t believe in life after death; but here they are, asking a question, the purpose of which is to reduce such a belief to absurdity. He knew that the Sadducees didn’t believe in the existence of angels, nor in the resurrection of the dead. But now, they apparently swallowed their own beliefs and comes up with the question on resurrection. If they did not believe in the resurrection in the first place, then why to think about marriage and family in the after-life? It is a lesson on how to deal with dishonest questions: don’t give up your ground, don’t backtrack. Jesus answers them quoting from the book of the Exodus, to prove them that there is resurrection of the dead. Jesus hits them where it hurts the most, attacking them with Abraham, Moses, Isaac and Jacob. They are the foundations of their Hebrew faith. When God spoke to Moses, he said “I AM the God of Abraham…” For the eyes of the world, Abraham, Moses and the rest of the big names of the Old Testament are all dead. But Jesus logically proves they are all alive. We are all invited to believe in the resurrection and in a God of life, not god of death, where we will be like angels. Jesus turns everything upside down, as he did with the concepts of power and service, with the family, with the status of women, with the attitude towards children, and tries to put them on the right path. Eternal life, life according to God’s plans, demands that we open our minds and hearts to other approaches. God did not say to Moses: “I was the God of Abraham”, or “I used to be the God of Abraham’” but “I AM here and now the God of Abraham”. It is useful for us to be able to handle distortions of our faith which can sometimes be thrown at us. It is essential that we are familiar with our Bible in order to do so. But we might also say that we do not bring people to Christ simply by besting them in arguments. The real way to bring people to Christ is by the compelling example of our words, our actions and our attitudes reflecting God’s love and tolerance.

Video available on Youtube: Our words, our actions and our attitudes