LOVE SUSTAINS US IN OUR FAITH WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH

20150603 LOVE SUSTAINS US IN OUR FAITH WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH

Readings at Mass

First reading

Tobit 3:1-11,16-17 ©

Sad at heart, I, Tobit, sighed and wept, and began this prayer of lamentation:

‘You are just, O Lord,

and just are all your works.

All your ways are grace and truth,

and you are the Judge of the world.

‘Therefore, Lord, remember me, look on me.

Do not punish me for my sins

or for my heedless faults

or for those of my fathers.

‘For we have sinned against you

and broken your commandments;

and you have given us over to be plundered,

to captivity and death,

to be the talk, the laughing-stock and scorn

of all the nations among whom you have dispersed us.

‘Whereas all your decrees are true

when you deal with me as my faults deserve,

and those of my fathers,

since we have neither kept your commandments

nor walked in truth before you;

so now, do with me as you will;

be pleased to take my life from me;

I desire to be delivered from earth

and to become earth again.

For death is better for me than life.

I have been reviled without a cause

and I am distressed beyond measure.

‘Lord, I wait for the sentence you will give

to deliver me from this affliction.

Let me go away to my everlasting home;

do not turn your face from me, O Lord.

For it is better to die than still to live

in the face of trouble that knows no pity;

I am weary of hearing myself traduced.’

It chanced on the same day that Sarah the daughter of Raguel, who lived in Media at Ecbatana, also heard insults from one of her father’s maids. You must know that she had been given in marriage seven times, and that Asmodeus, that worst of demons, had killed her bridegrooms one after another before ever they had slept with her as man with wife. The servant-girl said, ‘Yes, you kill your bridegrooms yourself. That makes seven already to whom you have been given, and you have not once been in luck yet. Just because your bridegrooms have died, that is no reason for punishing us. Go and join them, and may we be spared the sight of any child of yours!’ That day, she grieved, she sobbed, and went up to her father’s room intending to hang herself. But then she thought, ‘Suppose they blamed my father! They will say, “You had an only daughter whom you loved, and now she has hanged herself for grief.” I cannot cause my father a sorrow which would bring down his old age to the dwelling of the dead. I should do better not to hang myself, but to beg the Lord to let me die and not live to hear any more insults.’

  This time the prayer of each of them found favour before the glory of God, and Raphael was sent to bring remedy to them both. He was to take the white spots from the eyes of Tobit, so that he might see God’s light with his own eyes; and he was to give Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, as bride to Tobias son of Tobit, and to rid her of Asmodeus, that worst of demons. For it was to Tobias before all other suitors that she belonged by right. Tobit was coming back from the courtyard into the house at the same moment as Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, was coming down from the upper room.

Psalm

Psalm 24:2-9 ©

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

  I trust you, let me not be disappointed;

  do not let my enemies triumph.

Those who hope in you shall not be disappointed,

  but only those who wantonly break faith.

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

Lord, make me know your ways.

  Lord, teach me your paths.

Make me walk in your truth, and teach me:

  for you are God my saviour.

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

In you I hope all day long

  because of your goodness, O Lord.

Remember your mercy, Lord,

  and the love you have shown from of old.

Do not remember the sins of my youth.

  In your love remember me.

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

The Lord is good and upright.

  He shows the path to those who stray,

He guides the humble in the right path,

  He teaches his way to the poor.

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

Gospel Acclamation

Jn17:17

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your word is truth, O Lord:

consecrate us in the truth.

Alleluia!

Or	Jn11:25, 26

Alleluia, alleluia!

I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;

whoever believes in me will never die.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Mark 12:18-27 ©

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.’

LOVE SUSTAINS US IN OUR FAITH WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH

SCRIPTURE READINGS: TB 3:1-11. 16-17; MK 12:18-27

The first reading from the Book of Tobit presents to us how faith is sustained by prayer and the love of God.  We can empathize with Tobit in his distress.  In spite of his generosity and good life, apparently, instead of receiving blessings, he met misfortune, one after another.  We often think good things happen to good men and bad things to bad men.  Obviously this was not the case.  Tobit suffered tragedy after tragedy.   So, too, did Sarah.   Nothing seemed to work for her.  Although given in marriage seven times, the demon killed her bridegrooms one after another so much so she was cursed by everyone, even by her maid!  She was made to feel responsible for their deaths when the servant girl accused her saying, “’Yes, you kill your bridegrooms yourself.  That makes seven already to whom you have been given, and you have not once been in luck yet.  Just because your bridegrooms have died, that is no reason for punishing us.”  The last straw was that she was even cursed by a lowly servant, “Go and join them, and may we be spared the sight of any child of yours!”

In such a situation, we can understand why both Tobit and Sarah felt that there is no more meaning in life.  There is no longer any purpose to live for.  Instead of bringing joy into the lives of people and their loved ones, they only brought pain and curses.  If we were in their shoes, we too would also wish that we could die earlier.  That was the prayer of Tobit when he said, “So now, do with me as you will; be pleased to take my life from me; I desire to be delivered from earth and to become earth again. For death is better for me than life. I have been reviled without a cause and I am distressed beyond measure. Lord, I wait for the sentence you will give to deliver me from this affliction. Let me go away to my everlasting home; do not turn your face from me, O Lord. For it is better to die than still to live in the face of trouble that knows no pity; I am weary of hearing myself traduced.”  Sarah said a similar prayer, “I cannot cause my father a sorrow which would bring down his old age to the dwelling of the dead.  I should do better not to hang myself, but to beg the Lord to let me die and not live to hear any more insults.”

If we can identify with them, then at least we will never pass judgment on those who commit suicide even though objectively it is a sin.  We will never know how much they had gone through to find the courage to end their lives.  In such a psychological and emotional state of distress and hopelessness, it is not surprising that they were left without a choice but to end their suffering on this earth. Of course, with God’s grace, not all resort to ending their lives although we may harbor thoughts now and then that God would take away our suffering by giving us an early exit from this earth.  Indeed, sometimes, the sufferings of this earth are just too unbearable and worse, as it is said, they don’t come singly.  Those who are psychologically depressed and emotionally wounded should receive compassion from us rather than condemnation and worse, curses, as Sarah received.

Yet there is a certain quality in Tobit and Sarah – even in their prayers to God to release them from the suffering in this life on earth, they never blamed God for their miseries.  Instead, Tobit subscribed his suffering to the consequences of the sins of his ancestors and to his own.  Instead of blaming people and situations, he recognized his fair share of the consequences of his sins.  He said, “Therefore, Lord, remember me, look on me. Do not punish me for my sins or for my heedless faults or for those of my fathers.  ‘For we have sinned against you and broken your commandments; and you have given us over to be plundered, to captivity and death, to be the talk, the laughing-stock and scorn of all the nations among whom you have dispersed us.”

We too should be behooved to remember that in our suffering we are not completely exonerated from blame.  We too could have consciously or unconsciously hurt others by our words and actions.  We too could have hurt many people in our lives.  The truth is that we sow what we reap.   So, like them, when we are suffering, it is good to identify with those whom we have hurt in our lives so that we too can feel with them in their sufferings.   And even if we did not hurt them consciously, knowing that they have been hurt itself is useful in nurturing compassion and forgiveness.  At any rate, all our sins do have consequences not only for ourselves but for others, especially our loved ones. “Whereas all your decrees are true when you deal with me as my faults deserve, and those of my fathers, since we have neither kept your commandments nor walked in truth before you.” In the event of trouble and misfortune, instead of blaming God or others, let us look into ourselves.

Thus, it is right that we should pray for the healing of our family tree as Tobit did.  We must first begin by asking forgiveness for our own sins and then that of our ancestors and our family members and relatives.  This invitation to pray for both the living and the dead is supported by today’s gospel when Jesus spoke of the resurrection of the dead.  “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.”  If we continue to pray for the dead and pray to the saints, as well as for the living, it is because we believe in the continuity of life even after death and that our prayers have effects on each other.  The doctrine of the communion of saints is rooted in our faith, not just in immortality of the soul but also in the resurrection of the dead. While stressing the continuity, the resurrection also speaks of a discontinuity because the next life is one of transformation.

Consequently, as Christians, we live in hope.  For those who do not believe in God or in the resurrection, their only life is on this earth.  This explains why today secularism has resulted in both materialism and relativism as people do not have a hope beyond this life.  Since there is only one life, they want to enjoy everything, even immoral acts, because they are mistaken into believing that after death, life is no more.  Yet, deep in the hearts of every human person, if we believe in love, we want love to last forever.  If love cannot last beyond this life, then this life is meaningless.  In man’s heart, we want to be with our loved ones forever.  If that were not so, there is no reason for us to hold funeral wakes or memorial services, or even have cemeteries and columbaria, since the dead can no longer communicate with us.   That being the case, funerals are not for the dead but for the living, and it is not celebrated in hope because our lives too will end, rich or poor, in nihilism.  Life becomes a joke and vanity.  As Christians, we believe in the resurrection of the body, and therefore the continuity of life and love even after death.  God’s love for us ensures that life and love will never end.  Hence, what is not fully realized on this earth will come to completion in the next.

But this also has serious implications for us as well.  If life were to continue beyond death, then it would be a great disaster to think that committing suicide is the way out of misery.  On the contrary, it is to perpetuate the same misery in a more intensive way in the next life as we bring our hatred, anger, vindictiveness and attachments into the next world.  We allow the past and the things of this world to hold us bondage and therefore such a person would not be able to let go and return to the bosom of our heavenly Father.   So today, let us follow Tobit and Sarah by turning to the Lord in prayer for healing.  God will send Raphael the Archangel to heal us, body, soul and spirit.  Instead of succumbing to despair, let us have confidence that God always hears our prayer.  He shows that even though both Tobit and Sarah were living far away from each other, yet God knows in His divine wisdom how to heal our pains and bring to completion our hope, aspirations and dreams.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore

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