20210602 THE RESURRECTED LIFE
02 June, 2021, Wednesday, 9th Week, Ordinary Time
First reading |
Tobit 3:1-11,16-17 © |
Raphael is sent to bring remedy to the house of Tobit
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.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 24(25):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 © |
The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is the God of the living
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.’
THE RESURRECTED LIFE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Tb 3:1-11,16-17; Ps 25:2-9; Mk 12:18-27 ]
In the gospel, some Sadducees came to Jesus intending to embarrass Him on His teaching on the resurrection, which they did not believe. These Sadducees came from the aristocratic and wealthy families. The priests belonged to this class with some leading lay members. They wielded power over the Temple and the people. They worked with the Romans to ensure their survival and their status quo. These Sadducees only accepted the first five books of the Jewish Scriptures, the Pentateuch. Contrary to the Pharisees and the Scribes, they rejected the rest of the written scriptures and obviously all the oral interpretation of the scriptures as well which the Pharisees and scribes gave high regard to. The primary reason why they rejected the doctrine of the resurrection was simply because Moses never taught it.
And to ridicule belief in the resurrection, they cited the Levirate marriage obligation found in the Law regarding the obligation of a man to marry the wife of his brother who died without having a child. He was required to marry the widow and raise a child on his brother’s behalf so that his family name could be continued and the property remained within the family. (cf Dt 25:5-10) So they posed an exaggerated hypothetical case to the Lord, “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?”
The denial of the resurrection of the body of course is not confined to the Sadducees of old. Even today, many do not believe in the resurrection of the body, even those who are believers in God, although most believers believe in some form of immortality of the soul after death, whether through reincarnation or transmigration. But today, there are many who even deny the continuity of the human person upon death. When one dies, he is taken back into the universe, returns to atoms and goes back to the atmosphere. There is no question of another form of life after death, much less the resurrection of the body.
The question of faith in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body is critical to how we live our life today. St Paul during his time, confronting the Christians on the fact of the resurrection said, “For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Cor 15:16-19) Indeed, if we do not have faith in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection, it has an impact on our ethical life.
The reason why many people without faith in God live individualistic and materialistic lives is simply because there is no real motivation to drive them to live their lives for others, since they have only one life to live. They only live for themselves and for this life, which is simply to enjoy and get as much pleasure out of it as possible, since we are only material beings and we do not have a soul or a spirit that lives on after death. This is not to say that all atheists have no moral values because they would still have a conscience, although in many instances because they do not believe in God, they have no moral reference point, and so their conscience tends to be uninformed, misinformed and sometimes warped. When we do not have faith in an after-life, it is more difficult to tell someone to make sacrifices, deny himself, and suffer for the greater good of others.
What, then, are the reasons for objecting to the doctrine of the resurrection? Jesus pinpointed two fundamental reasons for the lack of belief. He said, “Is not the reason why you go wrong, that you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God?” So the first obstacle of faith in the resurrection is faith in the power of God. Faith in God’s power of course presumes that you must first believe in God. If there is no faith in God, we cannot even speak about immortality or the resurrection of the body. So there is no question of speaking with someone who believes only in this life about the resurrection of the body. For them there is no future. There is no hope beyond this earth.
But if we have faith in God, then we must not delimit the power of God and reduce His power according to our imagination. God is greater than what we can think of Him, so says St Anselm of Canterbury in his proslogion on the ontological basis for the existence of God. This was the mistake of Tobit and Sarah in today’s first reading. They were in distress and understandably at their wits end. Tobit who was blinded by the droppings of a bird was frustrated with his life and asked God for an early departure, like most of us do when we find the challenges of life too overwhelming. So, too, was poor Sarah who, under the control of a demon, could never get married because the demon would slay the bridegroom even before they came to live together. She too thought of taking her life.
But fortunately, they did not take their life into their own hands, like many do today, either through suicide or euthanasia, when suffering becomes unbearable. As a result of their faith and their virtuous life, God answered their prayers, not as they asked, but He gave them something greater than what they could imagine. Eventually not only were Tobit’s eyes healed but he gained a beautiful daughter-in-law in Sarah. All ended well because they allowed God to work His miracles in their lives and did not insist on their own narrow perception of finding their own solutions to their woes. Indeed, this is the power of God. If God could work such miracles, He could even do more. Surely, God has power over death, the last and the greatest enemy of man. (1 Cor 15:26) God did not only prevent Tobit and Sarah from taking their lives but He can give us life even beyond death. God is a God of surprises. He can do things beyond our expectations.
Jesus, therefore, reprimanded the Sadducees for not understanding the power of God because they did not read the scriptures properly. Citing from the book of Exodus, which was believed by the Sadducees, He said “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.” So on that basis, the Patriarchs still live on. The scriptures, even if taken from the Pentateuch alone, make inference to life after death, as in the case of Enoch who walked with God without suffering the rapture of death. (Gn 5:24) When Abraham took Isaac to be sacrificed at Mount Moriah, he hinted to his servants that they would be back. Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” (Gn 22:5) The deliverance from Egypt and later on from exile in Babylon could be considered as a national resurrection.
But perhaps, the real rejection of the resurrection could be because of a wrong presentation of the after-life. Skeptics have often accused believers of projecting the present life to the future life, whether in terms of marriage as illustrated by the example of the Sadducees, or pleasures, abundance of food and drink, etc. These images have been used in scriptures but they are not literal portrayals of heaven. Rather, like the Lord, we must be reticent about what heaven is like except the fact that life would be complete. There will be eternal joy and communion of life and love. What kind of bodily existence we will have, St Paul said, “These are stupid questions” (1 Cor 15:35 JB) The resurrected life is beyond conception as Paul wrote, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Cor 2:9)
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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