Scripture Reflection and Prayer : Journeying together

Thursday, 3 June 2021

REVERSAL BEYOND IMAGINATION

20210604 REVERSAL BEYOND IMAGINATION

04 June, 2021, Friday, 9th Week, Ordinary Time

First reading

Tobit 11:5-17 ©

Tobit's sight is restored to him

Anna was sitting, watching the road by which her son would come. She was sure at once it must be he and said to the father, ‘Here comes your son, with his companion.’

Raphael said to Tobias before he reached his father, ‘I give you my word that your father’s eyes will open. You must put the fish’s gall to his eyes; the medicine will smart and will draw a filmy white skin off his eyes. And your father will be able to see and look on the light.’

The mother ran forward and threw her arms round her son’s neck. ‘Now I can die,’ she said ‘I have seen you again.’ And she wept. Tobit rose to his feet and stumbled across the courtyard through the door. Tobias came on towards him (he had the fish’s gall in his hand). He blew into his eyes and said, steadying him, ‘Take courage, father!’ With this he applied the medicine, left it there a while, then with both hands peeled away a filmy skin from the corners of his eyes. Then his father fell on his neck and wept. He exclaimed, ‘I can see, my son, the light of my eyes!’ And he said:

‘Blessed be God!

Blessed be his great name!

Blessed be all his holy angels!

Blessed be his great name for evermore!

For he had scourged me

and now has had pity on me

and I see my son Tobias.’

Tobias went into the house, and with a loud voice joyfully blessed God. Then he told his father everything: how his journey had been successful and he had brought the silver back; how he had married Sarah, the daughter of Raguel; how she was following him now, close behind, and could not be far from the gates of Nineveh.

Tobit set off to the gates of Nineveh to meet his daughter-in-law, giving joyful praise to God as he went. When the people of Nineveh saw him walking without a guide and stepping forward as briskly as of old, they were astonished. Tobit described to them how God had taken pity on him and had opened his eyes. Then Tobit met Sarah, the bride of his son Tobias, and blessed her in these words, ‘Welcome, daughter! Blessed be your God for sending you to us, my daughter. Blessings on your father, blessings on my son Tobias, blessings on yourself, my daughter. Welcome now to your own house in joyfulness and in blessedness. Come in, my daughter.’ He held a feast that day for all the Jews of Nineveh.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 145(146):2,7-10 ©

My soul, give praise to the Lord.

Alleluia!

My soul, give praise to the Lord:

I will praise the Lord all my days,

make music to my God while I live.

My soul, give praise to the Lord.

Alleluia!

It is the Lord who keeps faith for ever,

who is just to those who are oppressed.

It is he who gives bread to the hungry,

the Lord, who sets prisoners free,

My soul, give praise to the Lord.

Alleluia!

It is the Lord who gives sight to the blind,

who raises up those who are bowed down,

the Lord, who protects the stranger

and upholds the widow and orphan.

My soul, give praise to the Lord.

Alleluia!

It is the Lord who loves the just

but thwarts the path of the wicked.

The Lord will reign for ever,

Zion’s God, from age to age.

My soul, give praise to the Lord.

Alleluia!

Gospel Acclamation

cf.Ps18:9

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your words gladden the heart, O Lord,

they give light to the eyes.

Alleluia!

Or:

Jn14:23

Alleluia, alleluia!

If anyone loves me he will keep my word,

and my Father will love him,

and we shall come to him.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Mark 12:35-37 ©

'David himself calls him Lord'

At that time while teaching in the Temple, Jesus said, ‘How can the scribes maintain that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, moved by the Holy Spirit, said:

The Lord said to my Lord:

Sit at my right hand

and I will put your enemies

under your feet.

David himself calls him Lord, in what way then can he be his son?’ And the great majority of the people heard this with delight.

REVERSAL BEYOND IMAGINATION

SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Tb 11:5-17; Ps 146:2,7-10; Mk 12:35-37 ]

The ending of the story of Tobit was beyond anyone’s expectations. His son came back home safely. Not only did he recover his eyesight, but he also gained a beautiful daughter-in-law. Sarah was also delivered from the oppression of the demon. Over and above these, he got back the silver he placed on trust with his cousin, Gabael at Rages in Media. The reversal in fortunes brought them great joy and happiness. It was certainly a comforting ending to a story on romance and living a virtuous life. They praised God for His mercy.

This, too, was the case of Jesus as well when He presented a conundrum to the scribes. The latter were supposed to be experts on the scriptures but when challenged, they could not provide an answer to Jesus’ question, “How can the scribes maintain that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, moved by the Holy Spirit, said: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand and I will put your enemies under your feet. David himself calls him Lord, in what way then can he be his son?”

What was the implication of His question? The dilemma was that the Anointed One was supposed to be the Son of David so that his dynasty could continue in him. This would be a fulfillment of the prophecy of 2 Samuel 7:11-16 that David’s line would continue in perpetuity. It was the popular expectation that the Messiah would be a descendent of David. Hence, David was regarded as a Messianic title. In Mark, ironically, Jesus was addressed by a blind beggar as the Son of David, which He did not reject. (Mark 10:46-52) However, in the mind of Jesus, the Messiah, if He were the Son of David, was more than just a fulfillment of the hopes and promises of the Davidic Kingdom. So the real issue was not regarding the Messiah’s line of descent. That was presumed.

Rather, it concerned the nature of the Messiah’s kingship. Indeed, if David called the Messiah his Lord, then the kingdom of David would no longer be the model for the Messiah’s rule. It implies that the kingdom to be established by David’s son, the future Messiah, could be a kingdom of a higher measure than that of David’s own kingdom. The Messiah would not just restore the Kingdom of David but would go even beyond what the Kingdom of David was. Consequently, the rule of David was just a type of the Messianic kingdom to come. The Messianic kingdom would be wider and greater beyond all expectations the Jews had of the kingdom of David. It would be based on a different set of criteria than just politics and territory, but it would cut across nations, races, languages and cultures.

Indeed, the reference to Psalm 110 corrects the popular understanding of the role and nature of the Messiahship. The Jews expected a political and perhaps military Messiah who would help them to overthrow the power of Rome. Instead, this Messiah, who is addressed as the Lord by King David, would also be a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek, bearing in mind that the latter was not an Israelite but a pagan priest from Canaan. So this Messianic king is distinguished from David because he would be not just a king but a priest as well. Hence, the Messiah could not just be merely a man or an ordinary human king because he was also David’s Lord.

But how could this be realized? The fact is that no one had the answer because they did not know the true identity of our Lord. Of course we know from hindsight that Jesus was referring to Himself. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of David. This explains why the Lord said that the prophecy of King David was inspired by the Holy Spirit. “David, himself, moved by the Holy Spirit, said: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand and I will put your enemies under your feet.” Indeed, only in Christ could the prophecy be fulfilled, for the Messiah would be the judge of all nations. “The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations.” (Ps 110:5f) All the ends of the earth would acknowledge His kingship and as the judge of all men. Christ, by His death and resurrection, was given the glory of the Father to judge the world.

In asking them this question, Jesus was giving them the hint to His authority, a question which was put to Him by the authorities in Jerusalem after He cleansed the Temple. His ability to answer the question posed to Him with regard to the payment of taxes to Caesar in an amazing manner (Mk 12:13-17), His orthodox response to the question of the resurrection in the Old Testament (Mk 12: 18-27) and His wise answer to the question of what was the greatest commandment, (Mk 12:28-34) all showed that Jesus was a man of His own authority. His ability to surprise them with answers to their trick questions, silencing them, indicated that Jesus was certainly more than the Son of David. On the contrary, He was more. He was David’s Lord and of course the Messiah, not according to the limited historical and nationalistic perspective of the Jews but the global understanding of His kingship. He was certainly more than just a conquering military Messiah, establishing an earthly kingdom, but He would be the one to establish God’s kingdom over the whole world.

Jesus was the eternally begotten Son of God, of the Father. He was greater than any king on this earth. He would extend the rule of God to the ends of the earth and build a kingdom that rules the hearts and minds of man, not of lands. He would come to free us from sin, from evil and most of all, from death. Furthermore, He is the High Priest of the New Covenant, as the letter of Hebrews instructs us. “We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up.” (Heb 8:1f)

In the light of today’s scripture readings, we too are challenged to reframe our understanding of how God works in our lives. Often, our perception of Him is rather narrow and limited by our world view, our presuppositions and our lack of faith in His power and wisdom. We tend to reduce God to our level and make Him think the way we do, even though Isaiah wrote, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa 55:8f) Indeed, only God sees everything. Our apprehension of His love, mercy and justice are totally inadequate.

This is why we must rely on the wisdom and power of God, as St Paul urges us. “Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, “these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” (1 Cor 2:6-10)

Hence, we must not be too discouraged when things do not turn out the way we want, just as in the case of Tobit. He remained firm in the Lord and lived a virtuous and honest life even though he thought that the most merciful way for the Lord would be to take his life. He felt that his sufferings were too much for him to handle, or for God to help him. Sarah too felt that way. But they were wrong. God is able to do much more than we can imagine. God was waiting for the right moment to intervene in the life of Tobit and of Sarah. God had prepared the angel Raphael to help Tobit and Sarah. All these were already planned and arranged by the Lord. He knew what they needed and when to help them. Let us therefore entrust our lives to the Lord with confidence and faith.

Wednesday, 2 June 2021

PERFECT LOVE AS THE ULTIMATE MEANING OF EXISTENCE

20210603 PERFECT LOVE AS THE ULTIMATE MEANING OF EXISTENCE

03 June, 2021, Thursday, 9th Week, Ordinary Time

First reading

Tobit 6:10-11,7:1,9-14,8:4-9 ©

'We must pray and petition the Lord'

Raphael and Tobit entered Media and had nearly reached Ecbetana when Raphael said to the boy, ‘Brother Tobias.’ ‘Yes?’ he answered. The angel went on, ‘Tonight we shall be staying with Raguel, who is a kinsman of yours. He has a daughter called Sarah, but apart from Sarah he has no other son or daughter.’

As they entered Ecbatana, Tobias said, ‘Brother Azarias, take me at once to our brother Raguel’s.’ And he showed him the way to the house of Raguel, whom they found sitting beside his courtyard door. They greeted him first, and he replied, ‘Welcome and greetings, brothers.’ And he took them into his house. He said to his wife Edna, ‘How like my brother Tobit this young man is!’ Raguel killed a sheep from the flock, and they gave them a warm-hearted welcome.

They washed and bathed and sat down to table. Then Tobias said to Raphael, ‘Brother Azarias, will you ask Raguel to give me my sister Sarah?’ Raguel overheard the words, and said to the young man, ‘Eat and drink, and make the most of your evening; no one else has the right to take my daughter Sarah – no one but you, my brother. In any case I, for my own part, am not at liberty to give her to anyone else, since you are her next of kin. However, my boy, I must be frank with you: I have tried to find a husband for her seven times among our kinsmen, and all of them have died the first evening, on going to her room. But for the present, my boy, eat and drink; the Lord will grant you his grace and peace.’ Tobias spoke out, ‘I will not hear of eating and drinking till you have come to a decision about me.’ Raguel answered, ‘Very well. Since, as prescribed by the Book of Moses, she is given to you, heaven itself decrees she shall be yours. I therefore entrust your sister to you. From now you are her brother and she is your sister. She is given to you from today for ever. The Lord of heaven favour you tonight, my child, and grant you his grace and peace.’ Raguel called for his daughter Sarah, took her by the hand and gave her to Tobias with these words, ‘I entrust her to you; the law and the ruling recorded in the Book of Moses assign her to you as your wife. Take her; take her home to your father’s house with a good conscience. The God of heaven grant you a good journey in peace.’ Then he turned to her mother and asked her to fetch him writing paper. He drew up the marriage contract, how he gave his daughter as bride to Tobias according to the ordinance in the Law of Moses.

After this they began to eat and drink. The parents, meanwhile, had gone out and shut the door behind them. Tobias rose from the bed, and said to Sarah, ‘Get up, my sister! You and I must pray and petition our Lord to win his grace and his protection.’ She stood up, and they began praying for protection, and this was how he began:

‘You are blessed, O God of our fathers;

blessed, too, is your name

for ever and ever.

Let the heavens bless you

and all things you have made

for evermore.

It was you who created Adam,

you who created Eve his wife

to be his help and support;

and from these two the human race was born.

It was you who said,

“It is not good that the man should be alone;

let us make him a helpmate like himself.”

And so I do not take my sister

for any lustful motive;

I do it in singleness of heart.

Be kind enough to have pity on her and on me

and bring us to old age together.’

And together they said, ‘Amen, Amen’, and lay down for the night.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 127(128):1-5 ©

O blessed are those who fear the Lord.

O blessed are those who fear the Lord

and walk in his ways!

By the labour of your hands you shall eat.

You will be happy and prosper.

O blessed are those who fear the Lord.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine

in the heart of your house;

your children like shoots of the olive,

around your table.

O blessed are those who fear the Lord.

Indeed thus shall be blessed

the man who fears the Lord.

May the Lord bless you from Zion

all the days of your life!

O blessed are those who fear the Lord.

Gospel Acclamation

cf.Jn6:63,68

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life;

you have the message of eternal life.

Alleluia!

Or:

cf.2Tim1:10

Alleluia, alleluia!

Our Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death

and he has proclaimed life through the Good News.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Mark 12:28-34 ©

'You are not far from the kingdom of God'

One of the scribes came up to Jesus and put a question to him, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’ Jesus replied, ‘This is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’ The scribe said to him, ‘Well spoken, Master; what you have said is true: that he is one and there is no other. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any holocaust or sacrifice.’ Jesus, seeing how wisely he had spoken, said, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ And after that no one dared to question him any more.

PERFECT LOVE AS THE ULTIMATE MEANING OF EXISTENCE

SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Tb 6:10-11; 7:1. 9-14; 8:4-9; Ps 128:1-5; Mk 12:28-34 ]

Many of us often miss the forest for the trees. We are so preoccupied with our daily struggles in life, worldly pursuits, enticed by the pleasures of life, seeking attention and popularity, that we just drift along each day without asking the fundamental question of the meaning of existence. This is even true of people with faith in God. We observe all the laws and rituals of our religion meticulously, and often blindly, without asking what we are doing and why we are doing what we do, so much so that we just mechanically fulfill our religious duties. Then one day, we begin to ask why we are doing all these things which appear to be meaningless and a waste of time.

In the gospel, we have an honest and sincere seeker of the truth in the person of the scribe who asked our Lord, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” In other words, he was asking about the ultimate purpose of life. He must have been impressed by the Lord’s knowledge of scriptures and how He rebutted the Sadducees on the doctrine of the resurrection using the text from the Torah itself, namely, the Book of Exodus 3:6. This scribe was genuinely seeking the ultimate purpose in life, because in his tradition, there were so many laws to observe. Altogether, the Rabbinic tradition listed 613 commandments, of which 248 were positive commands and 365 prohibitions. Of course, among so many, there were more weightier laws than others. Hence, the question, among all these laws, which was the most important law. Or rather, can all these laws be summed up in one fundamental law that captures the essence of all the elaborated laws?

Jesus ingeniously enlightened the scribe on what was most fundamental in the law. If there was only one word, it is love. St Paul and St Augustine said similar things, that love is the fulfillment of the law. (Rom 13:10) St Augustine said, “love and do what you will.” So Jesus’ answer was clear and concise. “This is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this, you must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” Instead of giving only one commandment, the Lord gave two, because both in truth are two faces of the same love. The ingenuity of our Lord was to place these two commandments found in Deuteronomy 6:5 side by side with the other commandment taken from Leviticus 19:18.

Yet in truth, the first commandment is more than just a commandment. It is the foundational creed of every Israelite and Jew, and for us all. Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength is more than just a psychological analysis of the human person but it calls for a total dedication of one’s entire being. The love of God demands that we give ourselves entirely to Him simply because He is God, the Ultimate, the Life-giver, the Creator, the Deliverer. Without God, we do not exist. Our lives are dependent on His divine providence, mercy and grace. Loving God, therefore, is not just using our mind to think about Him, or feeling loving towards Him in our heart, or using our strength to worship Him and to serve Him. It is to use our entire being, body and soul to love Him and serve Him.

This explains why every Jew begins his day and his prayers with the Shema, the first word of the first commandment, “Hear!” If only we realize this, our lives would have been more orientated. Today, many have no purpose in life because they do not know their origin and their destiny. By rejecting God in their life, there is no basis for their presence in the world. Man is just placed there by chance, at random because of the atoms. He has no purpose in life, other than to just try to survive, keep alive, enjoy and then disappear.

However, the commandment to love God with our entire being must be expressed in our love for our neighbours. Because we are created in the image of God, and His essence is love, so we too are called to imitate God by loving our neighbours as we love ourselves. There is no conflict between the love of God and love of neighbor. The Old Testament prophets all speak about the close relationship between true worship of God and social justice. King David summed up the Law in Ps 15:1-5 as living a blameless life. The prophets Isaiah, Micah all insisted on the need to practise social justice and live a life of integrity. (Isa 33:15; 56:1; Mic 6:8) Even the scribe saw the importance of loving one’s neighbor, putting it above empty ritualistic worship and offering of sacrifices when he agreed with Jesus and added, “Well spoken, Master; what you have said is true: that he is one and there is no other. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any holocaust or sacrifice.”

And the evangelist noted, “Jesus seeing how wisely he had spoken, said, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.'” Why was he not far from the Kingdom? It was because he was a sincere seeker of truth. He was not afraid to accept the truth from someone who was not among his peers. He trusted in Jesus and saw in Him an enlightened man of God. Indeed, unless we Catholics are as courageous to inquire further into our faith, we will be far from the kingdom of God. The truly religious man asks deeply religious questions which often deal with truth, meaning, love and life. When we do not ask such fundamental questions, we will live superficially, as many of us do. We only ask them when we are confronted with life and death issues, such as a failed relationship or a tragic event.

However, he was not yet in the kingdom of God. Why? Because whilst he knew the principles of life and love, he had not yet gone deep enough to ask more soul-searching questions. In the first place, if he truly believed in the first commandment “the Lord our God is the one Lord”, what would his relationship be like towards the other nations? Would faith in this one God who is the Lord of all, mean that this God is also the God of other believers, even if they do not know Him explicitly or fully? The problem with the Jews was that they thought they were the only Chosen People of God and the rest did not deserve to be saved. It was only during the later part of Israel’s history that the prophets gradually enlightened them that Israel was meant to be the light for all the nations. (Isa 42:6f) What implications does it have for us Christians in our relationship with non-Christians, people of other faiths and even atheists and agnostics? They too are loved by God, and as St Paul says God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim 2:4f)

Secondly, who was his neighbor? In the story of the Good Samaritan, we found that the Jews had difficulty in extending the commandment of Leviticus 19:18 to those outside their community, or those living in their midst. They were considered to be their enemies, and therefore undeserving of their love. Their understanding of neigbour was restricted to people of their own kind. It was too narrow because for Jesus, whoever is in need is our neighbor, even our enemies. We are called to love them. (Mt 5:43-48; Lk 10:25-37) But we cannot. Only Jesus can give us the capacity to love like Him. But the young man had not yet come to full faith in the Lord.

The first reading from the Book of Tobit gives us the model of perfect love of God and neighbor in the Sacrament of marriage. It was clear that Tobias did not marry Sarah out of lust but love, and both loved each other for the sake of God. Perhaps, the other men earlier died because they wanted Sarah out of lust. St Augustine sums up so aptly when he wrote, “Let us not ask how much love we ought to spend upon our brother and how much upon God: incomparably more upon God than upon ourselves, but upon our brother as much as upon ourselves; and we love ourselves more, the more we love God. Therefore we love God and our neighbor from one and the same love; but we love God for his own sake, and ourselves and our neighbors for the sake of God.” (De Trinitate, VIII, 12 ; PL 42, 958)

Tuesday, 1 June 2021

THE RESURRECTED LIFE

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

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

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)