Greetings on this the Wednesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: Tb 3:1-11a, 16-17a; Ps 25:2-3, 4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9; Mk 12:18-27
Notes: Deep distress requires a deeper answer.
The Lord brings relief for our afflictions in this life and has removed our final affliction of death to the promise of eternal life.
Tobit and Sarah both in deep distress in the story telling of the book of Tobit.
Tobit laments the oppression of the Assyrians, his blindness and his harsh words at his wife Anna.
He thinks about the causation.
He prays for death.
Sarah laments her intolerable marriage situation where seven men were unable to be husband and the continuous mockery of the maids.
She has no thought to the causation so incalculable is its cause.
She considers taking matters into her own hands by suicide but thinks better of it.
She prays for death.
It is a prayer of desperation.
It is beyond my power to change licitly and I feel the situation is unresolvable.
Then let me die.
Death seemed the better option to Tobit and Sarah.
We know that the second life of heaven is a part of the Jewish theology at that time so one should assume that both Tobit and Sarah have at least a passing thought to the restored life in the destination Tobit requests: let me go to the everlasting abode. The place where they are like the angels in heaven.
Their prayers and yours do rise to the Heavens.
Their prayers and yours are heard in the glorious presence of Almighty God.
They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength, they will soar on eagles’ wings; They will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint (ISA 40:31).
The ultimate answer of the Lord is the resurrection.
Troubles come and troubles go but the promise of life remains and its potency remains.
Death is powerless in the comparison to the promise of the everlasting abode.
Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, and put the ironic test to the Lord.
The sarcasm is intense and complete. No doubt the Sadducees knew the story of Tobit and Sarah and acted as if the moral of the story is void of potency.
They are accusing G-d of not only failing to answer the prayers of the woman with seven dead husbands but that even in the end death is the final outcome.
A death of annihilation.
Jesus said to them, “Are you not misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?
He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled.
First Reading
At that very time, the prayer of these two suppliants was heard in the glorious presence of Almighty God.
So Raphael was sent to heal them both: to remove the cataracts from Tobit’s eyes, so that he might again see God’s sunlight; and to marry Raguel’s daughter Sarah to Tobit’s son Tobiah, and then drive the wicked demon Asmodeus from her.
Responsorial
To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
Gospel Acclamation
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord; whoever believes in me will never die.
Gospel
I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
And of you.
And to the Lord and in the Lord you will live forever.
Hope in the Lord, for your ‘now’ and for your ‘forever’.
They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength, they will soar on eagles’ wings; They will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint (ISA 40:31).
Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry