Contemplating today's Gospel
Today's Gospel + homily (in 300 words)
»So now, deal with me as you please, and command my life breath to be taken from me, that I may go from the face of the earth into dust. It is better for me to die than to live, because I have heard insulting calumnies, and I am overwhelmed with grief. Lord, command me to be delivered from such anguish; let me go to the everlasting abode. Lord, refuse me not. For it is better for me to die than to endure so much misery in life, and to hear these insults!».
On the same day, at Ecbatana in Media, it so happened that Raguel’s daughter Sarah also had to listen to abuse, from one of her father’s maids. For she had been married to seven husbands, but the wicked demon Asmodeus killed them off before they could have intercourse with her, as it is prescribed for wives. So the maid said to her: «You are the one who strangles your husbands! Look at you! You have already been married seven times, but you have had no joy with any one of your husbands. Why do you beat us? Is it on account of your seven husbands, because they are dead? May we never see a son or daughter of yours!».
The girl was deeply saddened that day, and she went into an upper chamber of her house, where she planned to hang herself. But she reconsidered, saying to herself: «No! People would level this insult against my father: ‘You had only one beloved daughter, but she hanged herself because of ill fortune!’. And thus would I cause my father in his old age to go down to the nether world laden with sorrow. It is far better for me not to hang myself, but to beg the Lord to have me die, so that I need no longer live to hear such insults». At that time, then, she spread out her hands, and facing the window, poured out her prayer: «Blessed are you, o Lord, merciful God, and blessed is your holy and honorable name. Blessed are you in all your works for ever!».
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.
Your ways, o Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior.
Remember that your compassion, o Lord, and your kindness are from of old. In your kindness remember me, because of your goodness, o Lord.
Good and upright is the Lord; thus he shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice, he teaches the humble his way.
Jesus said to them, "Are you not misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven. As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God told him, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled."
“He is not God of the dead but of the living”
Fr. Federico Elías ALCAMÁN Riffo (Puchuncaví - Valparaíso, Chile)Today, the Holy Church puts at our disposal —through Christ's words— the reality of resurrection and the properties of resurrected bodies. The Gospel mentions Jesus' meeting with the Sadducees who, with a hypothetical and out-of-the-way example, present Jesus with a question about the resurrection of the dead, which they do not believe in, anyway.
They ask him, should a woman be widowed seven times, “at the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be? For all seven had been married to her." (Mk 12:23). They were just trying to deride Jesus' doctrine. But, the Lord, just breaks this difficulty up by answering, “when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven” (Mk 12:25).
And, taking advantage of the opportunity, Our Lord reaffirms the existence of resurrection by mentioning what God told Moses in the chapter of the burning bush: “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?” And He adds, “He is not God of the dead but of the living” (Mk 12:26-27). Jesus also tells them how wrong they are, because they understand neither the Scriptures nor the power of God; what is more, this truth was already revealed in the Old Testament, for others, like Isaiah, the Macchabees' mother or even Job, already said it.
St. Augustine described the eternal life and the loving communion, like this: “There, you will have everything and you will not have limits or suffer any hardships, and your brother will also have everything; because you two will just become one and this one, will also own He Who will have you both.”
Far from doubting of the Holy Scriptures and of God's merciful love and power, we shall adhere with all our mind and heart to this hopeful truth, while rejoicing for not being thwarted in our thirst of life, full and eternal, which the same God assures us, in its glory and happiness. Before this divine invitation we have nothing to do but to foment our anxious wish to see God, and to be always next to Him, in his Kingdom.
Thoughts on Today's Gospel
“For if on earth He healed the sicknesses of the flesh, and made the body whole, much more will He do this in the resurrection, so that the flesh shall rise perfect and entire” (Saint Justin)
“He is the complete man as he is placed in this world, as he has lived and suffered, who will one day be taken into God's eternity and will have a part in God himself, for eternity. This is what should fill us with deep joy.” (Benedict XVI)
“The Pharisees and many of the Lord's contemporaries hoped for the resurrection. Jesus teaches it firmly. To the Sadducees who deny it he answers, ‘Is not this why you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God?’ (Mk 12:24). Faith in the resurrection rests on faith in God who ‘is not God of the dead, but of the living’ (Mk 12:27).” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nº 993)
