9TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Psalter: Week 4 / (Green)
Ps 25:2-3, 4-5ab, 6 & 7bc, 8-9
To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
1st Reading: Tb 3:1-11a, 16-17a
Distressed, I wept and prayed and expressing my sorrow, I said, “You are just, O Lord; all your actions and all your ways are merciful and just; your judgments are always true and just. Remember me, Lord, and look on me. Do not punish me for my sins nor for the wrongs I have committed through ignorance. Pardon the sins which my fathers have committed in your sight, for they disobeyed your commandments. You have allowed us to suffer pillage, captivity and death. You have allowed us to be mocked by all the pagan nations among whom we have been dispersed. Ah well! All your judgments are just when you choose to punish me for my sins and those of my fathers, because we have not accomplished your will, nor have we sincerely obeyed your commands. We have not walked before you in truth.
Do with me as you will. Order my life taken from me, and turn me into dust, because I prefer death to life. In this way free me and let me return to dust. It is better for me to die than to live, because these unjust reproaches have caused me great distress. Command that I be now released from trials, and let me enter my eternal dwelling place. Do not turn your face away from me.”
That same day, at Ecbatana in Media, Sara, the daughter of Ragouel, was insulted in a similar way by her father’s young maidservants. Sara had had seven husbands, but the demon Asmodeus had killed each one of them before the marriage had been consummated. The maidservants said, “It was you who killed your husbands. You have had seven husbands and you have not enjoyed marital relationship with any of them. Why do you punish us? Since they are dead, go and join them. May we never see a son or daughter of yours!”
That same day Sara was so distressed in mind that she went to the upper room in her father’s house. She wished to hang herself. But she thought better of it and said: “If people ever reproached my father and said to him: ‘You had an only daughter whom you cherished and she hanged herself because she was unhappy,’ I would cause my father in his old age to die of grief. It is better for me not to hang myself but to ask the Lord that I may die and not live to hear any more insults.”
At that moment she stretched forth her hands towards the window and prayed, saying, “You are blessed, O Lord my God, and blessed is your holy and glorious name throughout the ages. May all your works praise you forever.
The Lord in his glory heard the prayer of Tobit and of Sara and he sent Raphael to heal them both—to give back his sight to Tobit and to give Sara, the daughter of Ragouel, to Tobit’s son Tobias, as his wife. Also, Raphael would enchain the wicked demon Asmodeus so that Sara would be the wife of Tobias, because she belonged to Tobias by right of inheritance.
At the same time Tobit, who had gone for a short walk, returned to the house; and Sara, the daughter of Ragouel, came down from the upper room.
Gospel: Mk 12:18-27
The Sadducees also came to Jesus. Since they claim that there is no resurrection, they questioned him in this way, “Master, in the Scriptures Moses gave us this law: If anyone dies and leaves a wife but no children, his brother must take the woman, and, with her, have a baby, who will be considered the child of his deceased brother. Now, there were seven brothers. The first married a wife, but he died without leaving any children. The second took the wife, and he also died, leaving no children. The same thing happened to the third. In fact, all seven brothers died, leaving no children. Last of all, the woman died. Now, in the resurrection, to which of them will she be wife? For all seven brothers had her as wife.”
Jesus replied, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God? When they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry, but are like the angels in heaven.
Now, about the resurrection of the dead, have you never had thoughts about the burning bush in the book of Moses? God said to Moses: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is the God, not of the dead, but of the living. You are totally wrong.”
REFLECTION:
The realities of the life to come are vastly different from that of the present age. That is why no one can talk about it better than He who is the author of such life. No wonder the opponents of Jesus have it all wrong. They judge the future with their present observation and experience. Even in the religious sphere, it is not the Word of God which is the norm but their own way of seeing things and their own judgment of them. And so, no consensus could either be achieved. Jesus brings the truth of heaven here on earth. But the people of the earth were adamant to hold on to their earthly truth.
It takes a humble heart to learn from others. It might be difficult to let go of the things we hold dear but the secret of being renewed is when we render ourselves obsolete every day. There is always a new possibility. Truth come to us with freshness and new ways of seeing it every day. We need not close ourselves to only one of the many. We can also enrich our understanding by considering new information revealed along the way. Thus our appreciation of the truth progresses and grows deeper in time.
Daily Reflection
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Biblical Texts are taken from Christian Community Bible, Catholic Pastoral Edition (57th Edition) The New English Translation for the ROMAN MISSAL
With permission from the EPISCOPAL COMMISION ON LITURGY of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines
Readings and Reflections
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