THE WORD
2 Tim 1,1-3.6-12 / Mk 12,18-27
Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and put this question to him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, ‘If someone’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants. So the second married her and died, leaving no descendants, and the third likewise. And the seven left no descendants. Last of all the woman also died. At the resurrection (when they arise) whose wife will she be? For all seven had been married to her.”
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.”
IN OTHER WORDS
In the Book of Tobit, the young man,Tobiah, embarks on a journey together with angel Raphael and a dog to the house of Raguel in Ectabana who has a daughter named Sarah. This future bride has remained single because every time she is given in marriage, the night before the wedding, the bridegroom is attacked and killed by a demon called Asmodeus. The angel tells Tobiah not to worry; with a big fish’s liver and heart, the demon will be repelled.
The Sadducees could have referred to this story to strengthen their argument about the absurdity of the resurrection. If you are a widow with seven husbands all dead, who will be your real husband in the life to come? A reductio ad absurdum as it is called in Logic. Eternal life and the
resurrection of the dead are of a different logic, the logic of faith or the knowledge of the power ofGod as Jesus said.
Will there be marriage in heaven? “Till death do us part”—say the bride and bridegroom. At times, they would say that even death will not separate them. Mamahalin hanggang sa buhay na walang hanggan. This is neither to say that celibacy is the rule in heaven and that priests, nuns, and religious today are already practicing it here on earth.
The Gospel reading is not a teaching on marriage even if it is the first day of June. It is about the resurrection. Jesus here teaches that his Father is the God of life and thus death will not have the
final say on his Beloved Son. This text is one among many in Mark’s Gospel that prepares or orients us towards the Paschal Mystery. For the whole gospel is an extended introduction of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus.
- Fr. Randolf Flores, SVD | DWST, Tagaytay City
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
