 |
| “The Archangel Raphael Refusing Tobias's Gift” by Giovanni Bilivert, 1612 |
Readings and
Commentary:[3]
Reading 1: Tobit 3:1-11a, 16-17a
Grief-stricken in
spirit, I, Tobit, groaned and wept aloud.
Then with sobs I began
to pray:
"You are righteous,
O Lord,
and all your deeds are
just;
All your ways are mercy
and truth;
you are the judge of the
world.
And now, O Lord, may you
be mindful of me,
and look with favor upon
me.
Punish me not for my
sins,
nor for my inadvertent
offenses,
nor for those of my
ancestors.
"We sinned against
you,
and disobeyed your
commandments.
So you handed us over to
plundering, exile, and death,
till you made us the
talk and reproach of all the nations
among whom you had
dispersed us.
"Yes, your
judgments are many and true
in dealing with me as my
sins
and those of my
ancestors deserve.
For we have not kept
your commandments,
nor have we trodden the
paths of truth before you.
"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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Tb 3:1-11a, 16-17a
We take up the story of
Tobit once more. In the beginning of this passage we hear Tobit’s prayer
of penitence probably stimulated by the chastisement he received from his wife
at the end of the previous chapter. (It is also likely that his mood was
amplified by his malady which he would interpret as a punishment from God for
his sins and the sins of his forebears.)
While the prayer of
Tobit rises we begin to hear the story of Sarah whose part in the story becomes
important. She too has suffered chastisement (note: we see more evidence
here of the influence of Near Eastern myth at the introduction of the demon
Asmodeus as the murderer of Sarah’s seven husbands.) The number seven is in
Hebrew Numerology the perfect number. In her sorrow, she also turns to prayer
and both prayers reach God who decides to intervene. He sends the
Archangel Raphael to heal both their hurts and to intertwine their fates.
CCC: Tb
3:11-16 2585
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responsorial
Psalm: Psalm 25:2-3, 4-5ab, 6
and 7bc, 8-9
R. (1) To you, O Lord, I lift my
soul.
In you I trust; let me
not be put to shame,
let not my enemies exult
over me.
No one who waits for you
shall be put to shame;
those shall be put to
shame who heedlessly break faith.
R. To you, O Lord, I
lift my soul.
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.
R. To you, O Lord, I
lift my soul.
Remember that your
compassion, O LORD,
and your kindness are
from of old.
In your kindness
remember me,
because of your
goodness, O LORD.
R. To you, O Lord, I
lift my soul.
Good and upright is the
LORD;
thus he shows sinners
the way.
He guides the humble to
justice,
he teaches the humble
his way.
R. To you, O Lord, I
lift my soul.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Ps 25:2-3, 4-5ab, 6 and
7bc, 8-9
Psalm 25 is an
individual lament. The sinful psalmist prays that “Your ways” be made known. This request directs us to repentance and
ultimately justice. In the first strophe of this hymn of thanksgiving we hear
support for our belief that God did indeed answer the prayers of Tobit and
Sarah Tobit 3:1-11a, 16-17a. Their trust was justified. The song continues
as an individual prayer asking for guidance and salvation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gospel: Mark 12:18-27
Some Sadducees, who say
there is no resurrection,
came to Jesus 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 brother
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."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Mk 12:18-27
The Sadducees are
approaching Jesus in this passage with a twofold attack against his teaching on
the resurrection (Sadducees, as a group, do not hold with the theology of
resurrection of the dead). First they ask Jesus to solve the puzzle of to whom
the widow of seven husbands would be married in heaven. (It is likely this
example was taken from Tobit 3:8) Jesus chides them for their lack of understanding,
telling them that life in the Kingdom of Heaven transcends life in the
body. He then goes further attacking their disbelief in the resurrection
by quoting Exodus 3; 6 telling them the Father is the God of the
living not the dead.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection:
There are a number of
elements of our faith that are open to attack from the purely physical and
pragmatic side of our intellect. Jesus enters into a debate with the
Sadducees about one of these in the story from St. Mark’s Gospel today.
The question begged of our faith is: “Is there resurrection of the dead and
what will it be like?”
Looking at it from a
purely physical perspective, the question is logical. When our bodies
die, they return to their basic elements. That is scientific fact.
So how can we say we believe in the “resurrection of the body” as we, in our creed,
profess? We can go further. What about the faith-filled person who
suffers some serious physical disability? Will that person be resurrected
in a body crippled by disease or defect? Will the God of Mercy condemn
that person to an eternity of suffering?
As Jesus points out to
the “greatly misled” Sadducees, the Heavenly Father is not God of the dead, but
of the living, alive in the glorified state of the resurrection. This
glorified state is one in which there is no physical pain or suffering. We
see this in Jesus' return to the disciples in the locked room. He
displayed all of the wounds of his passion, yet was not troubled by them.
In the same way, we see
that the bonds of love we establish on earth do not unravel with death.
Rather they are perfected in the Heavenly Kingdom where God, who
is love, infuses all creation with his perfect love. We are reunited with
those who have gone before us in faith, spirit to spirit, joined in praising
the God of all mercies endlessly.
Eternity is a long time
if it is seen through the eyes of modern physics (space-time). We must
deduce that it is not experienced as time is experienced on earth, just as the glorified
body is not manifested in the same way as our mortal bodies. It is
necessary for us to accept what we cannot see or experience on faith, faith and
confidence that God will give us a share of
that Heavenly Kingdom he promised through His Only Son in the
new resurrection.
Pax
[1]
The picture is “The Archangel Raphael Refusing
Tobias's Gift” by Giovanni Bilivert, 1612
[3] The readings are taken from the New American Bible with the
exception of the Psalm and its re sponse
which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy
(ICEL). This re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private
use only.
No comments:
Post a Comment