June 6, 2007 Wednesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

  2007년 6월 6일 연중 제9주간 수요일

 

 제1독서 토빗기 3,1-11ㄱ.16-17ㄱ
그 무렵 1 나 토빗은 마음이 몹시 괴로워 탄식하며 울었다. 그리고 탄식 속에서 기도하기 시작하였다.
2 “주님, 당신께서는 의로우십니다. 당신께서 하신 일은 모두 의롭고, 당신의 길은 다 자비와 진리입니다. 당신은 이 세상을 심판하시는 분이십니다.
3 이제 주님, 저를 기억하시고, 저를 살펴보아 주소서. 저의 죄로, 저와 제 조상들이 알지 못하고 저지른 잘못으로 저를 벌하지 마소서.
그들은 당신께 죄를 짓고 4 당신의 계명들을 따르지 않았습니다. 그래서 당신께서는 저희를 약탈과 유배와 죽음에 넘기시고, 당신께서 저희를 흩으신 모든 민족들에게 이야깃거리와 조롱거리와 우셋거리로 넘기셨습니다.
5 저의 죄에 따라 저를 다루실 적에 내리신 당신의 그 많은 판결들은 다 참되십니다. 저희는 당신의 계명들을 지키지 않고, 당신 앞에서 참되게 걷지 않았습니다.
6 이제 당신께서 좋으실 대로 저를 다루시고, 명령을 내리시어 제 목숨을 앗아 가게 하소서. 그리하여 제가 이 땅에서 벗어나 흙이 되게 하소서. 저에게는 사는 것보다 죽는 것이 낫습니다. 제가 당치 않은 모욕의 말을 들어야 하고, 슬픔이 너무나 크기 때문입니다. 주님, 명령을 내리시어 제가 이 곤궁에서 벗어나게 하소서. 제가 이곳에서 벗어나 영원한 곳으로 들게 하소서. 주님, 저에게서 당신의 얼굴을 돌리지 마소서. 살아서 많은 곤궁을 겪고 모욕의 말을 듣는 것보다 죽는 것이 저에게는 더 낫습니다.”
7 바로 그날, 메디아의 엑바타나에 사는 라구엘의 딸 사라도 자기 아버지의 여종들 가운데 한 사람에게서 모욕하는 말을 듣게 되었다. 8 사라는 일곱 남자에게 시집을 갔지만, 신부와 관련된 관습에 따라 신랑이 사라와 한 몸이 되기도 전에, 아스모대오스라는 악귀가 그 남편들을 죽여 버렸다.
그래서 그 여종이 사라에게 이렇게 말하였던 것이다. “당신 남편들을 죽이는 자는 바로 당신이에요. 당신은 이미 일곱 남자에게 시집을 갔지만 그들 가운데에서 누구의 이름도 받지 못했어요. 9 그런데 당신 남편들이 죽었으면 죽었지 우리는 왜 때려요? 남편들이나 따라가시지. 그래야 우리가 당신의 아들이나 딸을 영영 보지 않게 되죠.”
10 그날 사라는 마음에 슬픔이 가득하여 울면서, 자기 아버지 집의 위층 방으로 올라가 목을 매려고 하였다. 그러나 생각을 다시 하고서는 이렇게 혼잣말을 하였다. “사람들이 ‘당신에게는 사랑하는 외동딸밖에 없었는데 그 애가 불행을 못 이겨 목을 매고 말았구려.’ 하면서, 내 아버지를 모욕하는 일이 있어서는 안 되지. 만일 그렇게 되면 늙으신 아버지께서 나 때문에 슬퍼하시며 저승으로 내려가시게 되겠지. 목을 매는 것보다는, 평생 모욕하는 말을 듣지 않도록 죽게 해 주십사고 주님께 기도하는 것이 낫겠다.”
11 그러면서 사라는 창 쪽으로 양팔을 벌리고 기도하였다.
16 바로 그때에 그 두 사람의 기도가 영광스러운 하느님 앞에 다다랐다. 17 그래서 라파엘이 두 사람을 고쳐 주도록 파견되었다.

 

 복음 마르코 12,18-27
그때에 18 부활이 없다고 주장하는 사두가이들이 예수님께 와서 물었다. 19 “스승님, 모세는 ‘어떤 사람의 형제가 자식 없이 아내만 두고 죽으면, 그 사람이 죽은 이의 아내를 맞아들여 형제의 후사를 일으켜 주어야 한다.’고 저희를 위하여 기록해 놓았습니다.
20 그런데 일곱 형제가 있었습니다. 맏이가 아내를 맞아들였는데 후사를 남기지 못하고 죽었습니다. 21 그래서 둘째가 그 여자를 맞아들였지만 후사를 두지 못한 채 죽었고, 셋째도 그러하였습니다. 22 이렇게 일곱이 모두 후사를 남기지 못하였습니다. 맨 마지막으로 그 부인도 죽었습니다. 23 그러면 그들이 다시 살아나는 부활 때에 그 여자는 그들 가운데 누구의 아내가 되겠습니까? 일곱이 다 그 여자를 아내로 맞아들였으니 말입니다.”
24 예수님께서 그들에게 이르셨다. “너희가 성경도 모르고 하느님의 능력도 모르니까 그렇게 잘못 생각하는 것이 아니냐? 25 사람들이 죽은 이들 가운데에서 다시 살아날 때에는, 장가드는 일도 시집가는 일도 없이 하늘에 있는 천사들과 같아진다.
26 그리고 죽은 이들이 되살아난다는 사실에 관해서는, 모세의 책에 있는 떨기나무 대목에서 하느님께서 모세에게 어떻게 말씀하셨는지 읽어 보지 않았느냐? ‘나는 아브라함의 하느님, 이사악의 하느님, 야곱의 하느님이다.’하고 말씀하셨다.
27 그분께서는 죽은 이들의 하느님이 아니라 산 이들의 하느님이시다. 너희는 크게 잘못 생각하는 것이다.”

 

 

 

 June 6, 2007

 Wednesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

  

 Reading 1
Tb 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.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 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.

Gospel
Mk 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

 

 Tobit prays for mercy to the judge of the world. He asks for forgiveness for himself and his people in exile who have become a reproach to the nations. He is torn with grief and wants to die in his misery. And Sarah, the daughter of Ragouel is praying as well for release, for each time she tries to marry, her husband is killed on their wedding night-this happened seven times! She is grieved in spirit and wants to kill herself. And both prayers come to God, and Raphael (the archangel) is sent to heal them both. We are all bound together whether we are aware of it or not. And all things, situations and relationships can be healed and made whole. Our recourse has always been in God.

Jesus is mocked by the Sadducees (who don't believe in resurrection) with an unbelievable case of a woman with 7 husbands (all brothers and leaving no children with her). Who would be her husband in heaven? No one is! God is the God of the living and we belong to the living God, not to any relationship on earth. Our relationships on earth are meant to express faithfully and gracefully that we are God's, now and forever. Do we know who lays claim to us?

 

 

 St. Norbert (1080 – 1134) born into Royalty at Kanten Germany he had a conversion experience one day that led him from a stately life into a priestly life. He went on to found the Premonstratensian Order, whose name was taken from a nearby town called Premontre, France. He faced great odds as there was much indifference and even heresy in his day, especially regarding the Eucharist. He had a strong devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and relied totally on God to accomplish the task of revitalization. He later became archbishop of Magdeburg in central Germany, where he faced a population that was half pagan and half Christian. He worked tirelessly continuing to his death on June 6, 1134.

We continue our reading in the Book of Tobit and find two people, lamenting at their lot in life, and both of them are in prayer. The reading itself reads like a novel, describing each emotion in detail. Tobit is asking the Lord to end his life, and Sarah starts out thinking she would like to end her own life, but decides it would be too hard on her Father, so she prays instead for God to take her life. Both people are partly anguishing over how other people are treating them in light of their misfortune. It seems like a power play to me, and I couldn’t help but think of how hard we are on each other. And further, why should we feel motivated to pick on each other instead of reaching out to help one another? We get very restless with the various changes that occur in our lives. In the end, the reading says, the Lord heard each of them simultaneously, and sent the Angel Raphael to respond by healing both people. God is good, may we always keep prayer in mind, and live to witness God’s power in our lives.

The reading from Mark has Jesus speaking to the Sadducees about whether there will be a resurrection or not. I’m sure He is frustrated with all of us, as we conjure up our own ideas of his message. But, he did dispel the idea that we will continue on in our lives as we know them today, when He said “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. And further, He spoke of God being the God of the living, not of the dead. So, we are alive after being raised from the dead. Truthfully, I was more moved at finding Jesus’ emotion as he responded to the Sadducees in today’s Gospel than by the content itself. Let us pray to be trusting of the power of God in our lives as Tobit and Sarah discovered; and pray for the wisdom so as not to be misled.

 

 by
Deb Fortina
Academic Affairs

 

 

"You  know neither the scriptures nor the power of God"

 

The Sadducees had one big problem -- they could not conceive of heaven beyond what they could see with their naked eyes!  Aren’t we often like them?  We don’t recognize spiritual realities because we try to make heaven into an earthly image.  The Sadducees came to Jesus with a test question to make the resurrection look ridiculous.  The Sadducees, unlike the Pharisees, did not believe in immortality, nor in angels or evil spirits.  Their religion was literally grounded in an earthly image of heaven.  Jesus retorts by dealing with the fact of the resurrection.  The scriptures give proof of it. In Exodus 3:6, God calls himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.   He defeats their arguments by showing that God is a living God of a living people.  God was the friend of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when they lived.  That friendship could not cease with death.  As Psalm 73:23-24 states:  "I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory."  The Holy Spirit reveals to us the eternal truths of God’s unending love and the life he desires to share with us for all eternity.  Paul the Apostle, quoting from the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 64:4; 65:17) states: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him,” God has revealed to us through the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).  The promise of paradise -- heavenly bliss and unending life with an all-loving God — is beyond human reckoning.  We have only begun to taste the first-fruits! Do you believe the scriptures and do you know the power of the Holy Spirit?

 “May the Lord Jesus put his hands on our eyes also, for then we too shall begin to look not at what is seen but at what is not seen.  May he open the eyes that are concerned not with the present but with what is yet to come, may he unseal the heart’s vision, that we may gaze on God in the Spirit, through the same Lord, Jesus Christ, whose glory and power will endure throughout the unending succession of ages.” (Prayer of Origen, c. 185-254)

Psalm 123:1-2

1 To thee I lift up my eyes, O thou who art enthroned in the heavens!
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid  to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he have mercy upon us.

 

 

 Yesterday it was the Pharisees and Herodians, today it is the Sadducees trying to trap him.  These Sadducees, however, are more worldly and relaxed; they only want to make fun of the idea of a next life.  They were a minority group in the country, wealthy landowners and merchants, collaborators with Rome, minimalist in religion, rejecting the teaching about angels and spirits, accepting as the word of God only the first five books of the Scriptures.  No rabbi had ever produced evidence of a next life from those first five books.  But Jesus managed to do so!  In the following way.  Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are the most prominent figures in those first books.  In the second of those books God had proclaimed himself “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). If these men are just dead, said Jesus, then God is reigning over a kingdom of death, not a kingdom of life! 

            If you believe only in death you see only death everywhere.  Jesus, who is “the way, the truth and the life”, calls us to believe in life.  As far as I know, no Sadducee is known by name in the New Testament; and the whole group died out after 70 AD.  It was consistent with their belief in death.  Like diet, it is important to pay attention to your beliefs, because you become what you believe. 

 

 

 The very long reading from Tobit contains fanciful stories.   Perhaps we might see it, however, in the context of prayer: Two people, separated from each other by hundreds of miles, are suffering greatly.   Tobit is blind; Sarah has lost seven husbands and feels accursed.   Both pray.  Their prayers are prayers of humility and praise: They deserve nothing, yet they praise God!   And God watches over them and sends Raphael to heal them   The gospel is the matching of wits between  Jesus and the Sadducees.   The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, so they pose the problem to Jesus of the levirate marriage: Seven brothers die childless; each one successively marries their widow, according to levirate law.  Whose wife will she be in the resurrection?    Jesus answers that in the world to come, all will be “like the angels.”

Also St. Norbert  (1080-1134)   Norbert had a good thing going.  He was a Canon with all its honors and income.  But he had a conversion experience, sold what he had, and determined to lead a simple life.   He attempted to reform the position of Canons, but he met great opposition.   He became the archbishop of Magdeburg and established the Premonstratensian Order.

 

 

I'M DYING TO BE MARRIED

'When people rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage but live like angels in heaven.' Mark 12:25

Once while attending a men's retreat, the above passage was read for the Gospel during Mass. As the priest proclaimed that people do not marry in heaven, a man near me, who had been married nearly forty years, exclaimed, 'Thank God!' Of course, this remark elicited a few chuckles among the nearby men.

Tomorrow's readings focus on the beauty of love and marriage, but today's readings focus on death and marriage. An insult from his wife, who was merely responding to his own unjust accusation (Tb 2:14), drove Tobit to the brink of death (Tb 3:6). Sarah had seven husbands die on seven wedding nights (Tb 3:8). In today's Gospel, the Sadducees illustrate marriage using a series of failures and deaths (Mk 12:19ff).

A marriage full of life takes two 'dead' people. Each spouse has died to themselves (Jn 12:24). They carry around in their bodies the dying of Jesus so the life of Jesus may be revealed in them (2 Cor 4:10). In dying so completely to self, each spouse learns their true identity (Mt 10:39) and becomes fully alive. The husband empties himself of his desires and sacrifices his life out of love for his wife (Eph 5:25). The wife subordinates herself to her husband, ordering her life around his plans (Col 3:18). This mutual dying to self opens the floodgates of love.

Too many Christian marriages are 'among the living dead' (1 Jn 3:14). Marriages often die because one or both spouses couldn't 'die.' Die to yourself; live and love abundantly (Jn 10:10).

Praise: St. Norbert was thrown from his horse during a personal experience of Jesus. Through this encounter with Christ, he was converted from a worldly man to a holy religious.
Prayer: Father, we offer You our lives.
Promise: 'He is the God of the living, not of the dead.' Mk 12:27
 

 

 The Gospel presents the Sadducees’ theological points of dissent on the matter of the general resurrection.  Why waste time on it?  Two times Jesus says: "You are wrong.”  It is settled in Christ’s simple magisterial response.  Return to the center: God's power working through the Scriptures.  Receive the Word without a torturous reworking of Scripture to fit our own viewpoint.  Plunge yourself into the burning bush of God's theophany.  Jesus brings us into that fire in his response.  Return to the passage about the burning bush in which God reveals Himself.  Yahweh is a God living in the fire of His existence and love.  In that love and fire God holds all people in the power of Christ's resurrection.  My prayer is to leave the taste of my own theological viewpoints and embrace the fullness of the Revelation as it is given in the Teaching Tradition of the Church.  Then through that door I enter into the fire of love and life.  I will be like the angels, that is, I will be immersed in the Presence and life of God along with all creation in the Kingdom perfected.  My prayer puts me there already.  Thy Kingdom come!  Thy Kingdom is!