9th WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
GOD OF THE LIVING
Introduction
For a few days, we shall hear excerpts from Paul’s second letter to Timothy. It is ascribed to Paul but probably written by his disciple or scribe. It insists on the role of both priests and laity to serve the Gospel without fear.
With arguments that are a bit difficult to follow, Jesus upholds the resurrection of the dead. God is a God of the living; his promises are not given in vain. Jesus is harsh with those who are interested in religion for the sake of arguing about doctrine but are not interested in faith.
Opening Prayer
Living God,
you are the God of the covenant
of life and loyal love.
Keep us in your love
and keep the promise of life
which you have given us
through your Son, Jesus Christ.
Let his life gush forth in us,
fully and richly,
until it blooms forth into life without end.
We ask this in the name of Christ, our Lord.
Reading 1: 2 Timothy 1:1-3,6-12
for the promise of life in Christ Jesus,
to Timothy, my dear child:
grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father
and Christ Jesus our Lord.
I am grateful to God,
whom I worship with a clear conscience as my ancestors did,
as I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day.
For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame
the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.
For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control.
So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord,
nor of me, a prisoner for his sake;
but bear your share of hardship for the Gospel
with the strength that comes from God.
He saved us and called us to a holy life,
not according to our works
but according to his own design
and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began,
but now made manifest
through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus,
who destroyed death and brought life and immortality
to light through the Gospel,
for which I was appointed preacher and Apostle and teacher.
On this account I am suffering these things;
but I am not ashamed,
for I know him in whom I have believed
and am confident that he is able to guard
what has been entrusted to me until that day.
Responsorial Psalm
To you I lift up my eyes
who are enthroned in heaven.
Behold, as the eyes of servants
are on the hands of their masters.
R. To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.
As the eyes of a maid
are on the hands of her mistress,
So are our eyes on the LORD, our God,
till he have pity on us.
R. To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.
Alleluia
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;
whoever believes in me will never die.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
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.”
Intercessions
– That we may keep up the good fight against all that is deadly to Christian life: dehumanizing kinds of labor, suppression of freedom, paralyzing fear, love that is destroyed, we pray:
– That our beloved dead may live on in the life they gave us, in the good we do, and in the intimate love of God himself, we pray:
– That all suffering and dying people may share in our resurrection faith and find strength in the knowledge that God loves them in life and beyond death, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God,
your Son Jesus Christ, has brought us
the good news of life and immortality.
Through your Holy Spirit of power and life,
let this bread and wine become
the body and blood of your Son,
that we may overcome death with Jesus
and that we may live his risen life
until you let us share
in the fullness of your glory and happiness
for ever and ever.
Prayer after Communion
God of the living,
by the strength of this Eucharist,
fan in us the flame of your gifts.
Change us, timid people,
into people of courage,
fully alive, unafraid and not ashamed
to bear witness before all who want to see
and hear your Good News
about our Lord, Jesus Christ,
your Son and our Savior for ever.
Blessing
Some groups of the early Christian community called themselves “the living ones.” Our faith, our sharing in the resurrection of Christ, makes us living people, who live for life without end. May God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Commentary
Just like yesterday, there is a cunning question, a deceitful ‘why?’ in today’s gospel passage. Yesterday it was the Pharisees; today it is the Sadducees. The Sadducees were not a clearly defined group within Judaism. They were generally chief priests and members of the Jerusalem aristocracy. But they didn’t believe in life after death; but here they are, asking a question, the purpose of which is to reduce such a belief to absurdity. He knew that the Sadducees didn’t believe in the existence of angels, nor in the resurrection of the dead. But now, they apparently swallowed their own beliefs and comes up with the question on resurrection. If they did not believe in the resurrection in the first place, then why to think about marriage and family in the after-life? It is a lesson on how to deal with dishonest questions: don’t give up your ground, don’t backtrack. Jesus answers them quoting from the book of the Exodus, to prove them that there is resurrection of the dead. Jesus hits them where it hurts the most, attacking them with Abraham, Moses, Isaac and Jacob.
They are the foundations of their Hebrew faith. When God spoke to Moses, he said “I AM the God of Abraham…” For the eyes of the world, Abraham, Moses and the rest of the big names of the Old Testament are all dead. But Jesus logically proves they are all alive. We are all invited to believe in the resurrection and in a God of life, not god of death, where we will be like angels. Jesus turns everything upside down, as he did with the concepts of power and service, with the family, with the status of women, with the attitude towards children, and tries to put them on the right path. Eternal life, life according to God’s plans, demands that we open our minds and hearts to other approaches. God did not say to Moses: “I was the God of Abraham”, or “I used to be the God of Abraham’” but “I AM here and now the God of Abraham”. It is useful for us to be able to handle distortions of our faith which can sometimes be thrown at us. It is essential that we are familiar with our Bible in order to do so. But we might also say that we do not bring people to Christ simply by besting them in arguments. The real way to bring people to Christ is by the compelling example of our words, our actions and our attitudes reflecting God’s love and tolerance.
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5 June 2024
Mark 12:18-27
God of the living
Life after death is a reality that we find easier to acknowledge than to explain. We talk about it using the language of the present, which is the only means we have. The question about marriage brought up in today’s Gospel is a classic example.
In Jewish law, if a man died without children, his brother was obligated to marry his widow and have children in the deceased brother’s name. This situation is reflected in the Old Testament story of Tobit, where Sarah becomes the subject of ridicule from her own maidservants. Distraught after the deaths of seven husbands, she pleads with God to take her life.
The question is hypothetical and is posed by the Sadducees, who do not believe in the resurrection. They ask whose wife a woman would be at the time of the resurrection if she had been married to seven husbands. This question reflects the type of dodging employed by Israel’s teachers. However, Jesus changes the focus of the discussion by explaining that in heaven, there will be no marriage and no childbearing. The afterlife represents an entirely new way of being.
We often speculate about the afterlife, drawing from our present experiences. However, the truth is that life after death is a mystery of God’s plan, and we are meant to be a part of it. The challenges we face now are insignificant compared to the greatness that is being revealed in us. We are being saved not because of our own merit but by God’s grace. Death has lost its power, and the path to life and immortality is open to us. This has been made possible through Jesus our Savior.