9th Week in Ordinary Time
07th June 2023 (Wednesday) Readings and Reflection
Psalter: Week 1
Reading of the Day
First Reading: Tobit 3:1-11a, 16-17a
In those days: I became greatly depressed in my soul. Groaning out loud, I wept and I began to pray as I groaned: “Righteous are you, O Lord; all your deeds are just and all your ways are merciful and true. You judge the world. And now, Lord, remember me and look favourably upon me; do not punish me for my sins and for my unwitting offences and those of my fathers. They sinned before you and they disobeyed your commandments, and you gave us over to plunder and captivity and death; you make us an example and a byword and a reproach among all the nations among which you scattered us. And now your many judgments are true, to deal with me for my sins, because we did not do what you commanded and we did not walk before you with sincerity. And now deal with me according to your pleasure; command my spirit to withdraw from me, that I may be set free from the face of the earth and become earth myself. For it is better for me to die than to live, because I have heard false reproaches, and great sorrow is upon me. Lord, command that I be set free from this distress. Set me free to go to the eternal place and do not turn your face, Lord, away from me. It is better for me to die and not to hear reproaches than to continue to see so much distress in my life." On that day, it befell Sarah, daughter of Raguel in Ecbatana of Media, that she heard reproaches from one of her father’s maidservants, because she had been given to seven husbands, and the evil demon Asmodeus killed them before they had been with her as it is prescribed for wives. So the maidservant said to her, “You are the one who kills your husbands! Behold! You have already been married to seven husbands and have not borne the name of any one of them. Why do you beat us over your dead husbands? Go along with them, and may we never see a son or daughter of yours!” On that day she was grieved in her soul and began to weep. Ascending to the upper room in her father’s house, she wanted to hang herself. But she reconsidered and said: “Let it not happen that they reproach my father and say to him, ‘You had one beloved daughter and she hanged herself to escape her troubles.’I would bring the old age of my father down to Hades in grief. It is better for me not to hang myself, but to beg the Lord that I might die and no longer hear reproaches during my life.” At that very time, spreading out her hands towards the window, she prayed and said: “Blessed are you, merciful God, and blessed is your name for ever.” At that very moment, the prayer of both was heard in the presence of the glory of God. And Raphael was sent to heal the two of them.
Psalm 25:2-3, 4-5ab, 6 and 7cd, 8-9 (R.1)
R/. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
Gospel : Mark 12:18-27
At that time: Sadducees came to Jesus, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.” Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”
Daily Gospel Reflection
The Reflection by Fr. Thumma Mariadas Reddy MSFS{alertWarning}
Main Theme: Surrender is never in vain!
Indicative: God is God of the living and not of the dead. He is the author of life and controller of death. It is He who revives the deadened spirits{alertSuccess}
1. Life often seems to be deadly and dead with tons of affliction. Besides the natural causes, suffering in life is caused by the evil of others. This shows itself in disrespect, despisal and insult.
2. This is the misery that Tobit and Sarah, Raguel’s daughter, experienced. Tobit lost sight and Sarah lost all her seven husbands, one after another on the first day itself. And people attributed this to their sinfulness and reproached them. This was quite in tune with the doctrine of retribution that states, ‘the just will prosper and the sinful will suffer’.
3. Subsequently both become victims of persistent insults. Life becomes an unbearable anguish. The desire for life is dead. They wish to die. However, they do not blame God. They regard it as a deserving trying time for the sinfulness of their ancestors and their own.
4. Instead, both Tobit and Sarah make a total surrender to God. Their humble prayers will be heard soon. God sends His archangel Raphael to heal them. Accordingly, Tobit’s eyesight would be restored. Sarah too would be relieved from killing demon’s power and given in marriage to Tobiah, Tobit’s son.
Imperative: Anguish and desperation are not wrong things in life. At times they are part of anyone’s life. But in such times, we need to totally surrender ourselves to God’s healing and dignifying hands{alertSuccess}