Wednesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

“The Archangel Raphael Refusing Tobias's Gift”
by Giovanni Bilivert, 1612

 
Readings for Wednesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time [1]
 
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
 
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.
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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
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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.
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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 guides us to 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.
 
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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."
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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.
 
CCC: Mk 12:24 993; Mk 12:25 1619; Mk 12:27 993
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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

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[1] The picture is “The Archangel Raphael Refusing Tobias's Gift” by Giovanni Bilivert, 1612.
[2] S.S. Commemoratio
[3] The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.