Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc.
9TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Psalter: Week 1 / (Red)
St. Boniface, bishop & martyr
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 123: 1b-2ab, 2cdef: To you, O Lord, I lift my eyes.
1st Reading: 2 Timothy 1: 1-3, 6-12
From Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, for the sake of his promise of eternal life, in Christ Jesus, to my dear son Timothy, may grace, mercy and peace be with you, from God, the Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord.
I give thanks to God, whom I serve with a clear conscience, the way my ancestors did, as I remember you constantly, day and night, in my prayers.
For this reason, I invite you to fan into a flame, the gift of God you received, through the laying on of my hands. For God did not confer on us a spirit of fearfulness, but of strength, love and good judgment.
Do not be ashamed of testifying to our Lord, nor of seeing me in chains. On the contrary, do your share in laboring for the gospel, with the strength of God. He saved us and called us—a calling which proceeds from his holiness.
This did not depend on our merits, but on his generosity and his own initiative.
This calling, given to us from all time, in Christ Jesus has just been manifested with the glorious appearance of Christ Jesus, our Lord, who destroyed death, and brought life and immortality to light, in his gospel.
Of this message, I was made herald, apostle and teacher.
For its sake, I now suffer this trial, but I am not ashamed, for I know in whom I have believed, and I am convinced, that he is capable of taking care of all I have entrusted to him, until that day.
Gospel: Mark 12: 18-27
The Sadducees also came to Jesus. Since they claim that there is no resurrection, they questioned him in this way, “Master, in the Scriptures Moses gave us this law: If anyone dies and leaves a wife but no children,
his brother must take the woman, and, with her, have a baby, who will be considered the child of his deceased brother. Now, there were seven brothers. The first married a wife, but he died without leaving any children.
The second took the wife, and he also died, leaving no children. The same thing happened to the third. In fact, all seven brothers died, leaving no children. Last of all, the woman died.
Now, in the resurrection, to which of them will she be wife? For all seven brothers had her as wife.” Jesus replied, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God?
When they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry, but are like the angels in heaven.
Now, about the resurrection of the dead, have you never had thoughts about the burning bush in the book of Moses?
God said to Moses: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is the God, not of the dead, but of the living. You are totally wrong.”
REFLECTION:
“God's family.”
In today’s Gospel, some Sadducees who were denying the reality of the resurrection came and posed a question to Jesus with regard to the reality of the resurrection.
They narrated to Jesus the story of seven brothers who married the same woman, one after the other, dying and leaving the woman behind without any child. In the end, the woman also died.
The Sadducees asked Jesus as to whose wife the woman would be in the resurrection.
They did not understand the very purpose of levirate marriage (cf. Dt. 25:5- 10).
Levirate marriage aims at building up a brother’s family. When we reduce the reality of the resurrection to the issue of marriage alone, we may also fail in grasping the reality of the resurrection of the dead. The reality of the resurrection tells us of our sacred duty to participate in the building up of God’s family.
We may be considered dead once we refuse to build up each other.
The God of the living summons us to participate in the building up of God’s family.
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