Wednesday, June 7, 2017
9th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading:
Tb 3:1-11, 16-17
Gospel: Mark 12:18-27
The Sadducees 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 wife and give her a child 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, too, died leaving no children. The same thing happened to the third. Finally the seven died leaving no children. Last of all, the woman died. Now, in the resurrection, to which of them will she be wife? For the seven had her as wife.”
Jesus replied, “You could be wrong in this regard because you understand neither the Scriptures nor 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 reflected on the chapter of the burning bush in the book of Moses? God said to him: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now, he is the God, not of the dead but of the living. You are totally wrong.”
THE GOSPEL IN OUR LIFE EXPERIENCE
As the then Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal was telling us how he felt while going through bypass operation many years ago, I had the guts of asking him if he was ever afraid to die during the procedure. Without mincing words the Cardinal answered: “Of course I was afraid to die.” I was taken aback hearing it from a Cardinal. He explained: “Don’t take this fear of dying against me. We are all afraid to die because our nature is programmed to live forever. The stubborn hope persisting in our hearts that human existence must not end in death is one indication that we are meant to live forever.”
To be human is to live, and live forever. The God who breathed life on us, after all, is not God of the dead but of the living. Moreover, we are meant to live forever because our direction is to return to God who is eternal. When we arrive at this eternal destination, none of us will belong to anybody, not even wives to their husbands, but to God alone. This is the essential meaning of today’s Gospel teaching about the widow who had married 7 husbands in this lifetime. On the resurrection on the last day she will be a wife of none of the 7 previous husbands. She will belong only to God.
And the Cardinal concluded: if we are afraid to die the biological death, our fear for spiritual death should be much greater! – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM
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