Wednesday 2 June 2021

Today is Wednesday the 2 June, in the Ninth Week of Ordinary Time.  

O Lord listen to my prayer. As I begin to pray today, what is on my mind? And what is in my heart? Am I feeling happy with life?  Calm? Serene? Or perhaps tired, frustrated, fed up? God knows me better than I know myself, so I can be honest with God about my feelings, and place myself now, as I really am, before the Lord.  

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Mark.

Mark 12:18-27

Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked him a question, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that ‘if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.’ There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children; and the second married her and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. In the resurrection whose wife will she be? For the seven had married her." Jesus said to them, "Is not this the reason you are wrong, that 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 story about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong."  

Have you ever met someone who has supposedly learnt a great deal without actually knowing much?  A person who has been married to his wife for forty years and still has no clue what makes her tick?  Or a self-styled expert in some discipline or skill who has no idea how to apply it?  Is this perhaps what Jesus is dealing with in his conversation with the Sadducees about marriage, death and resurrection?    

Are there things that you still find difficult to understand from scripture after so many years? Bring them to Jesus now…  

As you listen again to the passage, imagine what this exchange was like… the faces of the Sadducees… and their tone of voice – and how Jesus feels as they ask their strange question and demand an answer.  

Talk to God about something you would like to understand better today… You might like to ask for the grace to receive a fresh perspective on it.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.