The Gospel for Wednesday of the ninth week in Ordinary Time is taken from Mark, 12th chapter 1827. 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 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 seventh left no descendants. Last of all, the woman 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 angels in heaven. As for the dead being raised, have you not read the book of Moses? In the passage about the bush, how God told him, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
You are greatly misled. There are many people who don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead. And the Sadducees were very clear about their stand on it. And their question is childlike, almost naive. And I love that Jesus doesn’t so much condemn them as say, you’re not understanding, you’re misled. What they’re missing by their not believing in the resurrection of the dead is the role that the dead have in our life.
They’re like angels. And angels are those who speak for God. And the dead are those who can pray with us, for us, send messages to us. They’re an asset that’s beyond our imagining. Jesus wants us to believe in their presence, to believe it’s right, to pray for them and to receive their prayers. Sam.
Satan. Satan Sa Let us pray. Father, you are there with us. Your angels are all around us, guiding us. And you tell us that those who’ve loved us have gone before us, are there to help us, help us be aware of their presence. Pray for them, listen for their advice.
And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.