Reading and meditation on the Word of God on Wednesday of the 9th week in ordinary time
June 2, 2021
Reading is delivered by Fransiska Yadustira and meditation delivered by Victor Mario Havel, from the Church Santo Yohanes Bosco in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The reading is taken from the holy Gospel according to 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.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Our meditation today has the theme: When there is Misunderstanding. Today’s liturgical readings provide us with three examples of misunderstanding and misconception. This is different from people who are late to understand or those who fail to understand as we generally know. Misunderstanding is made from sort of misconception that a person develops and possesses in order to have a self-righteousness and to blame others.
Tobit who was a truly faithful person and a genuine believer, had misunderstood love, mercy and greatness of God. In pain, suffering and torment of sin, he already had a conception that God was not kind to forgive and provide a way of change. So he asked the Lord to take his life from the world. Likewise Sarah, a woman who was married to seven men but all of them died because they were killed by the demon Asmodeus, felt that her mistakes were very extraordinary. So she wanted to end everything by killing herself. For her, killing herself was the best solution.
All these accounts are from the book of Tobit our first reading today. Furthermore, we know from the Gospel today that the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection of the body, had also misunderstood the teaching of Jesus, saying that in eternal life the biological husband and wife would continue their marriage life there. They were completely misleading because they thought of something like changing the address of a residence in the world to the other world in eternal life. Jesus affirmed that they really misunderstood the point of His teaching and that surely had led themselves into the wrong direction.
If there is misunderstanding, the simple question should be this one: “What should we do”? Maybe some of us simply enjoy how they misunderstand things, they defend them and try to achieve their goals with that manner. They follow the path of the Sadducees. Maybe some think over again something they have misunderstood for certain extent, realizing that there is God the source of all goodness, from whom they find peace, consolation, enlightenment and a way that leads them to a better understanding. To take this way, they must repent and ask for forgiveness. They follow the path of Tobit and Sarah.
Furthermore, some people have led their lives in the path Jesus Christ as they believe that if there is misunderstanding, they should not let it becoming big. When any form of misunderstanding allowed to grow bigger, they are actually preparing a bomb of evil that will explode someday. This manner of treating misunderstanding should be accompanied by awareness, learning and training, persuasion, heart-to-heart assistance, education, so that any sort of misconception would be first clarified and solved. The only point is that we all should stand for a correct understanding in the journey of faith. In this way, we really follow the way of Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray. In the name of the Father … O Lord Jesus Christ, teach and strengthen us always to be in the right way to understand and keep us away from all the misconceptions that confuse us from that truth. Glory to the Father… In the name of the Father…