June 2
Wednesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Due to unforeseen circumstances, video recording from today’s Mass is not available. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience and support. Issues have been resolved and Mass live stream will continue in the future.
Give a Mass Offering
Mass Intentions
7:45 AM – Parishioners of Holy Cross
Prayer for Spiritual Communion
My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there, and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.
Readings
First Reading
Tobit 3:1-11a, 16-17a
Grief-stricken in spirit, I, Tobit, groaned and wept aloud. Then with sobs I began to pray:
“You are righteous, O Lord, and all your deeds are just; All your ways are mercy and truth; you are the judge of the world. And now, O Lord, may you be mindful of me, and look with favor upon me. Punish me not for my sins, nor for my inadvertent offenses, nor for those of my ancestors.
“We sinned against you, and disobeyed your commandments. So you handed us over to plundering, exile, and death, till you made us the talk and reproach of all the nations among whom you had dispersed us.
“Yes, your judgments are many and true in dealing with me as my sins and those of my ancestors deserve. For we have not kept your commandments, nor have we trodden the paths of truth before you.
“So now, deal with me as you please, and command my life breath to be taken from me, that I may go from the face of the earth into dust. It is better for me to die than to live, because I have heard insulting calumnies, and I am overwhelmed with grief.
“Lord, command me to be delivered from such anguish; let me go to the everlasting abode; Lord, refuse me not. For it is better for me to die than to endure so much misery in life, and to hear these insults!”
On the same day, at Ecbatana in Media, it so happened that Raguel’s daughter Sarah also had to listen to abuse, from one of her father’s maids. For she had been married to seven husbands, but the wicked demon Asmodeus killed them off before they could have intercourse with her, as it is prescribed for wives. So the maid said to her: “You are the one who strangles your husbands! Look at you! You have already been married seven times, but you have had no joy with any one of your husbands. Why do you beat us? Is it on account of your seven husbands, Because they are dead? May we never see a son or daughter of yours!”
The girl was deeply saddened that day, and she went into an upper chamber of her house, where she planned to hang herself.
But she reconsidered, saying to herself: “No! People would level this insult against my father: ‘You had only one beloved daughter, but she hanged herself because of ill fortune!’ And thus would I cause my father in his old age to go down to the nether world laden with sorrow. It is far better for me not to hang myself, but to beg the Lord to have me die, so that I need no longer live to hear such insults.”
At that time, then, she spread out her hands, and facing the window, poured out her prayer:
“Blessed are you, O Lord, merciful God, and blessed is your holy and honorable name. Blessed are you in all your works for ever!”
At that very time, the prayer of these two suppliants was heard in the glorious presence of Almighty God. So Raphael was sent to heal them both: to remove the cataracts from Tobit’s eyes, so that he might again see God’s sunlight; and to marry Raguel’s daughter Sarah to Tobit’s son Tobiah, and then drive the wicked demon Asmodeus from her.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalms 25:2-3, 4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9
R. (1) To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
In you I trust; let me not be put to shame,
let not my enemies exult over me.
No one who waits for you shall be put to shame;
those shall be put to shame who heedlessly break faith.
R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your kindness are from of old.
In your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.
R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
he teaches the humble his way.
R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
Gospel Acclamation
John 11:25a, 26
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;
whoever believes in me will never die.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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.”
“To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.”
Reflection
In today’s gospel reading from Mark, we get a glimpse of how the Sadducees work. They are inquiring of Jesus on his opinion concerning life after death, namely resurrection. It is important for us to realize that the Sadducees did not believe in bodily resurrection, therefore for them to be asking Jesus about the topic seems as though they are trying to trip him up. However, Jesus responds and tells them that they are “greatly misled.” Jesus is giving the Sadducees the benefit of the doubt, assuming at least some of them are of a good will, and may be seeking truth.
Although we may wonder why Jesus would not condemn the Sadducees, we should remember that when we test Jesus in our own way, Jesus does not condemn us but calls us back into relationship with him, as he forgives our sins. It is this realization that should cause us to forgive others when they insult us, test us, or otherwise sin against us.
Scripture scholars believe that healing took place within some of the Sadducees after hearing the words of Jesus. When we refer to healing, we mean that Jesus opened their hearts that they no longer sought to trap Jesus in word or action. It is at this point that they recognize the gifts that Jesus offers them, the gift of everlasting life.
Peace,
Fr. John Kurgan
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