RBWords

     If the gospel passage for today seems familiar  that may be because it was the gospel for Sunday a couple of weeks ago!  We are nearing the end of the liturgical year in Cycle C and that cycle features the Gospel of Luke in "Ordinary Time."  Sundays and weekdays are on different schedules but both are winding down toward Advent.  So, we get to meditate once more on the "trick" question the Sadducees ask Jesus about the poor woman who was married to seven brothers!  The line I picked to highlight caught my attention because it quotes scribes and not Sadducees!  Maybe there was some emotional score settled somehow, because Jesus was pretty critical of scribes at times and they might have enjoyed seeing the Sadducees get a put-down.  Jesus was not afraid to engage in the rabbinical style of argumentation which could be very blunt.  In the version of this incident in Matthew, Jesus says to the Sadducees: "You are very misled because you know not the power of God or the scriptures!"

 

     There may be a lesson here beyond the profound theological statements about marriage and the afterlife, and that lesson is to "know the power of God and the scriptures" before we try to engage in a discussion of faith!  Many Catholics will not talk about their faith because they feel ignorant of it.  The remedy to that is study!  Catholic students often complained to me that they could not answer the questions or reply to statements by non-Catholic students.  My response was always, "Would you like to learn more?"  It requires effort but the rewards are great.  Trick questions don't stand a chance with an informed Catholic!   AMEN