Word to the Wise
Wednesday, June 7, 2023 - Wednesday in the 9th Week in Ordinary Time
[Tob 3:1-11a, 16-17a and Mark 12:18-27]"Are you not misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?" [Mark]
It is important to remember that the setting for yesterday's and today's gospel passages from the Gospel According to Mark is the time just before Jesus' arrest. The evangelist Mark builds up the tension between Jesus and the religious leaders of Judaism. Yesterday, the Pharisees and Herodians came with the tax question. Today, the Sadducees come with an absurd question that might have been a subject of rabbinical debate among the Pharisees, but not among the Sadducees because they didn't believe in a resurrection of the dead. What they are doing is not only to test Jesus but perhaps take a sly dig at the Pharisees who did believe in the resurrection of the dead. The antipathy between the two parties could be violent. [cf. Acts 23:6-10] Jesus recognizes the hypocrisy of the Sadducees and taunts them as being ignorant of the scriptures and the power of God.
What can remain of this encounter is intriguing for at least a couple of reasons. The first has to do with Jesus' statement: "When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven!" Debates about life after death will continue as long as the world exists. St. Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 15 would be a good place to begin any reflection on this! The second reason is a challenge to all of us to know the scriptures and the power of God. The Second Vatican Council's challenge in Dei Verbum to all Catholics to read and study the Bible was a reverse in what many Catholics were accustomed to hearing. It sounded like our Protestant friends and relatives!! Well....Jesus' challenge is to us Catholics as well. AMEN