I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, THE GOD OF ISAAC AND THE GOD OF JACOB

WEDNESDAY WEEK 7 IN ORDINARY TIME Universalis

You are just, O lord, and just are all your works

Reading Tobit 3:1-11,16-17 Raphael is sent to bring remedy to the house of Tobit

Sad at heart, I, Tobit, sighed and wept, and began this prayer of lamentation:

‘You are just, O Lord, and just are all your works. All your ways are grace and truth, and you are the Judge of the world. ‘Therefore, Lord, remember me, look on me. Do not punish me for my sins or for my heedless faults or for those of my fathers.

‘For we have sinned against you and broken your commandments; and you have given us over to be plundered, to captivity and death, to be the talk, the laughing-stock and scorn of all the nations among whom you have dispersed us. 

‘Whereas all your decrees are true when you deal with me as my faults deserve, and those of my fathers, since we have neither kept your commandments nor walked in truth before you; so now, do with me as you will; be pleased to take my life from me; I desire to be delivered from earth and to become earth again. For death is better for me than life. I have been reviled without a cause and I am distressed beyond measure. 

‘Lord, I wait for the sentence you will give to deliver me from this affliction. Let me go away to my everlasting home; do not turn your face from me, O Lord. For it is better to die than still to live in the face of trouble that knows no pity; I am weary of hearing myself traduced.’

It chanced on the same day that Sarah the daughter of Raguel, who lived in Media at Ecbatana, also heard insults from one of her father’s maids. You must know that she had been given in marriage seven times, and that Asmodeus, that worst of demons, had killed her bridegrooms one after another before ever they had slept with her as man with wife. The servant-girl said, ‘Yes, you kill your bridegrooms yourself. That makes seven already to whom you have been given, and you have not once been in luck yet. Just because your bridegrooms have died, that is no reason for punishing us. Go and join them, and may we be spared the sight of any child of yours!’ That day, she grieved, she sobbed, and went up to her father’s room intending to hang herself. But then she thought, ‘Suppose they blamed my father! They will say, “You had an only daughter whom you loved, and now she has hanged herself for grief.” I cannot cause my father a sorrow which would bring down his old age to the dwelling of the dead. I should do better not to hang myself, but to beg the Lord to let me die and not live to hear any more insults.’ 

This time the prayer of each of them found favour before the glory of God, and Raphael was sent to bring remedy to them both. He was to take the white spots from the eyes of Tobit, so that he might see God’s light with his own eyes; and he was to give Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, as bride to Tobias son of Tobit, and to rid her of Asmodeus, that worst of demons. For it was to Tobias before all other suitors that she belonged by right. Tobit was coming back from the courtyard into the house at the same moment as Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, was coming down from the upper room.

Gospel Mark 12:18-27 The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is the God of the living

Some Sadducees – who deny that there is a resurrection – came to him and they put this question to him, ‘Master, we have it from Moses in writing, if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first married a wife and then died leaving no children. The second married the widow, and he too died leaving no children; with the third it was the same, and none of the seven left any children. Last of all the woman herself died. Now at the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be, since she had been married to all seven?’  CDR

Jesus said to them, ‘Is not the reason why you go wrong, that you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry; no, they are like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising again, have you never read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the Bush, how God spoke to him and said: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? He is God, not of the dead, but of the living. You are very much mistaken.’

Eternal Father. God of creation, origin of goodness. God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. You are just, O Lord, and just are all your works. All your ways are grace and truth, and you are the Judge of the world. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. I trust in you, let me not be disappointed. Do not let my enemies triumph over me. Father those who hope in you shall not be disappointed, but only those who wantonly break faith.  Lord, remember me, look on me. Do not punish me for my sins or for my heedless faults or for those of my fathers. Lord, make me know your ways.  Lord, teach me your paths. Make me walk in your truth, and teach me: for you are God my Savior.  ‘Lord, I wait for the sentence you will give to deliver me from my affliction. Do not turn your face from me Father. In you I hope all day long because of your goodness. O Lord. Remember your mercy Lord, and the love you have shown from of old. Father do not remember the sins of my youth. In your love remember me. Father you are good and upright.   You show the path to those who stray You guide the humble in the right path. You will teach me your way for I am poor. 

Jesus I trust in you. Sacred Heart of Jesus thy Kingdom come. Sacred Heart of Jesus I believe in your love for me. Immaculate Heart of Mary pray for me. Saint Joseph pray for me. Angel Raphael come to my aid, pray for me. God’s Angels and Saints pray for me. My Guardian Angel pray for me. Protect me.

Pray your Rosary: Hail Mary full of grace. Hail Holy Queen.