June 3, 2015

Reading

Tobit 3: 1- 11, 16- 17

3:1 Then Tobit sighed, and he began to pray with tears,

3:2 saying, “O Lord, you are just and all your judgments are just, and all your ways are mercy, and truth, and judgment.

3:3 And now, O Lord, remember me, and do not take vengeance for my sins, and do not call to mind my offenses, nor those of my parents.

3:4 For we have not obeyed your precepts, and so we have been handed over to plundering and to captivity, and to death, and to mockery, and as a disgrace before all the nations, among which you have dispersed us.

3:5 And now, O Lord, great are your judgments. For we have not acted according to your precepts, and we have not walked sincerely before you.

3:6 And now, O Lord, do with me according to your will, and order my spirit to be received in peace. For it is more expedient for me to die, than to live.”

3:7 And so, on the same day, it happened that Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, in Rages, a city of the Medes, also heard a reproach from one of her father’s servant maids.

3:8 For she had been given to seven husbands, and a demon named Asmodeus had killed them, as soon as they had approached her.

3:9 Therefore, when she corrected the maid for her fault, she answered her, saying, “May we never see son or daughter from you upon the earth, you murderess of your husbands.

3:10 Would you also kill me, just as you have already killed seven husbands?” At these words, she proceeded to an upper room of her house. And for three days and three nights, she did not eat or drink.

3:11 But, continuing in prayer with tears, she beseeched God, so that he would liberate her from this reproach.

3:16 You know, O Lord, that I have never coveted a husband, and I have preserved my soul clean from all impure desire.

3:17 I have never mingled myself with those who play. And I have not presented myself as a participant with those who walk with levity.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Mark     12: 18-27

12:18	And the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, approached him. And they questioned him, saying:
12:19	“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if any man’s brother will have died and left behind a wife, and not have left behind sons, his brother should take his wife to himself and should raise up offspring for his brother.
12:20	So then, there were seven brothers. And the first took a wife, and he died without leaving behind offspring.
12:21	And the second took her, and he died. And neither did he leave behind offspring. And the third acted similarly.
12:22	And in like manner, each of the seven received her and did not leave behind offspring. Last of all, the woman also died.
12:23	Therefore, in the resurrection, when they will rise again, to which of them will she be a wife? For each of the seven had her as wife.”
12:24	And Jesus responded by saying to them: “But have you not gone astray, by knowing neither the scriptures, nor the power of God?
12:25	For when they will be resurrected from the dead, they shall neither marry, nor be given in marriage, but they are like the Angels in heaven.
12:26	But concerning the dead who rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, how God spoke to him from the bush, saying: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’
12:27	He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Therefore, you have gone far astray.”