You Are Greatly Misled

June 4, 2008

Wednesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

By Melanie Rigney

… I know him in whom I have believed and am confident that he is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day. (2 Timothy 1:12)

He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled. (Mark 12:27)

Piety

Lord, help me to focus on the here and now, and trust in you to guard for me what is to come.

Study

Today's Readings

Extraterrestial Life

Oh, those crazy Sadducees.

They don't believe in resurrection, and the best they can do in hopes of ensnaring Christ in his own words is to pose the question of to whom a woman will be after death if she has no children and marries seven brothers, one after the other as soon as one dies?

Jesus answers that the arisen do not marry or are given in marriage, but are "like the angels in heaven." He goes on to desire a God of the living, ending with the withering, almost pitying, "You are greatly misled."

Hypotheticals. Aren't they fun? How many angels can dance on the tip of a needle? We get the imagery of it being easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter God's kingdom, but is there a way a camel could be used to thread a needle?

And, in case you've been on some other planet (forgive the pun) or have been away from e-mail or the news for the past three weeks, add to the list of hypotheticals the question of whether alien life forms enjoy God's mercy. (In case you missed it, the director of the Vatican Observatory says yes, they could, and that there is not a contradiction between being Catholic and believing in aliens. Check it out at the Catholic News Agency if you don't believe me.)

Tens of thousands dead in a Chinese earthquake. Millions homeless or missing after a cyclone in Myanmar. More than a hundred dead in tornadoes in our own country so far this year, a record pace. And we're worried about whether we can believe in alien life forms, and reading about who owns the copyright to that "Footprints" poem?

Surely, Christ is thinking we are greatly misled.

Action

Just for this week, put aside the list of things that might go wrong in the future. Turn away from hypothetical parlor game questions, and use your time, talent, or treasure to make life easier for one other person, someone you know or don't know.