At
that time, then, she spread out her hands, and facing the window, poured out
her prayer: “Blessed are you, O Lord, merciful God, and blessed is your holy
and honorable name. Blessed are you in all your works forever!” At that very
time, the prayer of these two suppliants was heard in the glorious
presence of Almighty God. So Raphael was sent to heal them both. Tobit 3:11,16-17A
He
is not God of the dead but of the living. Mark 12:27
Piety
The fifth degree of humility is, when one hides
from his Abbot none of the evil thoughts which rise in his heart or the evils
committed by him in secret, but humbly confesses them. Concerning this the
Scripture exhorts us, saying: “Reveal thy way to the Lord and trust in Him.”
And it says further: “Confess to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures
forever.” And the Prophet likewise says: “I have acknowledged my sin to Thee
and my injustice I have not concealed. I said I will confess against myself my
injustice to the Lord; and Thou hast forgiven the wickedness of my sins.” The
Rule of St. Benedict, CHAPTER 7: On Humility (Part 9)
Study
How God answers us depends on the disposition
of our hearts when we ask the question.
The tricks and traps continue as the Sadducees
try to snare Jesus into rhetorical riddles.
This time, the questions focus on the experience of a woman who had many
husbands when she gets to heaven. By
human standards, they want to know whose wife she will be when she gets to
heaven.
Jesus teaches about the differences between
heaven and earth. However, the more
important teaching is that the Lord is God of the living, guiding us to his
path of peace, not division. We can remain
close to Him through prayer as we hear in the first reading when the prayers of
Raguel’s daughter Sarah were heard and answered.
Tobit’s heart and Sarah’s heart were open to
the work of the Lord in her life. She
poured out her ego and replaced it with prayer.
The Sadducees were open to arresting Jesus, not changing the direction
that they looked for power. They bottled
up their power internally and did not pour it out.
Sarah’s prayers were answered. The Sadducees questions were not springing
from a humble heart or mindset. Their pride allowed evil thoughts to rise up to
betray Jesus. Sarah set aside her
desires to allow the Lord to work in her life.
Action
According to www.americancatholic.org website,
here is part of the story of today’s saints:
One of 22 Ugandan
martyrs, Charles Lwanga is the patron of youth and Catholic action in most of
tropical Africa. He protected his fellow pages (aged 13 to 30) from the
homosexual demands of the Bagandan ruler, Mwanga, and encouraged and instructed
them in the Catholic faith during their imprisonment for refusing the ruler’s
demands.
For his own
unwillingness to submit to the immoral acts and his efforts to safeguard the
faith of his friends, Charles was burned to death at Namugongo on June 3, 1886,
by Mwanga’s order.
Like Charles
Lwanga, we are all teachers and witnesses to Christian living by the examples
of our own lives. We are all called upon to spread the word of God, whether by
word or deed. By remaining courageous and unshakable in our faith during times
of great moral and physical temptation, we live as Christ lived.
On his African tour in 1969, Pope Paul VI told 22 young Ugandan converts that "being a Christian is a fine thing but not always an easy one."
What are your difficult challenges? How can Sarah, Tobit and Charles Lwanga help
you to tackle them with humility?
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