“He is not God of the dead but of the living.” // Mark 12:27

I love a good series. Book, movie, or television, I love when a creator builds upon an intricate world they’ve made or further develops beloved characters and the relationships we’ve watched unfold. I especially enjoy when they’ve added hidden details or nods to other parts of their stories that you might not notice if you haven’t read carefully or are starting in the middle of the series. 

Unsurprisingly, I also love it when the daily readings for Mass have a clear connection to one another. There is always wisdom to be gained from praying with all Scripture passages selected for the day, but I find it especially fruitful (even exciting) when I read the Gospel and notice that there is a direct reference to another reading for the day. 

On its own, I don’t know that I would have made the connection of the marital situation the Sadducees pose to Jesus in Mark’s Gospel (see Mark 12:18-23) to that of Sarah in the Book of Tobit (see Tobit 3:7-8). But in noticing the relationship between the two passages, the Word was opened up in new ways for me. 

Previously, I saw the question of a woman with seven husbands as hyperbolic and posed to trick Jesus. But on hearing the tale of Sarah and the death of her seven husbands (maybe not brothers, but all close relatives), I was left wondering if the Sadducees knew the story of  Tobit, Tobiah, and Sarah, even though it was not a part of the Jewish Scripture, having been composed in the exile from Jerusalem. If they did know, it seems the story should have left them empathizing with their pain and in awe of their prayers and praise of God during such devastating times. 

And with this new insight, I’m left wondering: where in my own life is my focus on the wrong thing? 

Sisters, where do we ignore the pain and prayers of others, focusing on what we deem more important? And how can we always turn our eyes and our hearts to the God “not of the dead but of the living”?