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FIRST
READING: Tobit 3:
1 - 11, 16 - 17
1
Then in my grief I wept, and I prayed in anguish, saying,
2
"Righteous art thou, O Lord; all thy deeds and all they ways are
mercy and truth, and thou dost render true and righteous judgment for
ever.
3
Remember me and look favorably upon me; do not punish me for my sins
and for my unwitting offences and those which my fathers committed
before thee.
4
For they disobeyed thy commandments, and thou gavest us over to
plunder, captivity, and death; thou madest us a byword of reproach in
all the nations among which we have been dispersed.
5
And now thy many judgments are true in exacting penalty from me for
my sins and those of my fathers, because we did not keep thy
commandments. For we did not walk in truth before thee.
6
And now deal with me according to thy pleasure; command my spirit to
be taken up, that I may depart and become dust. For it is better for
me to die than to live, because I have heard false reproaches, and
great is the sorrow within me. Command that I now be released from my
distress to go to the eternal abode; do not turn thy face away from
me."
7
On the same day, at Ecbatana in Media, it also happened that Sarah,
the daughter of Raguel, was reproached by her father's maids,
8
because she had been given to seven husbands, and the evil demon
Asmodeus had slain each of them before he had been with her as his
wife. So the maids said to her, "Do you not know that you
strangle your husbands? You already have had seven and have had no
benefit from any of them.
9
Why do you beat us? If they are dead, go with them! May we never see
a son or daughter of yours!"
10
When she heard these things she was deeply grieved, even to the
thought of hanging herself. But she said, "I am the only child
of my father; if I do this, it will be a disgrace to him, and I shall
bring his old age down in sorrow to the grave.
11
So she prayed by her window and said, "Blessed art thou, O Lord
my God, and blessed is thy holy and honored name for ever. May all
thy works praise thee for ever.
16
The prayer of both was heard in the presence of the glory of the
great God.
17
And Raphael was sent to heal the two of them: to scale away the white
films of Tobit's eyes; to give Sarah the daughter of Raguel in
marriage to Tobias the son of Tobit, and to bind Asmodeus the evil
demon, because Tobias was entitled to possess her. At that very
moment Tobit returned and entered his house and Sarah the daughter of
Raguel came down from her upper room.
PSALM:
Psalms 25:
2 - 9
2
In thee, O my God, I put my trust; let me not be ashamed.
3
Neither let my enemies laugh at me: for none of them that wait on
thee shall be confounded.
4
Let all them be confounded that act unjust things without cause.
shew, O Lord, thy ways to me, and teach me thy paths.
5
Direct me in thy truth, and teach me; for thou art God my Saviour;
and on thee have I waited all the day long.
6
Remember, O Lord, thy bowels of compassion; and thy mercies that are
from the beginning of the world.
7
The sins of my youth and my ignorances do not remember. According to
thy mercy remember thou me: for thy goodness' sake, O Lord.
8
The Lord is sweet and righteous: therefore he will give a law to
sinners in the way.
9
He will guide the mild in judgment: he will teach the meek his ways.
GOSPEL:
Mark 12:
18 - 27
18
And there came to him the Sadducees, who say there is no
resurrection; and they asked him, saying:
19
Master, Moses wrote unto us, that if any man's brother die, and leave
his wife behind him, and leave no children, his brother should take
his wife, and raise up seed to his brother.
20
Now there were seven brethren; and the first took a wife, and died
leaving no issue.
21
And the second took her, and died: and neither did he leave any
issue. And the third in like manner.
22
And the seven all took her in like manner; and did not leave issue.
Last of all the woman also died.
23
In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise again, whose wife
shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.
24
And Jesus answering, saith to them: Do ye not therefore err, because
you know not the scriptures, nor the power of God?
25
For when they shall rise again from the dead, they shall neither
marry, nor be married, but are as the angels in heaven.
26
And as concerning the dead that they rise again, have you not read in
the book of Moses, how in the bush God spoke to him, saying: I am the
God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?
27
He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You therefore do
greatly err.
