9th Week, Ordinary Time, Thursday, June 3
Tobit 6:10-11; 7:1, 9-14; 8:4-9 / Mark 11:5-17
Tobiah and Sarah pray together: They asked God to bless their marriage.
***
What role does prayer play in our own preparation for marriage? In our own marriage? Do we pray together with our own family? "Lord, place your hand on his shoulder. Whisper your voice in his ear. Put your love in his heart. Help him fulfill your plan in his life." Anonymous, "Wife's Prayer for Her Husband"
***
The Bible is the word of God in human words.
There is no other way in which God can speak to us and we can speak to God and
about God than in the human words and in human ideas. That is how' God created us.
We are never fully finished. We have to develop – that is one
element in our dominion over this world. Our knowledge too develops, even our
theology, our knowledge about God. It is good for us to recall: Even
when we develop, we are the same that we were before, only better. The
knowledge of God in us too develops. Our scientific understanding of nature
develops. We express our thoughts with the concept of nature that we have at a
particular stage of our development.
***
As the setting of Tobias is the time of the
exile, marriage according to the Jewish law was very important, so as to avoid
syncretism through mixed marriage. Hence, the marriage of young Tobias and his
bride is presented as a beautiful marriage.
As there were so many rules of the Law to
observe, it is easy to understand the desire of scribes to ask which was the
key commandment. Twice a day pious Jews professed the “Hear, Israel,” with the
love of God unique and very important. Jesus attaches to it love of neighbour
too, as a total commitment that he will practice on the cross.
***
Whenever people say that a marriage is made
in heaven, they are only saying one part. The other part is: so is lightning
and thunder. For those who are married, they will certainly agree. Marriage has
its share of lightning and thunder, regardless of whether the marriage is made
in heaven or not. The prayer of Tobias in the 1st reading may have reminded
some married couples that this was a reading that they chose for their wedding
Mass. It may also remind them of another thing - in the run-up to their wedding
and in the flurry of wedding preparations, did they say this prayer together.
The marriage of Tobias and Sarah may be made
in heaven, even the angel Raphael was sent to bring them together, but surely
there was lightning and thunder so much so that Tobias asked Sarah to pray
together so that God will bring them to old age together. Surely for Tobias and
Sarah, nothing was to be taken for granted, and more so for a life-long union
in marriage, all the more God's blessings must be invoked.
If that is what it takes to keep a marriage
together, then it would take no less to keep the commandment of love that Jesus
stated in the gospel. To love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with
all our mind and with all our strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves,
is certainly not possible without prayer.
But it is a commandment made in heaven, and
there will be lightning and thunder in carrying it out. But angels will be sent
to help us to fulfill it. We only need to pray and invoke God's blessings to
accomplish it.
***
Prayer
God our Father, you want your heart to be the
measure of our love, but you are always greater than our heart. In this Eucharist, let your Son give us a
heart of flesh in which burns a fire of love that cannot be extinguished, and
that prompts us to follow him all the way to you and to all you have entrusted
to us. We ask you this through Christ,
our Lord. Amen
