Wednesday of the 9th Week in Ordinary Time
2 Timothy 1:1-3, 6-12; Mark 12:18-27
Some years ago, a burglar tried to break into a school by climbing through a window. To avoid leaving fingerprints, he used a special adhesive on his gloves. What he didn’t realize until too late was that the glue was also effective on window frames. Police found him literally stuck to the scene of the crime.
As we just heard, the Sadducees were also stuck in a trap of their own making. Surely, their hypothetical example was foolproof, right? A woman married to seven brothers – they could see no way for Jesus to explain his way out of that one.
It must have looked to them like a great trap, and would have been if the assumption behind it was true. What assumption? That the afterlife is exactly like this life; people are married now, so they are married in eternity.
But, as our Lord implies when he opens their eyes to the meaning behind “the God of the living,” their vision of God is too small. Assuming they understand God’s revelation prevents them from seeing what God actually reveals and how things really are.
In other words, they put God in a box.
The real question is, do we ever do the same? In other words, do I ever catch myself saying things like: “I’ve always been impatient. I’ll never change,” or “That person will never come back to the Church,” or “I’ve committed this sin for years. Nothing will ever be different.”
Putting God in a box is convincing ourselves that tomorrow must look exactly like yesterday. That people never change. That we never change. That grace can only do so much. The problem is, it becomes self-fulfilling prophecy; nothing changes because I’ve accepted my own premise and adjusted my expectations and my behavior accordingly.
This drastically shortchanges God and leads us to think too little of what He can do in us.
Fortunately, St. Paul points Timothy – and us – in another direction. “Stir into flame the gift of God.” In other words, let’s be open to the power and action of grace of such gifts as those given to us by the Holy Spirit. The gospel suggests several gifts we desperately need, but I’d like to focus our attention on one in particular – the gift of understanding.
What a tremendous gift. Through it, the Holy Spirit helps us see more deeply into the truths of our faith. We begin to connect the dots. Things we may have heard for years suddenly begin to make sense in ways we never thought of before.
Opening ourselves up to the power and use of these gifts leads us to a life transformed by the power of God. The Sadducees couldn’t imagine resurrection because they underestimated God. We do the same whenever we look at our weaknesses, our sins, our disappointments, and conclude that nothing can change. The readings tell us otherwise. The God who raises the dead can certainly transform a human heart.
Let’s let Him out of the box.
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