Homily: Ninth Wednesday of Ordinary Time

Ninth Wednesday of Ordinary Time (Tobit 3:1-11a) “Prayer Leads to Hope”

We read about two people in deep despair in the Gospel. Tobit has been blinded. Sarah has married seven times and has lost seven husbands. We might be shocked that Sarah is contemplating suicide. The only other person that I can remember committing such an act in the Bible is Judas after he betrays Jesus.

We are reminded that we all can fall into a state of depression. This can often lead us to a very dark place. We have many in our society who are taking their own life. When we get to that point this is usually a psychological crisis. Also, it is a spiritual crisis.

When we have such feelings, we usually feel that no one cares whether we live or die. There is a feeling that no one will miss us. There also may be a feeling that the world will be better off without us.

Sarah has a feeling that she is bringing embarrassment to her family. Marriage was an important part of family life. To have a daughter who was older and unmarried was considered strange. Raguel, Sarah’s father does not berate Sarah because of what has happened, but he is saddened by what his daughter is going through.

The servants are the ones who ridicule Sarah. The feeling of religious people at the time this all took place would be that Sarah must have been a terrible sinner, otherwise being a widow seven times over would never happen.

Sarah must have been searching for a reason. What had she done to deserve such a fate? We can imagine how her mind was racing and the wrong conclusions that she was jumping to.

There was one thing that was in her favor which is that she was still talking to God. She was praying. She must have believed that the Lord was listening to her. I often feel like the key to working oneself out of a spiritual funk is to keep praying. When we stop praying than we are in danger. In the end Sarah’s prayer is heard and she is saved from her fate. Her prayer showed that she was probably never going to harm herself. Her prayers saved her.

Reflection Questions:

1.    Have I ever been deeply depressed? How did I feel about God?

2.   Is suicide an acceptable option? Is allowing someone to die that is terminally ill the same as suicide?

  Dear Parishioners,

           The gym is filling up with treasures from our parishioners. The secondhand sale is shaping up. This is a wonderful fund raiser for our parish. This year the proceeds will help offset the cost for the new sound system in our Gathering Center.

          Saying this is a sound system is a little too simple. We will have an audio-visual system. We will have the capability of going on the internet and finding presentations we can show to a large group.

          Right now, we are using a lot of VCR’s and other outdated equipment. DVD’s and other such media are no longer available. There are also a lot of things we can get for free that would be wonderful to use for catechesis.

          The message is, be generous with your donations to the Rummage Sale. The mission of Sacred Heart would benefit greatly.

          May Our Lady pray for us,

          Fr. Mark