Tuesday, January 20, 2026 - Tuesday in the 2nd Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Sam 16:1-13 and Mark 2:23-28]
"The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath." [Mark]
Jesus' "common sense" interpretation of the law of the sabbath, enshrined in Genesis and enacted in the Mosaic Law (which has come down to us in the form of the third commandment of the Ten Commandments), was deeply troubling to the Pharisees. The law was the law; no ifs, ands or buts. Yet, as Jesus points out on another occasion, the Pharisee didn't hesitate to water their farm animals. Why, then, was plucking grain to satisfy hunger or, even more, healing someone who has been suffering for years, wrongful on the sabbath? [cf. Luke 13:15] In short, the Pharisaic attitude lacked a common sense perspective. But, the Pharisees would have been more deeply troubled by Jesus' claim to be "lord of the sabbath." All they could see was a troublesome Jew who did not respect God's law. He could not have been the "lawmaker" in person!!!
In 1998, Pope St. John Paul II wrote an apostolic letter, In dies Domini [On the Lord's Day] in which he urged the church to rediscover the meaning of Sunday observance and its celebration of the resurrection of the Lord in the Eucharist. The Sunday Christian sabbath is not the Jewish sabbath, which is Saturday. But the truth of our faith which we celebrate on Sunday deserves our respect and observance instead of treating it as just another "business as usual" day. Secular erosion of the significance of "the Lord's day," should be a concern to all of us. Efforts, however, to legislate it in civil law (such as "blue laws" prohibiting purchase of alcohol on Sunday) have not been very successful. What is needed more is a change in attitude about faith and the significance of the observance of the Lord's Day. It's not just "Sunday Mass!" AMEN
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