Word to the Wise
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - Wednesday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time
[1 Samuel 17:32-33, 37, 40-51 and Mark 3:1-6]Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?
There is a very interesting dynamic going on in this incident. Who is really "doing good" on the Sabbath? Are the Pharisees "doing good" by defending the sabbath against Jesus' act of healing? (Note, both Jesus and the cripple could have waited. This wasn't an emergency.) The irony may be that the Pharisees by doing what they thought was good are also doing something evil - namely plotting on the sabbath to kill Jesus! They wind up saying that it is unlawful to do good on the sabbath and (and by their conduct) lawful to do evil! Remembering that in the Gospel of Mark, there is a bigger picture, this incident is the fifth in a group of five controversial encounters between Jesus and the religious authorities. They illustrate the continual adversarial nature of Jesus' mission - a battle with the forces of darkness and evil. The Gospel of Mark establishes this dramatic tension early in Jesus' mission. At the same time, we are invited to think about the question of extending the range of good that may be done on the sabbath. Is Jesus merely provoking the Pharisees or actually promoting a new concept of the sabbath? In the fourth controversial encounter, Jesus proclaims himself to be "lord even of the sabbath!" In doing this, he appears to his adversaries to be claiming to be greater than God whose law established the sabbath as part of the covenant! Of course, from our perspective, Jesus' IS God, and therefore able to define the sabbath! Among other things that we can take away from this incident, we might just ponder the question of the sabbath and how we observe it? Is it different simply because we go to Mass and then resume our daily routine? Remember the old Baltimore Catechism category of "servile work?" Are there larger forces at work gradually destroying the "sabbath" observance altogether? Our questions and responses may surprise us. AMEN
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