Word to the Wise
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 - Wednesday in the Second Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Samuel 17:32-33, 37, 40-51 and Mark 3:3-6]Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?
Observance of the sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments and was a distinct characteristic of Judaism in the midst of their pagan Roman rulers as well as surrounding non-Jewish cultures! The attitude that Jesus consistently took about the sabbath was not as strict as that of the Pharisees. Healing would have been considered "work" and to heal someone on the sabbath would be a violation of a sacred law! Of course, Jesus was well aware that he scandalized these pious folks by healing the man in a synagogue on the sabbath. We know from another occasion that he accused the Pharisees of hypocrisy because they did not hesitate to see that their farm animals got to water or rescue them from harm on the sabbath. They remain silent when he puts the question to them that is quoted above! Let's fast forward to today! How long is our "sabbath?" Is it as long as the shortest Mass at the parish? What else do we do on the sabbath? People of my generation and older can remember the issue of conscience about doing "servile work" on the sabbath! Did that include mowing the lawn? If we need an example of what secular culture has done to Christian faith, we don't have to look any further than what has happened to Sunday observance. Efforts by pope and bishops to stem that tide have not been terribly successful. A student once asked me sincerely if it is true that Catholics "have to" go to Mass on Sunday! It is not uncommon to hear someone ask me if going to church on some other day in the week will "count" for Sunday! This really misses the point of the universal witness of the community by placing it on the individual. Mind you, I'm not advocating a return to the "blue laws" or shutting down the whole community (although there's lots we could do without if we thought about it). Pastors might well take some responsibility for not making the observance very attractive, but this observance is something well within our power to do and a powerful witness to an all-pervading secular culture. AMEN
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