Word to the Wise
Saturday, September 4, 2010 - Saturday in the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Corinthians 4:6b-15 and Luke 6:1-5]"Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?" Jesus said to them in reply; "Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry? How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions?" Then he said to them, "The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath." (Luke)
Today's gospel scripture should be read along with the one for Monday. The second one follows on the first and both are about Jesus and the sabbath law, but it may as well have been any of the 613 precepts of the Mosaic Law. However, the sabbath law was (and still is for Jews) a major matter among those 613! When Jesus declares that HE is "lord of the sabbath," he is not just saying (as one of us might say) that he is "above the law." He is quite a bit more than that, even if his audience is not quite ready to understand it. Jesus is "Son of David." If David could ignore the law in time of particular need, the 'Son of David,' who is far superior can do the same! The human need of hunger trumps the legal observance in this instance. On Monday, the healing of a man with a withered hand on the sabbath in the synagogue raises the same issue. It is not just a matter of Jesus showing the Pharisees who is the real "boss," but of recognizing the true meaning of any religious law! When I was a boy all those years ago, our catechism class would raise the issue of "servile" work on Sunday! That was narrowly interpreted as doing work for which one was paid! For some, it extended even to mowing the lawn at one's own house. Yet, I'm sure no one objected to the doctor taking care of us on a Sunday if we broke an arm playing in the yard!!!! Indeed, Jesus pointed out elsewhere in the gospels that the Pharisees had no objection of watering their animals or rescuing them from a ditch on the sabbath! Casual disregard of religious "law" (especially if it becomes an habitual attitude) is just as wrong as rigid rigorism in enforcement (especially if this ignores fundamental human needs). I suppose it is inevitable that the most prominent examples of these extremes occur in the field of liturgical expression. Jesus reminds us of the priority of values here. The dignity of the human person should be a guiding principle of any law regulating religious observance. At the same time, we humans should remember that we are NOT the "lords of the sabbath." AMEN
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