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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2013  SATURDAY IN THE TWENTY-SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

[Colossians 1:21-23 and Luke 6:1-5]

 

     The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.

 

     A few days ago, Jesus told his listeners in the synagogue on the Sabbath that he is the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah that he had read to them.  He was rejected by his hometown people.  During the next few days, Jesus demonstrated the power he claimed to have by driving out demons and healing the sick.  We are back to the Sabbath once more today and he faces a different set of adversaries, the Pharisees - devout and meticulous Jewish laymen.  They observe his disciples pulling grain and eating it, which would count as work on a Sabbath and would be strictly forbidden!  Jesus counters their objection by quoting an example from history - King David, no less, and then makes another startling claim:  "The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath!"  He thus acquires more opposition!

 

     The Pharisees get "bad press" in the gospels.  But Jesus' claim was a hard one for them to swallow.  They gave their lives and devotion to living out "Torah" and being faithful.  Galileans - e.g. Jesus and his disciples - were suspect because they lived side by side with non-Jews.  Mosaic observances had to be applied to different cultural circumstances.  This was unacceptable to Pharisees.  Jesus consistently taught and acted according to the principle that hunger and suffering required action even on the Sabbath, and he attacked Pharisees who would feed and water their livestock on a Sabbath but object to his healing someone or to his disciples pulling those grains of wheat on the Sabbath.  This tension between principle and practice continues to the present day!

 

     I often meet devout persons whose devotion is inspiring but who are also "prisoners" of that same devotion because they believe that everyone should be like them!  Certain devotional practices that often "defined" Catholics in the past are no longer as popular as before.  The external observances of "fish on Friday, confessions on Saturday, Mass on Sunday" all took on the same authority even though the difference between a "sacrament" and a "sacramental" (holy water, pious devotions) was taught even before Vatican II.  Jesus challenged his disciples and the Pharisees to learn what is important in being faithful to God.  If we find ourselves saying, "Why don't THEY do......?" or "I thought we are supposed to......"   it might be time to look carefully at how we express our faith.  It's true that the hungry and suffering of the world will be there every day.  And it is also true that we owe worship to God on the Sabbath.  We can do both without losing the importance of either!  AMEN