RBWords

     It seems appropriate, even if by coincidence, that on our national Labor Day holiday in the U.S.A. the gospel scripture assigned for this Monday in Ordinary Time (23rd week) is about labor!  Jesus heals a man in a synagogue on the sabbath!  To the scribes and Pharisees who were "watching him closely" what Jesus did was labor and was forbidden by what we would call the third of the Ten Commandments: "Remember to keep holy the Lord's Day."

     There are those of us who remember trying to figure out the traditional Catholic definition of "servile labor" to avoid breaking that commandment!  In certain Protestant traditions, Sunday meant literally spending the whole day at the church.  For many Sunday has become a day of rest and relaxation, but not for religious observance.  For others, it has become a workday because of their profession (medicine, firefighting, etc.).  And there is the funny bit of irony that the day we celebrate Labor is a holiday!

     The confrontation between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees in today's gospel is over values.  For the scribes and Pharisees, the law about working on the Sabbath was an expression of God's will.  Jesus replies that the sacredness of life and the human person is also God's will and is a higher law.  In traditional Catholic theology, the expression is Cura animarum, suprema lex (the care of souls is the highest law).  

     During this terrible time of pandemic, when so many have lost their employment and cannot support family or pay rent or medical expenses, the sacredness of labor and its meaning in human life take on a special significance. "Working from home" has become part of our national vocabulary.  It also calls our attention to the special tensions that arise when the children cannot go to their "work" at school and compete for attention from the parent "working from home!"  This year's celebration of Labor Day gives us much to pray and think about.  AMEN