Word to the Wise
Saturday, September 6, 2025 - Saturday in the 22th Week in Ordinary Time
[Col 1:21-23 and Luke 6:1-5]You once were alienated and hostile and mind because of evil deeds; God has now reconciled you in the fleshly Body of Christ through his death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him, provided that you persevere in the faith, firmly grounded, stable, and not shifting from the hope of the Gospel that you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, am a minister. [Colossians] "The Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath." [Luke]
The "cosmic vision" of Colossians is brought down to the earthly existence of humans striving to be faithful in a culture that featured many different religious currents. St. Paul's message of encouragement to persevere would include the modern phrase: "Stay on message!" That message is certainly aimed at the "nitty-gritty" of everyday life and how faith is to be lived on a practical basis . The line from the Gospel According to Luke, "The Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath," calls attention both to religious observance AND to the last "day" of the creation story in Genesis (Gen. 2:3) on which God made holy the sabbath day.
The practice of Sunday worship was adopted early on by the Christian community in remembrance of the resurrection of Jesus instead of the traditional Jewish observance. Jesus' attitude about sabbath observance gained him enemies among the religious authorities of his time. He healed people and allowed his disciples to "pluck grain" (in today's gospel) on the sabbath, both of which were considered "work." And he proclaimed himself to be "Lord of the sabbath!" One cannot blame those authorities for their feelings. On a Catholic level, a casual attitude toward Sunday Mass can be destructive to the Church. At the center of all of this, however, is what we owe to the Lord himself and our need to acknowledge the gift of salvation offered at the Eucharist. Christ is present to us in a unique way at that celebration, but he is also present to us in all of creation that surrounds us, especially in our neighbor. AMEN