September 4, Saturday

TWENTY-SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

THE LAW HAS TO SERVE PEOPLE

      Paul reminds his Colossians that before their conversion they were estranged from God. Now that they have been reconciled with God and one another, they should remain

      A frequent sign of their own insecurity is that people seek security in laws and traditions. The more they insist on these, the more they try to bend people to these, the greater their insecurity. Laws are supposed to be in the service of the community, not vice versa. They may never become a block or a screen between people. They are not absolutes but servants of people.

 

First Reading: Colossians 1:21-23

You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got. But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence. You don’t walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message—just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. I, Paul, am a messenger of this Message.

 

Gospel: Luke 6:1-5

On a certain Sabbath Jesus was walking through a field of ripe grain. His disciples were pulling off heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands to get rid of the chaff, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing that, breaking a Sabbath rule?”

But Jesus stood up for them. “Have you never read what David and those with him did when they were hungry? How he entered the sanctuary and ate fresh bread off the altar, bread that no one but priests were allowed to eat? He also handed it out to his companions.”

Then he said, “The Son of Man is no slave to the Sabbath; he’s in charge.”

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
Jesus your Son came not to abolish the law
but to fill it with the dimensions of love.
Do not allow commandments and rules
to stand between you and us nor between people,
but let them lead us gently,
as good educators, to you and to our neighbor
and teach us to go beyond the law
in generosity and serving love.
Make us free with the freedom brought us
by your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection: 

The Lord’s Day

In Jesus’ time the feast of the Sabbath began on Friday evening at sunset. At that hour, in every village, a man climbed on the roof of the house and sounded the horn three times. At the first call, all the activities of the fields were suspended. All the household works were stopped with the second call. Then, when stars appeared in the sky, the person in-charge sounded the horn for the last time. Then mothers in the family placed a lighted lamp by the window of the house. It was the sign of a people’s joy who “would welcome” Saturday and received it with a lighted lamp, because Saturday – the Sabbath day – was considered “the bride and queen of Israel.” The book of Deuteronomy prescribed that on the Sabbath “Do not do any work” (Deut 5:14). As the centuries have passed, the rabbis had begun to define more minutely what activities were prohibited on the Sabbath. They identified 39, and each of them had 39 further specifications. Thus 39 x 39 amounted 1521 prohibited works. This is the background to the question on the disciples of Jesus violating the Sabbath. “Why are you doing something that is forbidden on the sabbath day?” In fact, Luke makes use of this incident to teach his community the actual meaning of the observance of “the Lord’s Day.” Jesus reminds them of the incident from the Old Testament where King David and his men ate the bread from the house of God, which only the priests were allowed to eat (1 Sam 21:6). Each sabbath, 12 loaves of fresh bread were set on a table in the Holy Place. Originally, the Sabbath was intended to be a day of overwhelming joy. The whole community would gather in the synagogue in the morning. There they prayed and listened to the Word of God. After the celebration, they engaged themselves in conversation, then to lunch with friends. Basically, it was intended to be a day spend with the Lord, in prayer, in meditation. Hence, the Lord’s Day is a time to spend with the Lord. That was exactly what the disciples were doing. They were spending their time with the Lord, listening to his Word. A day becomes holy only when and to the extent that it promotes human sanctity and not hatred and anger. Today there is another danger: that the “Lord’s Day” serves only to recover from the stress of the works of the week, to be able to start again, with more energy, the feverish activity in which one is involved. This is the snake biting its tail. To be truly humanising, the Lord’s Day must be time to devote to the Lord, to meditation and prayer and works of Charity

 

Video available on Youtube: The Lord’s Day