Gospel Reading: Mk 2:23-28
As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the Sabbath, his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain. At this the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry? How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat, and shared it with his companions?” Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
Reflection
LORD EVEN OF THE SABBATH
Laws are made to promote the good of human beings, to prevent people from hurting others. Still, laws are not an end in themselves.
This is what Jesus is driving at in the Gospel when he and his disciples are accused of breaking the Sabbath. Using the example of David and his men who ate the bread of Presence in the Temple when they were hungry (cf 1 Sm 21:4-7), Jesus shows that if David and his companions were not declared sinful with that act, how can Jesus and his disciples be accountable for doing an analogous thing—in an even less blasphemous context of a field of grain, versus the Temple, as in David’s case?
Finally, alluding to creation theology, Jesus shows how in the beginning the Sabbath was made for man, and not the other way around. How much more should the Sabbath serve the Son of Man!
What is our attitude towards laws?
Do we have the tendency to absolutize them as if they were more important than people?
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SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord 2016,” ST. PAULS Philippines, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.