Gospel: Lk 6:1-5
WHILE Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry? How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions.” Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”
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In the Old Testament, Sabbath is a day set aside for rest and worship, since it is linked to God’s rest after creation, and it is made holy by God (cf Gn 2:2-3). It is a day of remembering God’s gift of creation, and its observance is enshrined in the Ten Commandments: “Remember the sabbath day – keep it holy” (Ex 20:8).
When Jesus declares, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath” (Mk 2:27), he opens up a new vision to see every law in the context of human need. The Law is not self-serving but is meant to recognize the Lordship of God in all creation, which includes man as the highest of God’s creatures. The worship of God is translated into the care of all creation. “For the Christian, Sunday is above all an Easter celebration, wholly illumined by the glory of the Risen Christ. It is the festival of the ‘new creation’” (Dies Domini, 8). As Paul says, “All things were created through him and for him” (Col 1:16).
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SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord,” ST PAULS, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.
