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GOSPEL POWER l JULY 15, 2022 - FRIDAY
GOSPEL POWER l JULY 15, 2022 - Friday of 15th Week in Ordinary Time
Saint Bonaventure, bishop and doctor of the Church
Gospel: Mt 12:1-8
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”
The events that the Sabbath law commemorates are acts of divine love and compassion — God bringing forth everything into existence (Ex 20:11) and liberating Israel from slavery in Egypt (Dt 5:15). The command to abstain from the usual occupation of the week aims at freeing the people to sanctify time through grateful remembrance of God’s benevolence. When rest-from work is exaggerated at the expense of the Sabbath’s original spirit as a commemorative celebration of divine love and compassion, then the law’s meaning is distorted. This is precisely what happens in today’s Gospel. The Pharisees prioritize rest-from-work over compassion for the hungry. But behind this distorted notion is also a plot to catch Jesus in error. But Wisdom-incarnate cannot be outwitted. Through incontestable examples from Israel’s history (1 Sm 21:1-5) and prophetic tradition (Hos 6:6), Jesus reduces his adversaries to silence and authenticates his claim to be the ultimate interpreter of the Sabbath law.
Lord Jesus, may our reflection on the Jewish Sabbath help us to appreciate and to live our Christian day of rest with the right dispositions. Amen.
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By Daughters of St. Paul | Phil-Malaysia- PNG-Thai Province
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GOSPEL POWER l JULY 15, 2022 - Friday of 15th Week in Ordinary Time
Saint Bonaventure, bishop and doctor of the Church
Gospel: Mt 12:1-8
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”
The events that the Sabbath law commemorates are acts of divine love and compassion — God bringing forth everything into existence (Ex 20:11) and liberating Israel from slavery in Egypt (Dt 5:15). The command to abstain from the usual occupation of the week aims at freeing the people to sanctify time through grateful remembrance of God’s benevolence. When rest-from work is exaggerated at the expense of the Sabbath’s original spirit as a commemorative celebration of divine love and compassion, then the law’s meaning is distorted. This is precisely what happens in today’s Gospel. The Pharisees prioritize rest-from-work over compassion for the hungry. But behind this distorted notion is also a plot to catch Jesus in error. But Wisdom-incarnate cannot be outwitted. Through incontestable examples from Israel’s history (1 Sm 21:1-5) and prophetic tradition (Hos 6:6), Jesus reduces his adversaries to silence and authenticates his claim to be the ultimate interpreter of the Sabbath law.
Lord Jesus, may our reflection on the Jewish Sabbath help us to appreciate and to live our Christian day of rest with the right dispositions. Amen.