GOSPEL POWER l SEPTEMBER 4, 2021 l SATURDAY

22nd Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Lk 6:1-5 

1 One sabbath while Jesus was going through the grainfields, his  disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands,  and ate them. 2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing  what is not lawful on the sabbath?” 3 Jesus answered, “Have you not  read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He  entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence,  which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and gave some to  his companions?” 5 Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of  the sabbath.”

 When the interpretation of the law ignores the  particularity of a given situation, then strict literal  observance is imposed at the expense of real human need.  In that case, the letter of the law is prioritized over its spirit. This is  what happens in today’s Gospel, where the hunger of Jesus’ disciples  is simply ignored by the Pharisees who interpret their acts of picking  and eating the heads of grain as a form of work that violates the  Sabbath rest. But since laws are given to promote life, not to diminish  it, then even the Sabbath law must yield to human necessity. What  gives greater honor to God on Sabbath day is the promotion of life,  not the rigid imposition of the law at all costs. Jesus asserts his  authority as the definitive interpreter of the Sabbath law by defending  the action of his disciples with an incontestable example from Israel’s  history. Lord Jesus, may we never forget that the heart of the law is love. Help  us always to seek the spirit of the law and not to confine ourselves to mere  observance of its letter. Amen.