Passing through a field, the disciples were hungry and began
to pick heads of grain and eat them—an action certainly permitted in the Old
Testament Law. However, doing so on the
Sabbath was strictly prohibited. So the Pharisees
accused Jesus of violating the Law by "working" on the Sabbath: “Six days there are for doing work, but the
seventh day is the sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD. Anyone who does
work on the sabbath day shall be put to death.”
You heard that right: to willfully reject the covenant
command and to be engaged in manual labor instead of worshipping God on the
Sabbath was a death penalty offense under the prohibitions of the Sinai
Covenant. God knew that Sabbath worship
was indispensable for forming the religious identity of Israel and helping them
remember who they were called to be, so violating the Sabbath carried the
greatest penalty.
Jesus challenged the Pharisees' understanding of the
covenant command by teaching that acts of mercy and ministry are acceptable
"works" on the Sabbath and He told them He has the authority from God
to offer such a teaching.
If we were to continue reading this passage from Matthew,
Chapter 12, we’d hear how the Pharisees left the Temple area and took counsel
against Jesus to put him to death for seeming to undermine God’s law.
Jesus allows works of mercy and ministry on the Sabbath:
feed the hungry, feed your family, get in a car and visit the nursing home
after morning Mass. Mercy does not
violate the worship we owe to God, but flows from it. At the very conclusion of Holy Mass, the
priest or deacon even sends out Christians to go do the work of God, spreading
the Gospel, which is the work of mercy: he says, “God in peace, glorifying the
Lord by your Life. Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.”
Unfortunately, for many Christians, Sunday has become not a
day for the Lord, but a day for glorifying themselves, for pursuing personal
ambitions—a day for taking instead of a day for giving.
Even though the consequence for violating the Sabbath isn’t
physical death, in a sense, it is worse: withholding the honor and worship due
to God extinguishes the life of Grace in our souls.
Sunday is not merely a day to catch up on yard work,
shopping, and bills, but to strengthen the bond of love which matters most, our
love of God. I know I’m sort of
preaching to the choir here by talking about Sunday mass during at a weekday
Mass, but I do so to strengthen our resolve to draw others back to this most
fundamental Christian practice. It is an
act of mercy, therefore, an act of love, to remind fallen away Catholics, that
Sunday is the day of Christian Sabbath.
May we be committed to going out to all corners of the earth
to proclaim Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, for the glory of God and salvation
of souls.
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