Friday, July 15, 2016 15th Week in Ordinary Time 1st Reading: Is 38: 1-6. 21-22. 7-8 Gospel: Matthew 12:1-8
It happened that Jesus walked through the wheat fields on a Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and began to pick some heads of wheat and crush them to eat the grain. When the Pharisees noticed this, they said to Jesus, “Look at your disciples; they are doing what is prohibited on the Sabbath!”
Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he and his men were hungry? He went into the house of God, and they ate the bread offered to God, although neither he nor his men had the right to eat it, but only the priests. And have you not read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the Temple break the Sabbath rest, yet they are not guilty?
“I tell you, there is greater than the Temple here. If you really knew the meaning of the words: It is mercy I want, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent.
“Besides the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
Most of the trees I climbed as a kid had dark bottles hanging from every fruit -bearing branch. These bottles didn’t disturb me until I heard from grownups that those dark bottles contained poison, and that the fruits had their way of absorbing the poison as they repined.
Today I don’t believe in hanging dark bottles anymore but I still believe adults can be shrewd. The Pharisees excelled in this art. Consider how they were able to convict the Apostles for violating the Sabbath Law when they were only picking heads of grains. The Sabbath Law was not that harsh. But the Pharisees were too astute in making them appear like big-time lawbreakers.
Their zeal to observe the Law gave birth to about 613 enabling laws. In time the religious leaders imposed strict adherence to the Law – the kind they were only supposed to impose on themselves. Shrewd as serpents, they found ways to exact compliance. Every narrow miss was heavily condemned, and every condemnation gave these hypocrites the occasion to add a feather to their phylacteries. They’d exclaim: “My zeal consumes me because your enemies forget your words” (Psalm 119:139).
Those who hanged those dark bottles were shrewd. But at least their shrewdness had legal basis for owners of fruit trees have the right to ward off thieves. The shrewdness of the Pharisees on the other hand was malicious. It was meant to throw their weight around. Far be it from our religious leaders that they become as shrewd. Descending to the level of the Pharisees is poison to God’s flock. –(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM., MAPM., MMExM., REB., Email: [email protected].
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