Saturday,
September 03, 2016
22nd Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: 1 Cor 4: 6b-15
Gospel: Lk 6:1-5
One Sabbath Jesus was going through the cornfields and his disciples began to pick heads of grain crushing them in their hands for food. Some of the Pharisees asked them, “Why do you do what is forbidden on the Sabbath?” Then Jesus spoke, “Have you never read what David did when he and his men were hungry?” He entered the house of God, took and ate the bread of the offering and even gave some to his men, though only priests are allowed to eat that bread.” And Jesus added, “The Son of Man is Lord and rules over the Sabbath.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
The Pharisees apprehended Jesus and his disciples for violating the Sabbath prohibition against work. But they were only picking at random some grains to nibble while walking through the field. The owner of the field did not even question it. But the Pharisees enlarged the act beyond proportion to make them appear illegal. The Pharisees were like that. They made the lives of people miserable under the guise of zeal for God’s commands. Jesus correctly condemned the Pharisees in these words, “Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them” (Luke 11:46).
God gave the Law to Moses under the covenant of love precisely to free the people from oppression. But some zealous religious leaders crafted rules and regulations to make people comply with the Law. These turned out to be stricter. Jesus’ heart bled for the victims and exclaimed: “Come unto me you who labor and find life burdensome and I will refresh you; take my yoke upon your shoulder for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” He was referring to his law of love.
Jesus restored the Law to its proper place. His declaration that the Sabbath was made for man and not the other way around was an invitation to reflect on the centrality of human beings to God’s plan. In the creation narrative of Genesis, God created man only after he had prepared the world for him. God equipped the world, so to speak, before he created him. He even created him in his image and likeness and set him as master of creation. This preferential option cannot allow laws that oppress rather than empower.
Jesus freed us from the yoke of the Law when he gave the Law of Love. Loving others is still onerous but there is joy in complying with it since God will take it personally what we do to the least. Seeing God in the neighbor we find joy in complying with the Law of Love. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM, MMExM, MAPM, REB. Email: [email protected].
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