Scandalous Pharisees

September 10, 2018
Monday, 23rd
Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: 1 Cor 5:1-8
Gospel: Luke 6:6-11
On a Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and began teaching. There was a man with a pa-ralyzed right hand and the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees watched him: Would Jesus heal the man on the Sabbath? If he did, they could accuse him.
But Jesus knew their thoughts and said to the man, “Get up and stand in the middle.” Then he spoke to them, “I want to ask you: what is allowed by the Law on the Sabbath, to do good or to do harm, to save life or destroy it?” And Jesus looked around at them all.
Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored, becoming as whole as the other. But they were furious and began to discuss with one another how they could deal with Jesus.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Happy 28th Anniversary Bandera! “Anniversary” is from two Latin words “annus” (year), and “versa” (turning back). By the way, “monthsary” is not the pro-per term for any celebration less than an anniversary. The right term is “mensiversary”. (The Latin “mensis” means month).
The Chosen People celebrated weekly the day God rested after creating the world. Call it “septemversary” because in Latin, week means “septem”. The weekly commemoration was even covered by a law called the Sabbath Law. Sabbath was considered so holy that no work was allowed on that day.
This hampered Jesus’ work. His ministry was closely associated with healing because people had nowhere else to go for a cure. But the Pharisees considered healing a major work, and therefore prohibited on a Sabbath. One Sabbath Day, a man whose right hand was paralyzed came to him for healing. The Pharisees were watching closely what Jesus would do. That was their only reason for following Jesus because they wanted to pin him down on any violation of the Mosaic Law.
Then Jesus asked them a question that was very well crafted. “What is allowed by the Sabbath Law: to do good or to do bad?” Any answer would have exposed the Pha-risees’ narrow and shallow interpretation of the Sabbath Law. If they answered that the Sabbath law allowed people to do good, they’d be exculpa-ting Jesus for healing the man on a Sabbath. A contrary answer would be a declaration of the Sabbath as inimical to good deeds. Such would be absurd since Sabbath was being revered as holy and therefore conducive to doing good.
The Pharisees avoided the trap by not answering the question. It was then that Jesus answered it for them. “The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath”. God bless Bandera on its 28th Anniversary! – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.

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