Tuesday, January 21, 2014
2nd Week in Ordinary Time 1st Reading:
1 Sam 16:1-13
Gospel Reading: Mk 2:23-28
One Sabbath Jesus was walking through grain fields. As his disciples walked along with him, they began to pick the heads of grain and crush them in their hands.
Then the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look! they are doing what is forbidden on the Sabbath!”
And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did in his time of need, when he and his men were very hungry? He went into the house of God when Abiathar was High Priest and ate the bread of offering, which only the priests are allowed to eat, and he also gave some to the men who were with him.” Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is master even of the Sabbath.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Man needs to rest on a Sabbath (now moved to Sunday to honor the day of the resurrection) in order to look at what he had done during the week and relate them to the meaning of life. The Jews carried this mandate of resting to the extreme to the degree that the Sabbath practically immobilized people. This resulted to a very burdensome Sabbath because the exaggeration prevented people from attending even to some very basic necessities. In addressing this issue Jesus reminded that the Sabbath was made for humans and not the other way around.
Today we have swung to the opposite extreme by allocating no time for reflection on the Lord’s Day. We must caution ourselves against “workaholism” as this can lead to embarrassing situations. A story is told of a young workaholic businessman who had just started his own firm and was so desperate in making it succeed.
Sitting in his office, he saw a man come into the outer office. Wishing to impress his first client, the businessman picked up the phone and started to pretend he had a big business deal in progress. He threw huge figures around and made giant commitments.
Finally he hung up and asked the visitor, “How may I serve you?” “Naah, I’m from the local telephone company, I’ve come here to activate your phone lines”. You can be in a similar embarrassing situation if you allow work to enslave you.
One indication that work has taken center stage in our lives is the unwillingness to allocate time for the Lord. Exhorting people not to be enslaved by work, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said: “At the same time, it is indispensable that people not allow themselves to be enslaved by work or to idolize it, claiming to find in it the ultimate and definitive meaning of life.” (Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, 74). – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM.
Email:dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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