Friday, July 17, 2015
15th Week in Ordinary Time 1st Reading: Ex 11:10—12:14
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 small dark bottles dangling from every fruit- bearing branch. I didn’t find them disturbing until a playmate warned me about what he heard from grown-ups. He heard that those dark bottles contained poison, and the fruits had their way of absorbing the poison as they repined.
Today I don’t believe in dark bottles anymore but I still believe grownups can be very shrewd. The Pharisees excelled in this art. Consider how they skillfully crafted arguments to convict the Apostles under the Sabbath Law provision against working on the Lord’s Day. But they were only picking heads of grains! The Pharisees were too astute in making mountain out of a small hill.
The zeal of the chosen people to observe the Law gave birth to up to 613 enabling laws and regulations. In time the religious leaders began to oblige the people to observe these laws with the same commitment they were required in observing the Commandments. The slightest violation was a golden opportunity for them to add a feather to their phylacteries. Then using Scriptures they’d exclaim: “My zeal consumes me because your enemies forget your words” (Psalm 119:139).
The grown-ups in my neighborhood were shrewd but at least they had a legal right against thieves to hang those dark bottles. The shrewdness of the Pharisees emerged from a pool of pure malice. They increased the burden of their own people who were already saddled with so many laws to observe. 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. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email:dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website:www.frdan.org.
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