Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter

Today's Mass Readings

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus says to us “if you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.” When I read that sentence, I find it a little off-putting, and I suspect most everyone else does also. I think this is because we tend to feel that God’s commandments are somewhat arbitrary and that they serve mainly to limit our enjoyment and prospects in life. However, I strongly suspect that this feeling is connected more with our fallen nature than with reality. And I certainly do not believe that this is how God sees His commandment and what He intends by them.

My evidence for this is found in Mark 2:23-28, and especially what Jesus says in verse 27. In this episode, Jesus and his disciples are walking through a field of grain, and because the disciples are hungry, they start picking some of the grain and eating it. However, some Pharisees see this, and because the day is the Sabbath, they ask Jesus why his disciples are violating the Sabbath. According to God’s commandments, the Sabbath is to be kept holy, and so no work is done on the Sabbath. But picking grain is work and so violates God’s commandment. Jesus does not get into an argument about whether picking grains counts as work, he simply states, in verse 27, that “the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” I believe that this sentence tells us what God intends for human beings in giving us His commandments. These are actually instructions telling us how to live a truly joyful and fulfilling human life. We only feel constrained by God’s commandments because we are fallen and tempted to sin. But when we try to live by God’s commandments and experience what living by them really feels like, we find out that God was right all along.

Reflection by Fr. Aquinas Keusenkothen, OSB