Saturday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s gospel passage, Jesus and his disciples are passing through a field. The disciples are hungry so they begin picking the grain and eating it. This earns a rebuke from the Pharisees for both Jesus and the disciples. Jesus’ response sums up in this statement: The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. In this Jesus is referring to the fact that he is divine; that he is the Second Person of the Trinity Incarnate. As such He is the one who imposed the Law of the Sabbath, and indeed, the whole of the Law, upon the people of the Old Covenant.
Mark, in his retelling of this episode, adds something that gives us a clue into God’s intention in giving the Law. Mark records Jesus as saying, “the Sabbath was made for [human beings}, not [human beings] for the Sabbath.” This phrase suggests that God intends the Sabbath, and the whole Law, to be for the benefit of human beings. God’s commands often seem burdensome to us, and as something imposed on us from without. But this is actually an effect of our sinfulness. What we find when we try to live according to God’s law, and we are actually growing in virtue, is that God’s Law is truly freeing for us.
Reflection by Fr. Aquinas Keusenkothen, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections