An act of love, a voluntary taking on oneself of some of the pain of the world, increases the courage and love and hope of all."
- Dorothy
Day
(How might you help to lighten the load of another today?) |
EX 11:10—12:14; PS 116:12-13, 15 AND 16BC, 17-18
MT 12:1-8
Jesus was
going through a field of grain on the sabbath.
His disciples were hungry
and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him,
"See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath."
He said to the them, "Have you not read what David did
when he and his companions were hungry,
how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering,
which neither he nor his companions
but only the priests could lawfully
eat?
Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath
the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath
and are innocent?
I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.
If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
you would not have condemned these innocent men.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath."
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
Walking through standing grain rings a bell in my experience, a reminiscence of childhood walks along still green wheat fields with my dad and brother. We were not hungry, we just picked heads of wheat for the fun of it, for the taste of the still milky grains. Jesus’ situation was different. He was an itinerant rabbi without income, depending on people’s goodness of heart and at times both he and his disciples were hungry, as the gospel reading tells us was the case
today. So they helped themselves to a few heads of grain.
In my childhood case no one accused my brother or me of stealing: what is a few heads in a wheat field? Actually stealing was not the point of the Pharisees’ reproach either. What raised their hackles was the violation of a norm of behavior and this
is precisely what Jesus rejects: the absolutizing of norms, placing norms above people. When we absolutize, we do not make allowances for special circumstances: upbringing, acumen, sickness, special needs... Jesus always made allowances. Remember the woman caught in adultery: financial pressure? blackmailing? The norm was valid for Jesus: you shall not commit adultery. But: neither do I condemn you... don’t do it again. For Jesus caring for the person was more important than
caring for the rules.
We need to remain aware that the Sabbath is for people and not people for the Sabbath. Norms are for people, not vice versa.
- by Luis Rodriguez, S.J. Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Thirteenth Revelation, Chapter 40
“True love teacheth us that we
should hate sin only for love.”
“To me was shewed no harder hell than sin.”
“God willeth that we endlessly hate the sin and endlessly love the soul, as God loveth it”
And [when] we give our intent to love and meekness, by the working of mercy and grace we are made all fair and clean. As mighty and as wise as God is to save men, so willing He is. For Christ Himself is [the] ground of
all the laws of Christian men, and He taught us to do good against ill: here may we see that He is Himself this charity, and doeth to us as He teacheth us to do. For He willeth that we be like Him in wholeness of endless love to ourself and to our even-Christians: no more than His love is broken to us for our sin, no more willeth He that our love be broken to ourself and to our even-Christians: but [that we] endlessly hate the sin and endlessly love the soul, as God loveth it. Then shall we hate
sin like as God hateth it, and love the soul as God loveth it. And this word that He said is an endless comfort: I keep thee securely. |
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