Lord of the Sabbath

Saturday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 86 (85):3, 5 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all the day long. O Lord, you are good and forgiving, full of mercy to all who call to you.

Collect God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, you may nurture in us what is good and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: 1 Corinthians 4:6-15; Psalm 114; Luke 6:1-5

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the cornfields, and his disciples began to pick some ears of corn, rub them in their hands and eat the grain. Some of the Pharisees asked, Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath? Jesus answered them, Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions. Then Jesus said to them, The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. (Luke 6:1-5)

Lord of the Sabbath In modern times we take the five or six-day working week so much for granted that we forget what a radical concept a day of rest was in ancient times. The weekly day of rest had no exact parallel in any other ancient civilisation. Leisure was for the wealthy and the ruling classes and never for the serving or labouring classes. The idea of a religious rest day each week was unimaginable. I have read a reference to Juvenal and Seneca calling the Sabbath “an example of Jewish indolence.” Ancient Egypt had numerous feasts, but not a regular Sabbath. It is to be noted that among the Ten Commandments — that pivotal charter for the living of revealed religion — the Sabbath is the one command involving a specific religious observance. The Sabbath observance thus holds rank with the other nine commandments. Moreover, it even found an important place in the first account of creation (Genesis 1). God is portrayed as resting at the end of his working week. His people are pleasing to God if they do likewise, then. Not only was the Sabbath observance pivotal in the practice of revealed religion, but it has been a major inheritance of Israel to the world. Though its sanctity is largely lost, the idea of the Sabbath rest at the end of the week is accepted everywhere — even the word “a sabbatical” is in common use. I say this to introduce the critical position of the Sabbath in the religious life of Israel in our Lord’s time, and the sensitive question of how man was to take his religious rest on that day. The Pharisees and their school had developed an elaborate system that, in their view, protected the Sabbath and ensured its fundamental place. Christ disregarded many of their regulations and showed that in their zeal for their own religious customs they had quite forgotten the weightier matters of the divine Law. There was a direct collision between the dominant religious party of the day and our Lord, and a principal issue was the observance of the Sabbath. Jesus sovereignly set aside many of their prescriptions on how this fourth commandment was to be observed. It was becoming increasingly a question of authority. Whose authority was supreme?

Our Gospel today (Luke 6:1-5) presents one occasion of this conflict. The disciples are spotted picking ears of corn on the Sabbath day and the scribes and Pharisees bring forward their complaint. Jesus’ disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath. It is not, Christ replied, and he cited the practice of David. He is pointing to the Scriptures and proving the correctness of his interpretation of the Sabbath. But he does more than show that he is a much greater interpreter of the Sabbath. He is the Sabbath’s Lord! Now, this is an astonishing remark and it was made calmly in the presence of his enemies who were determined to catch him out in his words. No prophet had ever said such a thing — it would have been preposterous to have suggested that Moses made such a claim. The Sabbath was the Lord’s Day, and here was someone stating that he himself was the Lord of the Sabbath. Who was the Lord of the Sabbath, but the Lord God of Israel? While at his trial before the Sanhedrin our Lord claimed to be divine and was put to death for it, he also made similar claims during his public ministry. We read of his being accosted by the religious authorities and, at their questioning, making the plainest of claims. I and the Father are one, he said to them. The Father works, so I work. Before Abraham ever was, I am. Here in our Gospel passage he speaks thus again. I am the Lord of the Sabbath. It is, in effect, yet another allusion to his divinity. He cannot be reduced to yet another religious authority that competes with the authority of the scribes and Pharisees. He is unique and he transcends all. Let our reading of this passage prompt us once again to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, Lord of the Sabbath and Lord of all. Let us also note that in Christ’s answer to the religious authorities he accepts the Sabbath — so let us truly accept it! We ought ask ourselves how we sanctify the Sunday. Is it a mere day of secular rest and recreation, or does it have an active religious dimension? Is it a day given to the Lord, and only in the Lord, a day of rest?

In the Old Testament, God commands his people to be holy, for he is holy (Leviticus 11:44). It is a command repeated by St Peter in his Letter (1 Peter 1:15): “be holy in all your conduct.” The Church has insisted constantly on the gravity of the Sabbath observance, which the Christian marks on the Sunday, the day of the Lord’s resurrection. Let us receive the baton of sanctity and run with it, resolving to make the observance of the Sabbath a fundamental feature of our Christian life, in which we acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord.

(E.J.Tyler)

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A Second Reflection: (1 Corinthians 4:6-13)

Spiritual Fatherhood It goes without saying that being a parent is a beautiful vocation. The parent generates new life and in so doing cooperates with God in bringing into being an immortal person with marvellous possibilities. But when we think of it, merely being a parent, merely bringing a new life into the world is not very grand if it is not accompanied by an earnest effort to bring the life of God to the child. It is this second calling which is obviously the greater. St Paul tells the Corinthians (1 Cor. 4: 13) that he is their sole spiritual father, having endowed them with life in Christ. By engaging in the mission of the Church in our everyday life we all share in that spiritual parenthood that brings Christ to others. The Church is the spouse of Christ and our spiritual mother. As members of the Church we are all called to a new kind of parentage, helping to generate in others the new life in Christ which God intends for them, and then to come to full maturity in Christ.

How wonderful it will be to meet in heaven those whom we have helped to beget in God!

(E.J.Tyler)

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