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Theo Tigno
7/14/2011 5:33 pm

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Friday, July 15th 2011
Matthew 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."

Dawg's Thought:

Today's prayer intention - for those who struggle with addiction.

"The 'sabbath' was the day the Jews set aside for worshipping God. God himself, the originator of the sabbath, ordered the Jewish people to avoid certain kinds of work on this day to leave them free to give more time to God. As time went by, the rabbis complicated this divine precept: by Jesus' time they had extended to thirty-nine the list of kinds of forbidden work ... In the casuistry of the scribes and Pharisees, plucking ears of corn was the same as harvesting, and crushing them was the same as milling--types of agricultural work forbidden on the sabbath." - Navarre Bible commentary

I once went to confession after only a few days after to confess the same sin. When I confirmed in the confession that I had confessed the same sin only a few days before, he suggested that I wait at least a week the next time I went.

Thinking back to his advise, I wonder if at times we make the good things that God has given us to be more about ourselves versus about our relationship with Him.

It reminds me of the many times I prayed a Rosary without entering into the meditation. It was about the "knowledge" of praying the Rosary and the "act" of praying the Rosary. Yet, it was the prayer that was missing.

The scribes "knew" that it was unlawful to do agricultural work on the sabbath. Yet, they forgot that the sabbath wasn't so that they could feel justified, but so that they could give more time to God.

The idea of feeling justified sounds similar to allowing women to abort their children because they're going to do it anyway. It also sounds like the parent who works long hours away from their children so that they can give their kids the best. Are we missing the fact that God is Person ... Three Persons, in fact. As a Person, relational. To allow the homosexual to continue in unchastity isn't giving that person the dignity of living a chaste life. To use God to prove that you are right, or in my case, as merely a way to "be right," seems to miss the point.

Let us rejoice in God Who invites us into communion with Him. Knowing this, let us rejoice in His ways which is the means through which we come to this beautiful relationship. Let us rejoice in His ways as an opportunity to dialogue with Our Lord and enter into His mercy.

Let us rejoice in the Son of Man, Who is Lord of the sabbath. Take care and God Bless.
 

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