The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Tuesday, 1/21/13

In Chapter Fourteen of his Letter to the Romans Paul reminded us that we are God’s servants. He wrote, “None of us lives as his own master.” In the chapter before that he wrote, “Let every person be subject to higher authority.”

However, Jesus in today’s Gospel tells us that our human nature at times calls for us to go around church rules.

The Jews were very strict about not working on the Sabbath, and so on Saturdays they even forbade people helping themselves to a handful of uncooked grain. Jesus himself kept all the rules of Judaism, but he didn’t see them as being iron clad.

Even though it was the Sabbath, his disciples became so hungry that they helped themselves to the standing grain, and he permitted it, saying, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

At times it’s more important for us to answer the call for human kindness rather than our obeying some church law. Like, if a sick person needs our attention, we should not leave him or her to avoid missing Sunday Mass.