Tuesday, 1/20/15
The Gospel tells a
story about the Pharisees accusing the Apostles of violating the Sabbath by
rubbing the husks off of handfuls of grain. Chapter Twenty of Exodus speaks of
God giving the Ten Commandment to Moses, and the Jews rightly saw the
commandment about keeping the Sabbath holy to mean they were to abstain from
manual labor.
But, as Jesus
pointed out, “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” We see this spelled out in Chapter
Twenty-three of Exodus where we read God’s reason for imposing the Sabbath on
landowners. 10. “For six days you may do
your work, but on the seventh day you must rest, that your ox and your ass may
also have rest, and that the son or our maidservant and the alien may be
refreshed.”
So, those of us who
get plenty of rest the other six days of the week need not feel obligated to be
idle on Sundays.
What is more, with
Jesus saying that church rules are made to help, not hinder, we should feel
free to skip Mass in order to look after a sick person.
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