FRIDAY of 15th Week, uneven numbered year
“The disciples began to pick ears of corn and eat them.The Pharisees noticed it and said to Jesus: ’Look, your disciples are doing something that is forbidden on the Sabbath.’ But Jesus replied ’Have you not read what David did when he and his followers were hungry? Now, neither he nor his followers were permitted to eat them, only the priests.’”
Jesus manifests his authority as being from that of David! But Jesus’ reply about the question of picked ears of corn is also a prophetic quote from Hosea : “If you understood what this means: ’It’s mercy I want, not sacrifice’ you would not have condemned people who are blameless.” We always find the same quote addressed by Jesus to the Pharisees who reproach about his sharing of meals with sinners and publicans. In fact one would offer sacrifices to God and the Sabbath could be a constraint. Jesus announces a new era and the hour glass is turned upside down. There is a complete turn around, for now it is God who comes to our help. David already prefigures this turn about. The Incarnation , the coming of Jesus in the flesh, the welcome of Jesus made by Mary signifies that the whole of humanity enters into a new Love. Jesus, who revolutionized Mary’s heart, has but one concern, that His Love also boils in our heart and that we love each another. The Infinite Love of God takes everything, from now on it burns with its Fire in our lives.
“Or again, have you not read in the Law that on the Sabbath day the Temple priests break the Sabbath without committing any fault? Now, I tell you, here is something greater than the Temple.”
Faced with human needs, literal observances of sabbatical prescriptions must give place to mercy.The quote of Hosea is eloquent because it brings us back to the Will of God, to what pleases God : Mercy. Jesus doesn’t repeal the Sabbath, but he observes it by conforming it to the very Will of God, when He had made the
gift of the Sabbath to his people. This Will is reduced to mercy, to reciprocal love, to compassion.The observance of the Sabbath is incompatible with the lack of mercy. The announce of the Temple prefigures the mystery of the open Heart of Jesus on the Cross from which water and blood flows forth. It is the prefiguration of Easter and from then on humanity with Mary will form body in Jesus for a whole new relationship of love with God and with his brothers. “There is something greater here than the Temple’ said Jesus. The Infinite Love of God forms a Body in the paschal lamb, in Christ’s flesh, offered up and in his blood spread forth, poured out for us.We are from now on invited to the Lamb’s wedding feast where the Bridegroom himself offers himself as food.” And if you had understood the meaning of the words : ’Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice’, you would not have condemned the blameless. For the Son of Man is Master of the Sabbath.“By adding again that” it is allowed to do a good action on the day of the Sabbath’ Matthew submits the observation of the Sabbath to the primate of the commandment of Love, affirming by this fact that the true violation of the Sabbath is to offend charity, to refuse to do mercy. “How can I tell of all the goods the Lord has done for me? I will raise the cup of salvation and I shall invoke the name of the Lord.” It will be a memorial for you. We do so from now on in each Eucharist : raise up the Cup of Salvation! This Cup filled with the pain of the whole world is plunged in the Heart of Christ who bore all the pain of the world ; this cup of “curses” is transformed into a cup of blessings and it becomes the Gift of Life. The greatest desire Jesus has is that this Love who is the Holy Spirit be spread in our lives. We belong to Christ and Christ is God’s “The true Temple is Christ” and following Christ, each of our hearts. What shall I give back to the Lord for this infinite Love? It is no longer man who makes sacrifices to God, it is God who “sacrifices” Himself, who makes of himself a sacred offering for us. When the fire of God’s Love takes over all of our life, we are the children of the living God alive in His Church. People can exclaim, when they come face to face with this new community : ’See how they love one another!’