Catechism Links [*]
CCC 345-349, 582, 2168-2173: The Lord’s Day
CCC 1005-1014, 1470, 1681-1683: Dying and living in Christ
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| “Disciples Eating Grain” by Andrew Bida, 1874 |
Readings for the Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time [1]
(Note: in the history of this Apostolate
(est. 2006) this celebration has always been superseded in the United States.)
Readings and Commentary: [3]
First Reading:
Thus
says the LORD:
"Take
care to keep holy the sabbath dayas the LORD, your God, commanded you.
Six days you may labor and do all your work;
but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God.
No work may be done then, whether by you, or your son or
daughter,
or your male or female slave,
or your ox or ass or any of your beasts,
or the alien who lives with you.
Your male and female slave should rest as you do.
For remember that you too were once a slave in Egypt,
and the LORD, your God, brought you from there
with his strong hand and outstretched arm.
That is why the LORD, your God, has commanded you
to observe the sabbath day."
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Commentary on Dt 5:12-15
This
passage establishes the sabbath day as a day dedicated to God and to rest. It
differs from Exodus 31:16-17 which focuses on God’s completion of
creation. In this case it is clear that while the day is to be set aside for
God, it is to be reserved as a day of rest, a commemoration of the bondage and
slavery experienced in Egypt.
CCC:
Dt 5:12-15 2167; Dt 5:12 2189; Dt 5:15 2057, 2170
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Responsorial Psalm:
Psalm 81:3-4, 5-6, 6-8, 10-11
R. (2a) Sing with joy to God our help.
Take
up a melody, and sound the timbrel,
the
pleasant harp and the lyre.Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
at the full moon, on our solemn feast.
R. Sing with joy to God our help.
For
it is a statute in Israel,
an
ordinance of the God of Jacob,who made it a decree for Joseph
when he came forth from the land of Egypt.
R. Sing with joy to God our help.
An
unfamiliar speech I hear:
"I
relieved his shoulder of the burden;his hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I rescued you."
R. Sing with joy to God our help.
"There
shall be no strange god among you
nor
shall you worship any alien god.I, the LORD, am your God
who led you forth from the land of Egypt."
R. Sing with joy to God our help.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Ps 81:3-4, 5-6, 6-8, 10-11
Psalm
81 is a prophetic liturgy generally associated with the Feast of Tabernacles.
Here David rejoices in God’s mercy, freeing his people from constant toil,
giving them rest from their labors through the Mosaic Covenant. It reinforces
that covenant reminding the people they have One True God who is their
salvation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Second Reading:
2 Corinthians 4:6-11Second Reading:
Brothers and sisters:
God who said, Let light shine out of darkness,
has shone in our hearts to bring to light
the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ.
But we hold this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.
We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained;
perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.
For we who live are constantly being given up to death
for the sake of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on 2 Cor 4:6-11
St. Paul begins this selection paraphrasing Genesis 1:3. The Apostle views conversion of the faithful as a new beginning, a light shining in the darkness. “The transformation we experience in Chris thus parallels the transformation effected by the word of God when he first dispelled the darkness with light at the dawn of history. This was already hinted at by Isaiah, who developed the theme of light’s victory over darkness as a sign of salvation (Isaiah 9:2; 49:6; 60:1-3). Paul experienced this first hand when the blinding light of Christ knocked him to the ground on the Damascus road (Acts 9:3; 26;13) (CCC 2583)” [4]
The Apostle continues explaining the paradoxical nature of ministry in Christ. Our immortal souls, transformed in Christ contained within perishable bodies. The earthly body (earthen vessels) may be destroyed but the glorified body is imperishable.
CCC: 2 Cor 4:6 298, 2583; 2 Cor 4:7 1420
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Gospel:
Mark 2:23-3:6
A Longer Form
As
Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath,
his
disciples began to make a path while picking the heads ofgrain.
At
this the Pharisees said to him,
"Look,
why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?"He said to them, "Have you never read what David did
when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?
How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest
and ate the bread of offering
that only the priests could lawfully eat,
and shared it with his companions?"
Then he said to them,
"The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."
Again
he entered the synagogue.
There
was a man there who had a withered hand.
They
watched him closely
to
see if he would cure him on the sabbath
so
that they might accuse him.
He
said to the man with the withered hand,
"Come
up here before us."
Then
he said to them,
"Is
it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil,
to
save life rather than to destroy it?"
But
they remained silent.
Looking
around at them with anger
and
grieved at their hardness of heart,
he
said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."
He
stretched it out and his hand was restored.
The
Pharisees went out
and
immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him
to
put him to death.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary
on Mk 2:23-3:6
[2:23-28]
In this passage from St. Mark’s Gospel the Lord has another conflict with the
Pharisees over laws they have implemented. In this case the laws are about
doing no work on the Sabbath. The disciples of Jesus were hungry and as a
result gathered and ate grain on the Sabbath. Strictly speaking this was labor (Leviticus 24:9) and that is what the
Pharisees were objecting to.
Jesus
responded by reminding them (the Pharisees) about a story form the first book
of Samuel (1 Samuel 21:2-7) in which restrictions
not included in Mosaic Law but established by men were relaxed at need. The
example can be seen as a link between Jesus’ own genealogy (coming from the
line of David) and the mission as Savior, the Anointed One, the Messiah. It also
teaches a more pragmatic lesson about the Sabbath being created for man and not
as the rules of Pharisaic law had restricted it.
[3:1-6]
The man with the withered hand is used to trap Jesus into doing something that
by Pharisaic Law was considered “labor”. Jesus tries to show them the flaw in
their logic with a question; “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather
than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they will not
respond because the answer is obvious. With his opponents reduced to silence,
the cures the man (see also John 5:17-18). Their
attempt foiled, they run to the minions of King Herod to continue their
plotting.
CCC: Mk 2:23-27 581; Mk 2:23-26 544; Mk 2:25-27 582; Mk 2:27-28 2167; Mk 2:27 2173; Mk 2:28 2173; Mk 3:1-6 574; Mk 3:4 2173; Mk 3:5-6 1859; Mk 3:5 591; Mk 3:6 574, 591
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------OR B Shorter Form
As Jesus was passing through a
field of grain on the sabbath,
his disciples began to make a path
while picking the heads ofgrain.
At this the Pharisees said to him,
"Look, why are they doing what
is unlawful on the sabbath?"He said to them, "Have you never read what David did
when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?
How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest
and ate the bread of offering
that only the priests could lawfully eat,
and shared it with his companions?"
Then he said to them,
"The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Mk 2:23-28
In this passage from St. Mark’s
Gospel the Lord has another conflict with the Pharisees over laws they have
implemented. In this case the laws are about doing no work on the Sabbath. The
disciples of Jesus were hungry and as a result gathered and ate grain on the
Sabbath. Strictly speaking this was labor (Leviticus 24:9) and that is what the
Pharisees were objecting to.
Jesus responded by reminding them
(the Pharisees) about a story form the first book of Samuel (1 Samuel 21:2-7) in which restrictions
not included in Mosaic Law but established by men were relaxed at need. The
example can be seen as a link between Jesus’ own genealogy (coming from the
line of David) and the mission as Savior, the Anointed One, the Messiah. It also
teaches a more pragmatic lesson about the Sabbath being created for man and not
as the rules of Pharisaic law had restricted it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection:
Those
of us who have been around for a while will remember that on Sundays after you
went to Mass, there was not much to do but be with family. Fifty years ago, in the United States at
least, all commercial establishments, restaurants and stores were closed on
Sunday in honor of the Sabbath. Today,
it is unusual to see stores closed on Sunday.
It is ironic that even giant chains like Meijers make a point of showing
they hold Christian values by closing on Christmas Day, as if that was a badge
of some sort.
We
cannot, however, point a finger at the greedy capitalists. Those stores and restaurants would not be open
if vast numbers of us did not frequent them on religious holidays. They stay open for us. It shows how far we have come from the day
where the Sabbath was observed as the Lord’s Day.
Sacred
scripture reminds us that it was a command of God that set the seventh day (or
the first day as we now count it) as a day dedicated to the Lord’s gift of
creation. We are reminded of this in the
first reading from Deuteronomy. It is to
be a great sign of remembrance.
Recalling that all we have, all we are, and all that is was created by
our Heavenly Father. It is his food we
eat and air we breathe. We are asked to
give him thanks by more than just lip service.
In the
Hebrew tradition, this law was kept scrupulously. The rules about keeping the sabbath were strict,
even burdensome. Any form of work was
prohibited. This was carried to the ridiculous
by the Sadducees who are seen being critical of Jesus’ disciples in the
Gospel. They viewed the simple act of
plucking raw grain, eaten on the spot, as work and chastised Jesus for allowing
such a flagrant (in their eyes) violation of the laws regarding work on the
Sabbath.
We are
reminded once more in this Gospel story of why God found it necessary to send
his Only Begotten Son. The Lord once more is forced to show those who would
follow the Father, what the loving Father wanted for his children. His first response clearly lays out God’s
intent: "The
sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.” God wants peace for his
Children; peace that comes from knowing that their loving creator has given
them good things and wishes them to reside in his peace by remembering all that
was placed before them. He does not wish
this remembrance to become a burden.
We as
parents know that sometimes when you give your children an inch, they try to
take a mile. It is the same with us when
we interpret Jesus’ relaxing the sabbath rules for his disciples as meaning we don’t
have to keep the sabbath at all. That is
not where scripture leads us. We as a
community of faith have an obligation to remember why the sabbath was set aside
and keep it in our homes and families.
This
is not an easy thing to do in our day and age.
It may even require some sacrifices (like skipping Soccer (football)
games so the family can worship together.
It is a mark of our faith that we follow the Lord and give the Heavenly
Father the reverence he deserves.
Pax
[*] Catechism
links are taken from the Homiletic Directory, Published by the Congregation for
Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 29 June 2014
[1] The picture used is “Disciples Eating
Grain” by Andrew Bida, 1874
[3] The readings are taken from the New
American Bible with the exception of the Psalm and its response which were
developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This
re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[4] Ignatius
Catholic Study Bible, © 2010, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA. p.317
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