The Word God Spells

Matthew 12: 1-8
Ex 11:10–12:14 / Ps 116

If you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.
(Matthew 12:7)

We are like chaff apart from grain
If we preach but do not practice…
Laws that we craft burden and pain,
Charity weighs more than justice.

At that time, Jesus was going through a field of grain on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and eat them. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the Sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered 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 how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:1-8)

Reflection

As Jesus clearly states in today’s Gospel passage, the sabbath is a day of rest and mercy, not one to be burdened with laws or sacrifice. He reminded the pharisees that their priests in the temple actually took on more work during the sabbath because of the sacrifices offered on this day, and yet they were guiltless. Why? Because they were merely fulfilling a ministry that had to be done, just as Jesus had to heal even on a sabbath, and just as the hungry had to eat even the sacred bread of offering.

External rites of devotion do not a holy person make, nor do they guarantee passage to God’s kingdom. It is the purity of our intentions, motivated by the love of God and fellowmen that draws us and endears us to the Father. Jesus said, “I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 5:20). Going to mass daily does not make us any righteous if we are repulsed by the beggar at the gate who has become a “regular client”. Unless the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist has moved our heart into charitable action, prompted by the Holy Spirit, then the whole exercise of the Mass was just a meaningless ritual. This was what our Lord Jesus cited as the failure of the pharisees and scribes: their sense of righteousness never progressed from the external to the internal, but remained for all to see a banner of false piety.

Many people seek to be religious: receiving the sacraments daily, praying novenas, etc. But how spiritual are they? St. James said, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, his religion is in vain. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (Ja.1:26-27).

Let Your laws guide us in the right path, Father God, to understand their meaning in our life, to influence our thoughts and words, and act accordingly in love as Jesus has taught us. Amen.