From the Sabbath to Us

http://usccb.org/bible/readings/090919.cfm
Colossians 1:24-2:3
Luke 6:6-11

In the first few lines before today’s gospel reading Jesus and His disciples were passing through grain fields.  It was the Sabbath and His disciples were separating the grain from the ears by rubbing them in their hands.  The Pharisees proceed to accuse Jesus and His disciples of doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath.  Jesus reminds them that once, when David’s men were hungry, they went into the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence even though it was not lawful for anyone to eat the bread except for the priests.  He then reminds them that the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

Jesus follows this up on another Sabbath at the synagogue where He taught.  There was a man there with a withered hand.  The Scribes and Pharisees were waiting to see if Jesus would heal the man’s hand on a Sabbath so that they could find accusations against Him.  What we don’t know is whether the man just happened to be there or if he was a plant.  It is very suspicious that the man would show up on just that day. The Scribes and Pharisees knew that Jesus was sympathetic to the sick and the suffering and that He would want to heal the man’s hand.  Jesus knew their thoughts so He told the man with the withered hand to stand up.  He rose up and stood still.  Jesus asked whether it is lawful to do good on the Sabbaths or to do evil, to save a life or to destroy it.  He told the man to extend his hand and it was healed.  The genius of this is that he did not touch the hand or do anything other than to tell the man to extend his hand.  I wonder if the man thought, “Now why didn’t I think of doing that”.  The Scribes and Pharisees were filled with madness and discussed what they would do about Jesus.

Both cases were a lesson for the Scribes and Pharisees.  The first is simply what he said.  The Son of Man is Lord even on the Sabbath.  The other was just as plain.  On the Sabbath it is better to do good than evil, to save a life rather than destroy it.  In both cases the ears and eyes of the Scribes and Pharisees were closed to the truth.  Jesus, in fact, was a thorn in the Scribes and Pharisees proverbial back side.  Here they were, the all-powerful, and Jesus was showing them up at every turn and, what’s worse, is that it was in front of others.  This was a blow to their ego and, so, begins their scheming to do something about Jesus.  Of course Jesus knew what they were scheming just as He knew the plot to ensnare Him with a handicapped man.

That night he went out to a mountain and prayed all night.  The next morning He called His disciple together and chose twelve out of them to be His apostles.  Up until now Jesus had been teaching and curing the sick but in a limited fashion.  Now begins His formal mission of evangelization of the Jews.  It is also the beginning of the clash between the elite of Judaism and Himself.  This was not all fun and games.  He was mobbed with people seeking healing, was constantly on the move, was preaching to large crowds and was hunted by those who hated Him.  There was no rest for Him and he only had three more years to complete His mission.

Like Jesus, Paul was also constantly on the move, preaching to crowds, and living from hand to mouth.  He was persecuted for his ministry and was imprisoned on several occasions.  When Jesus was preaching it was to a limited area and primarily to the Jews.  Paul, on the other hand, was preaching to Jews and Gentiles in a very large region.  In the letter to the Colossians, Paul is writing while being imprisoned.

Today’s reading of the Epistle starts on verse 24 with a very long sentence containing 66 words.  When I finished reading the sentence, I understood each word, but had no clue what the sentence was trying to say.  Fortunately there are enough commas that I could try to comprehend each small phrase and then put it all together to get the overall meaning.  I would have loved to see my eighth grade teacher diagram that sentence.

The sentence starts out with Paul rejoicing in his sufferings for the sake of the Colossians and on behalf of the body of Christ, that is, the church.  Before Paul’s conversion, he was a persecutor of Christians and so contributed to Christ’s suffering.  Now Paul is a minister of the church in accordance with the mission given to him by God and shares in Christ’s suffering.  Through this he is to bring to the word of God to the Gentiles and dispersed Jews.  Before Paul, Jesus’ mission was to bring the word of God to the Jews and to prepare His followers to bring the Word to the Gentiles.  With Paul, salvation was now expanded from the Jews to the entire world.

Well, Paul and Jesus’ disciples did a phenomenal job in spreading it to the known world, but spreading the word of God is an ongoing job.  We are called to continue this work.  I don’t know about you, but I am no Paul.   The good news is that I am in good company.  Many in the Old Testament protested that they were not capable of doing what God asked them to do.  One in particular was Moses.  So the question is, what can we do?  After all, we are asked to go forth to love and serve the Lord at the end of mass.

Fortunately we are asked to love and serve the Lord in our own way.  These days we are told that we are all equal, and we are in God’s eyes.  However, we are not all equal in our talents and thank God we are not.  A football team would not do well if all its players were quarterbacks.  Instead, a team is composed of many individuals with different talents and each has specific tasks to perform based on their individual talents.  In our case, some work at Help the Needy, others cut firewood, some try to proclaim God’s word in their own sometimes feeble way, some dedicate their entire life to serving the Lord, and some simply spread the word of God by the life and the love they share with all they come in contact with.  St. Frances is often quoted as saying to his followers to go out and preach the gospel and to use words only if necessary.  Frequently it is a combination of some or all of these.  We could go on and on because there is no limit in how we are to continue the work of Jesus, Paul and His disciples.  Just like Jesus and His followers, we will sometimes encounter resistance, derision, and even persecution.  Our strength and our passion to continue comes through prayer, confession, scripture, mass and the sacraments, and trust that the Holy Spirit will work through us if we let Him.  What we have to remember is that Christ is in us and as such we are the light of the world, and we must continue to spread that light wherever there is darkness in whatever manner that is available to us.  To finish up I will do something that I never in my life thought I would do.  I am going to quote Justin Bieber.  He recently wrote an Instagram about the decadent life he had been leading.  He began heavy drug and alcohol use at 18.  He abused women and destroyed his relationships with all he worked with.  He dreaded getting up in the morning and facing another day.  Now he is happily married and finished his confession with the following (the upper case letters are his own):

”All this to say even when the odds are against you keep fighting.  Jesus loves you… BE KIND TODAY>BE BOLD TODAY AND LOVE PEOPLE TODAY NOT BY YOUR STANDARDS BUT BY GODS PERFECT UNFAILING LOVE”