Saturday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time Year 2 2024

Title

Overlooking Reality

Outline

Have you ever failed to recognize someone?

I once failed to recognize my doctor’s wife, a member of my church, because I did not know she was a dental hygienist working for my dentist (who also went to my church). I once did not recognize my bishop, for we were in an airport and he was not wearing clericals.

Well, the Corinthians recognized Paul on the physical level, but they did not recognize his standing as an apostle because they not see the perks of high office. No great Greek rhetoric, no fine clothes, no retainers around him, no signs of power. (They probably would have said the same about Gregory the Great from what he says about himself.} They did not see that he had the “perks” of Jesus: travel worn clothes, often hungry, scarred from beatings, and all the rest. The signs of rejection by the word are the signs of honor by and identification with Jesus.

Now look at our Gospel

The disciples are following Jesus on a path through a field of grain, loaded stalks to their left and right. They are hungry. They pick some heads of grain, thresh them by rubbing them in their hands, and munch away. According to the Torah that was fine as long as they did not use a sickle. But it was on the sabbath and some Pharisees viewed them as working on the sabbath: they defined something like 63 types of work and how much of each activity it took before it was work. One stitch was not work, two were, and so forth. What they saw was enough to be work and keeping the sabbath was very important to the purity of Israel.

Now we can be careful too. If a host falls on the floor must it be treated as the body of Christ? Was it after the consecration or before? Was it one of the hosts the celebrant intended to consecrate or did it fall out before he looked at the ciborium and intended to consecrate what it contained? Was the wine valid or improper? If the amount of water put into the chalice is not significantly less than the amount of wine, the wine is improper substance for consecration.

Notice how Jesus replies. HE does not say that they were straining gnats and swallowing camels, he does not say that the disciples were ignorant so the sin was not deliberate, he does not say that it really should not be counted work.

He takes an example of David, a good guy, who like the disciples was hungry. He, with the permission of the priest, takes the bread of the presence that only priest could eat even when it was stale and not only eats it but shares it with his men when he met them. David, God’s king, broke a clear commandment in need, and it was OK. He was God’s man, perhaps also seen on God’s mission.

Then Jesus puts in the kicker: “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.” The Son of Man is from Daniel ch 7 according to Jesus, thus he is higher status than David, he is the one who stands before God, the new Adam, and at times in Luke the Son of God. This one is not under the sabbath, but lord of the sabbath, able to dispense from the regulations as he wills.

Jesus does not excuse his disciples action; he excuses them because they are his disciples and under his authority.

Now this cuts two ways for us

First, we are not the Son of Man and so normally we follow the teachings of the Pharisees of our day, the rules and regulations, for they sit in Moses’ seat.

Second, Jesus is greater than Moses and lord over all rules and regulations, but today as then he is often not recognized nor is his authority acknowledged.

So there may be times when he “shows up” in the circumstances and love of God and love of neighbor for the sake of God requires a deviation. I am open to this before every mass. but before deviating make sure that that is Jesus leading you through the grainfields, for the authority is his and not yours.