Category: Uncategorized

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Gospel: Matthew 12: 1-8

Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath.
His disciples were hungry
and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him,
“See, 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 and his companions were hungry,
how he went into 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 that on the sabbath
the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath
and are innocent?
I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.
If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
you would not have condemned these innocent men.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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What’s at stake in today’s Gospel passage is the very identity of Jesus. After this clash with the Pharisees – the religious leaders of his day – a plot to kill him will develop.

“See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath,” the Pharisees say to him. Why was keeping the Sabbath so important to the Jews? Conversely, why was violating it so infuriating? 

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It set the Jews apart from other nations. Thus, remaining faithful to it was an expression of national identity and loyalty to the God of Israel.

Moreover, according to the prophet Jeremiah, the Jews’ failure to keep the Sabbath was a primary reason why Jerusalem was invaded by the Babylonians in 586 BC, why the Temple was destroyed, and why the Jews were sent into exile.

Keeping the Sabbath holy was not merely a matter of private devotion; it was also a matter of national security. What Jesus’ disciples did by eating grain on the Sabbath was akin to burning the national flag.

Insulting, scandalous, even dangerous.

Yet, Jesus allowed them to do so, because he claimed to be, “Lord of the Sabbath.” A claim making him equal to God.

To Jewish ears, this would’ve been blasphemous; they only understood God as one. As it’s written in the Book of Deuteronomy, “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!” 

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So, what might this mean for us?

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Summarizing the words of C.S. Lewis, Jesus cannot be merely a good moral teacher. In claiming to be equal to God, he is either a liar, a lunatic, or LORD.

Who do we say that he is?

If we believe that he is LORD, then we should honor him accordingly – above all by worshiping him on the Sabbath. 

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Image credits: (1) RedeemingGod.com (2) Jesus Among the Wheat Fields, Where (3) Wisdom International

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Gospel: Matthew 11: 28-30

Jesus said:
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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What type of burdens did Jesus’ listeners carry when they first heard this sermon?

Many of them were tired, poor, and weighed down by the normal ebb and flow of family life, as many still are today. But there was also the added weight of the Law.

At that time, “faithful” Jews were expected to follow 613 man-made rules, in addition to the 10 Commandments. Religion itself had become impossibly heavy. 

Christ promised to lift that weight, boiling religion down into two simple commandments: love God with all of your heart and your neighbor as yourself. 

Love makes life lighter; easier; bearable.

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And yet…

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We human beings have a strange way of turning the yoke we carry back into something heavy. 

We can tell ourselves that we need be popular; pretty; accepted; successful; better than the next. As a result, work demands pile up. Social and sports schedules push out any extra time for God, contemplation, or rest.

Life becomes heavy, not because God’s will for us is that demanding; rather, because we and society at large demand more from ourselves than what is genuinely human.

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If we want to feel the lightheartedness that Jesus promises, then we must learn to put him first. 

Only then can we see our lives from the right perspective, where love is not something that matters, but all that matters.

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Image credits: (1) People Management (2) Heaviest Burden, EBay (3) Affirmation Station, LLC, Love Thy Neighbor

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Exodus: 3:1-6, 9-12

Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian.
Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb,
the mountain of God.
There an angel of the LORD appeared to him in fire
flaming out of a bush.
As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush,
though on fire, was not consumed.
So Moses decided,
“I must go over to look at this remarkable sight,
and see why the bush is not burned.”

When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely,
God called out to him from the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
He answered, “Here I am.”
God said, “Come no nearer!
Remove the sandals from your feet,
for the place where you stand is holy ground.
I am the God of your father,” he continued,
“the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.
The cry of the children of Israel has reached me,
and I have truly noted that the Egyptians are oppressing them.
Come, now! I will send you to Pharaoh to lead my people,
the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

But Moses said to God,
“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh
and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
He answered, “I will be with you;
and this shall be your proof that it is I who have sent you:
when you bring my people out of Egypt,
you will worship God on this very mountain.”

The Word of the Lord.

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“I will be with you,” the LORD promises Moses in our first reading.

Moses faced an impossible task – he was called to lead Israel out of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land. 

Such a mission demanded miracles – breaking the bond of Pharaoh, outrunning his army, parting the Red Sea, and bearing with Israel’s repeated complaints and infidelity to God during their forty-year-long sojourn in the desert.

Although Moses couldn’t foresee all that he would have to endure, he was overwhelmed by the enormity of the task.

But the Lord promised him, “I will be with you.. and when you bring my people out of Egypt, you will worship me on this very mountain.”

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We’ve all been in a position like Moses before, feeling like we’re being led to do the impossible.

Think of first-time parents laying eyes on their newborn child. “How can we give this child everything he or she deserves?” they must wonder.

Or the moment you show up for your first day on the job; when extra responsibility is placed upon your shoulders; your first day of retirement; when your doctor reads a poor health diagnosis; when you lose a loved one.

Or, in my case, both the day of my priestly ordination and the day I became pastor here at St. Pius X. I wondered, in the words of Moses, “Lord, who am I?”

In each of these cases, God whispers to us what he once said to Moses, “I will be with you.”

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As we navigate our way through life, we must also remember to do what Moses did: return to this “mountain” to worship the Lord whose love never fails.

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Image credits: (1) revPACman (2) Moses Leading the People of Israel, Adobe (3) Worship Leaders University