Luke 6:1-5

1 Corinthians 4:6b-15

Psalm 145:17-18, 19-20, 21

Luke 6:1-5

While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath,

his disciples were picking the heads of grain,

rubbing them in their hands, and eating them.

Some Pharisees said,

“Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”

Jesus said to them in reply,

“Have you not read what David did

when he and those who were with him were hungry?

How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering,

which only the priests could lawfully eat,

ate of it, and shared it with his companions?”

Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, you have invited me to share in your divine life. Only in union with your Son and filled with your Spirit can I attain this life. Thank you for the gift of the Eucharist which sustains me on my journey to you.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Jesus’ Response to the Pharisees: The observance of the Sabbath rest is one of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11; Deuteronomy 5:12-15). The Sabbath rest enabled the people of Israel to worship God without the distractions of work and recalled God’s original plan of creation: to have human beings enter into communion with God and share in his rest. The Sabbath expressed the covenant between God and Israel and was a way for Israel to imitate God and share in his holy rest. The Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of violating the Sabbath since they were gathering crops (Exodus 34:21). Jesus responded to the Pharisees’ accusation in three ways. He first points out that his disciples were hungry and that, because of their need, their actions of gathering grain on the Sabbath and eating it did not violate the Sabbath rest. Second, Jesus also revealed himself as the new David. The exception made for David and his men should also be made for Jesus and his disciples. Jesus and his disciples are like the priests in the Temple, who were allowed to break the Sabbath when they replaced the Bread of the Presence on the Sabbath. Third, Jesus called himself the “Lord of the Sabbath.” He placed himself above the Sabbath and, in doing so, proclaimed his divinity. Jesus, with his community of disciples, formed the origin and center of a New Israel (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, vol. 1, 114). Jesus’ disciples will ultimately find the rest they seek in him. The new family of God is formed not by adherence to the Old Law of the Torah, but by adherence to Jesus himself and his New Law.

2. Bringing the God of Israel to All Nations: Jesus is God and was able to bring the Old Law (the Torah) to fulfillment in the New Law. In this way, Israel will be able to fulfill its vocation to be a light to all the nations. What Jesus does in his teaching is bring the God of Israel to the nations, so that all the nations can now pray to God and recognize Israel’s Scriptures as the word of the living God. Jesus “has brought the gift of universality, which was the one great definitive promise to Israel and the world. This universality, this faith in the one God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – extended now in Jesus’ new family to all nations over and above the bonds of descent according to the flesh – is the fruit of Jesus’ work. It is what proves him to be the Messiah. It signals a new interpretation of the messianic promise that is based on Moses and the Prophets, but also opens them up in a completely new way” (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, vol. 1, 116-117). The Apostles are servants of Christ and trustworthy stewards of the mysteries of God and will bring these mysteries – the sacraments – to all the nations.

3. Imitating Jesus and Paul: The Corinthians can learn humility from Paul and Apollos, who stay within the limits set out by what is written in Sacred Scripture. “Paul reprimands self-righteous Christians for their egotism and unfair criticisms. Although he describes them as wise and prosperous, his rhetorical irony implies the opposite, i.e., they are ignorant and impoverished. Their refusal to embrace the foolishness of Christ exposes their pride and reveals how petty their problems look compared to the humiliation of the apostles” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament, 289). On account of Christ, Paul and the other Apostles have become like publicly disgraced criminals, fools in the eyes of the world, weak; they are held in disrepute, hungry and thirsty, poorly clad, roughly treated, homeless; and they have to work and toil to sustain themselves. They are ridiculed and persecuted, slandered, and treated like rubbish and scum. Paul admonishes the Christians in Corinth, not to shame them, but to lead them to Christ through the Gospel. Paul considers himself a father to the Corinthians, having brought them new life through the Gospel (2 Corinthians 12:14). Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him. Through the calling of the twelve Apostles, Jesus forms the new Israel as the New People of God. As Christians, we are called to imitate Jesus’ humility and meekness of heart. Throughout the centuries many saints, like Paul, offer to Christians models worthy of imitation.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, lead me to imitate you and truly share in your life. I am a member of the New People of God and need to bring the Gospel to others so that they can fully live as members of God’s People.

Living the Word of God: How do I live the Sabbath rest on the Lord’s Day? What can I do better to make it a time of worship, prayer, family, charity, and service?