21 July, 2023 | Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

 Gospel Mt 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 the 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."

Reflections:

It is not the letter of the law, rather, the spirit of the law that we are called to practise. Human beings and their needs are placed over the Sabbath in context. The Sabbath was made for humankind and not vice versa. Jesus is our compassionate saviour and it is to save us that he  came into the world. He places compassion towards the human need above the law. The poor and the needy have a special place in the kingdom. Here Jesus approves what his apostles have done because it was to fulfill their basic human need. When Israelites were hungry, God fed them with manna. Jesus fed five thousand people with five loaves of  bread and two fish, and did not check the calendar, before doing so.

Activity: 

Feed a hungry person today, literally or by a donation.