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If one views God as a sort of “score keeper in the sky” waiting to put down a check mark against us each time we transgress a written rule, then the Pharisees were probably right.  The disciples should have just gone hungry.  But that’s not my view of God or the view held by Jesus.  True enough, the rules are important. But our God is a loving and forgiving God who cares about what’s in our hearts.  We all make mistakes, sometimes serious ones.  But God forgives if we let Him into our hearts.

In all our actions, let there be LOVE!

GOD BLESS!

Memorial of St. Bonaventure
Exodus 11:10-12:14
Psalm 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18

M atthew 12:1-8 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. (2) But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath." (3) He said to them, "Have you not read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him: (4) how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? (5) Or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are guiltless? (6) I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. (7) And if you had known what this means, `I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. (8) For the Son of man is lord of the Sabbath."

Meditation by Patrick Borchers (Creighton U)

T oday’s readings present a familiar tension between the spirit and the letter of the law.  In the Gospel, the disciples were undoubtedly breaking the letter of the law by picking and eating the grain on the Sabbath.  For this, Jesus was scolded by the Pharisees, though Jesus is able to point to the famous Old Testament story of David allowing his soldiers to eat the bread of the offering even though it was reserved for priests.

In the first reading, the Pharaoh shows a view of the world similarly obtuse to that of the Pharisees by ignoring the signs performed before him by Moses and Aaron.

Deep down, I suspect it depends on how one views God.  If one views God as a sort of “score keeper in the sky” waiting to put down a check mark against us each time we transgress a written rule, then the Pharisees were probably right.  The disciples should have just gone hungry.  But that’s not my view of God or the view held by Jesus. True enough, the rules are important. The Commandment not to kill is an important one and it would be only in the direst of emergencies that one could imagine having to kill another.

It would be justifiable, for instance, to kill another if he were about to plunge a knife into an innocent child and there were no other way to stop him, but such cases are few and far between. But our God is a loving and forgiving God who cares about what’s in our hearts. We all make mistakes, sometimes serious ones. But God forgives if we let Him into our hearts. # # #

GOD BLESS US ALL!

O Theos Na Mas Evlogisi!
PRAY as if everything depended on HIM. ACT as if everything depended on YOU. – Bobot Apit

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