THE MASTER OF SABBATH

FRIDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Exod 11: 10-12:14; Ps 116:12-13,15-18; Mt 12:1-8

The Sabbath is for Man

Moses heard the voice of the Lord and saw the burning bush, which gave him a mystical or spiritual experience of the living God, the I Am, and he believed. By believing the word God spoke to him and acting in faith, he became a visible representation of God to the children of Israel and the Egyptians. Through him, God interacted with Pharaoh to bring about His divine will. Pharaoh’s lack of faith in the word of God spoken to him through Moses means his non-cooperation with the divine will. God had no choice but to use force to bend Pharaoh's will. In all these, we must understand how God respects the free will he gave to man. God achieves his plan and preserves the freedom of man’s free will through the dynamics of justice and mercy within his permitted will. He permitted the Egyptians to enslave the children of Jacob due to their infringements on the divine justice, which we must pay back in one way or another. Each of us must make restitution for our infringements on the divine justice. The divine mercy comes to our aid in allotting the measure of the restitution, for we can never satisfy the justice of God or make adequate returns for what our sins remove from his divine Majesty. Hence, we are all debtors to his divine justice. Our salvation is the work of the divine mercy.

Subsequently, God’s dealings with Pharaoh and his subjects are in keeping with his justice demands. He worked many miracles through Moses and Aaron to induce faith in Pharaoh. “Moses and Aaron worked many wonders in the presence of Pharaoh. But the Lord made Pharaoh’s heart stubborn, and he did not let the sons of Israel leave his country.” We understand that the Lord made Pharaoh’s heart stubborn to mean that he let his free will prevail, waiting for him to cooperate in faith from within. In due time, God forced him to act from without while leaving his free will intact. In acting with force from without, God applied the measure of forced slavery he used for the children of Jacob to him, in keeping with the demands of divine justice. “That night, I will go through the land of Egypt, man and beast alike, and I shall deal out punishment to all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord! The blood shall serve to mark the houses that you live in. When I see the blood, I will pass over you and you shall escape the destroying plague when I strike the land of Egypt.” God acts in and through everything he made, for he claims the activities of the destroying plague or angel of death as his. It is a destroying plague in the sense that it is a natural force, but an angel in the sense that divine will guides it. As a blind natural force, everyone is vulnerable to it. But as guided by divine will, it recognises those who obey God and sees nothing to enforce in their lives. It senses justice already done on them, by their conformity to the will of God. The blood of the Passover lamb smeared on the doorpost symbolised this for the Israelites.  

The story of God's deliverance of the Israelites serves as a type for the Christian people. Our deliverance from the slavery of sin and evil is through the Incarnation of the Eternal Word of God. The Son of Man appeared among us as the High Priest of God’s holy religion. He is a complete and total sacrifice to the will of the Father. In him, divine justice and mercy meet. Hence, he is the Just One and the Merciful High Priest. The Son of Man protects those who believe and pattern their lives on him by the sacrifice he made of his life to God. The Lord’s answer to those who accused his disciples of breaking the sabbath law implies this understanding. “Have you not read what David did when he and his followers were hungry—how he went into the house of God and how they ate the loaves of offering which neither he nor his followers were allowed to eat, but which were for the priests alone?” The point the Lord made here is that to be guided by the will of God in all things is to satisfy the Law. Because David and his followers were in sync with the will of God at that time, they were equal to the priests who lived and gave the will of God to the people. As Jesus noted, the Temple priests break the sabbath without blame. Those who consecrate themselves to doing the will of God eat the holiest of breads daily. We understand how our Eucharist is the heart of our Christian spirituality, our celebration, and our lived experience. “For the Son of Man is master of the sabbath.”

Let us pray: O God, who show the light of your truth to those who go astray, so that they may return to the right path, give all who for the faith they profess are accounted Christians the grace to reject whatever is contrary to the name of Christ and to strive after all that does it honour. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.