Jan 18: The Sabbath was Made for Humankind

Gustave Doré (1832-83):
The Disciples Plucking Corn on the Sabbath
The Doré Bible Illustrations, 1974

Tuesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mk 2:23-28

“The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath (NRSV, Mk 2: 27).”

Father, for so very long humankind understood much of its relationship with you in terms of obligation. To give you thanks and to repay for sin, sacrifice after sacrifice was offered up to you. When Temple worship was no longer possible at least observing a day of rest on the sabbath was feasible. After all, it was argued, if you, Lord, did your work of creation in six days and then rested on the seventh; do not we, who are made in your image and likeness, therefore have an obligation likewise to observe a day of rest?

As if, Lord, your “work” could have had a beginning, then a sequence and a conclusion. You, Lord, are your “work.” Your being is your act, without beginning or end, act that just is.

Father, how grateful we are for the clarity brought into our lives by the Lord Jesus, who is God with you, yet through whom your act as creating and saving is made visible for us in a human body. From Jesus we learn that everything that comes from you is gift. Jesus the only begotten, uncreated Son himself is gift from you, Father. The Spirit who proceeds from both you, Father, and the Son is your mutual gift one to the other. The life, human and divine, that is offered to all, in the Spirit poured out on us, is gift. The created world is gift. Forgiveness, that inevitably accompanies the bestowing of divine life, is likewise gift.

The gift is always freely given. The gift can never be bought, can never be paid for. Gift never incurs obligation. Otherwise, not being free, it is not really gift.

The one day of the week set aside as sacred to you, Father, is also gift. As your Word made flesh focuses us on the invisible reality of who you are, Lord, and what you do; the sabbath, also given by you to us, when spent in rest and worship, similarly centers our attention in a tangible way on the divine life which you share freely with us and which challenges us at every moment.

Father, Jesus has taught us that we who are brothers and sisters are to love one another not as obligation but through the overflowing of your life, Lord, bestowed on us. Gift generates gift.

Likewise, Lord, may we celebrate the sabbath in all of its fullness, not because we must, but because in its observance we come better to understand the divine life which you, Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit, have freely given to us and we have freely accepted.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.