Saturday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
September 7, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090724.cfm

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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.”
Luke 6:1-5

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A religion, like any other social construct, makes rules to define its character. The process can be as simple the “club” rules we made in elementary school (with the accompanying
“All Others Keep Out” sign.) Or it can be as complex as who qualifies, by their behavior, as a certified Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, etc.

But humanly constructed rules can be easily degraded when the purpose of their design is forgotten or ignored. This is what Jesus wanted his listeners to understand. He did not come to redefine the Old Law. He is Lord of the New Law whose definition is mercy and love not regulation.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
A sainted Mother Superior, in my young religious life, once offered me this insight: “The rules are for those who need them.”
Did she mean that religious rules should be ignored? Certainly not.
The maxim suggests that those who live the true spirit of the Gospel have no need of a list of rules to guide them.

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Thought: from Joan Chittister, OSB

The spiritual life… is not achieved 
by denying one part of life 
for the sake of another. 
The spiritual life is achieved 
only by listening to all of life 
and learning to respond 
to each of its dimensions 
wholly and with integrity.

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Music: Lord of the Sabbath – Keiko Ying