As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath,
his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain.
At this the Pharisees said to him,
"Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?"
He said to them,
"Have you never read what David did
when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?
How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest
and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat,
and shared it with his companions?"
Then he said to them,
"The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."
REFLECTION
"Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?"
Why is there a day like the Sabbath? What do we do with it?
I know people that keep the Sunday to extremes. An example would be they only go out to Mass, and don't run any kind of errands, even if their car ran out of gas, or the fridge is out of milk.
Then there are people that run all their errands and house cleaning on Sunday. Or they or their kids participate on a sports league, or any other extracurricular activity that only happens on a Sunday (because most people work during the week).
Our family tends to fall somewhere in the middle. We try to make all of our errands during the week, so we can focus in attending Mass and taking the kids to Sunday school, but sometimes we run out of bread for sandwiches or need to pick medicine for a sick family member.
So, where does the Third Commandment fall in today's society?
Of course attending Holy Mass and giving Christ the full respect He deserves for His Holy Sacrifice is imperative. I wonder what about the rest of the day?
We (in western society), seem to have a confusing notion of what a day of rest is. We don't know what is leisure. And leisure is not binge watching a show on Netflix in one afternoon.
Maybe, after giving God His due during Holy Mass, we need to learn to be more intentional about the rest of our free time: Make connections with our other family members, friends, neighbors. Be more giving of this time to others, even if it's under our own household. Do an outside activity with the family if weather is decent. Maybe even make a phone call, or write a letter to someone we haven't talk to in a while.
Would connecting with our loved ones, and creating community be considered a form of respecting the day of the Lord?
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