Saturday of 22nd Week in Ordinary Time
GREGORY THE GREAT, Pope, Church doctor
Introduction
Gregory the Great (540-604) was civil prefect (governor) of Rome; he became a Benedictine monk, later papal envoy to Constantinople. Elected Pope, he reluctantly accepted, as he preferred the monastic life. He was a very capable administrator, looking upon his task as service. His incumbency during difficult times was marked by his efforts to care for the socially deprived, to reconcile factions within the Church, to create cordial relations with the Church in Spain and France and to evangelize England. He reformed the Roman liturgy, though his relation to “Gregorian chant” is mere fantasy, for the “old Roman” music he promoted disappeared in the 14th century. Let us honor him today especially as a reformer of the Church and “servant of the servants” as he called himself.
First Reading: 1 Corinthians 4:9-16
It seems to me that God has put us who bear his Message on stage in a theater in which no one wants to buy a ticket. We’re something everyone stands around and stares at, like an accident in the street. We’re the Messiah’s misfits. You might be sure of yourselves, but we live in the midst of frailties and uncertainties. You might be well-thought-of by others, but we’re mostly kicked around. Much of the time we don’t have enough to eat, we wear patched and threadbare clothes, we get doors slammed in our faces, and we pick up odd jobs anywhere we can to eke out a living. When they call us names, we say, “God bless you.” When they spread rumors about us, we put in a good word for them. We’re treated like garbage, potato peelings from the culture’s kitchen. And it’s not getting any better.
I’m not writing all this as a neighborhood scold just to make you feel rotten. I’m writing as a father to you, my children. I love you and want you to grow up well, not spoiled. There are a lot of people around who can’t wait to tell you what you’ve done wrong, but there aren’t many fathers willing to take the time and effort to help you grow up. It was as Jesus helped me proclaim God’s Message to you that I became your father. I’m not, you know, asking you to do anything I’m not already doing myself.
Gospel: Luke 6:1-5
On a certain Sabbath Jesus was walking through a field of ripe grain. His disciples were pulling off heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands to get rid of the chaff, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing that, breaking a Sabbath rule?”
But Jesus stood up for them. “Have you never read what David and those with him did when they were hungry? How he entered the sanctuary and ate fresh bread off the altar, bread that no one but priests were allowed to eat? He also handed it out to his companions.”
Then he said, “The Son of Man is no slave to the Sabbath; he’s in charge.”
Prayer
Lord our God,
St. Gregory followed Jesus, your Son,
in his commitment to you
and his service to the people entrusted to him.
May the Spirit of Jesus be alive in us
and dispose us to become, like your Son,
powerless and vulnerable,
so that we can serve one another,
especially the weakest of our brothers and sisters.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Reflection:
3 September 2022
Luke 6: 1-5
The Lord’s Day
In Jesus’ time, the feast of the Sabbath began on Friday evening at sunset. At that hour, in every village, a man climbed on the roof of the house and sounded the horn three times. At the first call, all the activities of the fields were suspended. All the household works were stopped with the second call. Then, when stars appeared in the sky, the person in-charge sounded the horn for the last time. Then mothers in the family placed a lighted lamp by the window of the house. It was the sign of a people’s joy who “would welcome” Saturday and received it with a lighted lamp, because Saturday – the Sabbath day – was considered “the bride and queen of Israel.”
The book of Deuteronomy prescribed that on the Sabbath “Do not do any work” (Deut 5:14). As centuries passed, the rabbis begun to define more minutely what activities were prohibitedon the Sabbath. They identified 39, and each of them had 39 further specifications. Thus 39 x 39 amounted 1521 prohibited works.
This was the background to the question on the disciples of Jesus violating the Sabbath. “Why are you doing something that is forbidden on the sabbath day?” In fact, Luke makes use of this incident to teach his community the actual meaning of the observance of “the Lord’s Day.” Jesus reminds them of the incident from the Old Testament where King David and his men ate the bread from the house of God, which only the priests were allowed to eat (1 Sam 21:6). On the sabbath day, 12 loaves of fresh bread were set on a table in the Holy Place.
Originally, the Sabbath was intended to be a day of overwhelming joy. The whole community would gather in the synagogue in the morning. There they prayed and listened to the Word of God. After the celebration, they engaged themselves in conversation, then to lunch with friends. Basically, it was intended to be a day, spent with the Lord, in prayer and in meditation.
Hence, the Lord’s Day is a time to spend with the Lord. That was exactly what the disciples were doing. They were spending their time with the Lord, listening to his Word. A day becomes holy only when and to the extent that it promotes human sanctity and not hatred and anger. Today there is another danger: that the “Lord’s Day” serves only to recover from the stress of the works of the week, to be able to start again, with more energy, the feverish activity in which one is involved. This is the proverbial snake biting its tail. To be truly humanizing, the Lord’s Day must be time to devote to the Lord, to meditation and prayer and works of Charity.