The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 12:8

The third commandment states: “keep holy the Sabbath day.” In today’s gospel passage, Jesus asserts that “the son of man is indeed Lord of the Sabbath.”

In chapter twelve of St. Matthew’s gospel, the disciples of Jesus were seen by the Pharisees walking through some wheat fields on a Sabbath, picking heads of wheat and eating the grain. The Pharisees were shocked by this and said to Jesus: “it is against our law for your disciples to do this on the Sabbath.” Jesus answered them by pointing out that King David broke the Sabbath when his men were hungry and that even the temple priests broke the Sabbath without being found guilty. He accused his critics of lack of compassion and quoted the prophet Hosea: “it is mercy I desire, not sacrifice.”

The Sabbath is about keeping the Lord’s Day holy. Christians celebrate the Lord’s Day on Sunday while Jews celebrate it on Saturdays.

Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is more a matter of the heart than obeying petty rules. Not working on Sundays helps us to focus on our spiritual needs; it removes the burden of having to earn a living in order to make room for God in our lives. Still, you can make room for God in your life even if you have to work. A farmer can milk his cows and keep the Lord’s Day holy; a housewife can clean the house and make the beds and keep the Lord’s Day holy.

Some people tend to forget that “the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath”, as the Lord points out in the gospels. Thus we can abuse the Lord’s Day by observing it in the wrong spirit.

Many years ago in Ireland, I was part of a group of Christians who built apartments for senior citizens in a little town, called Freshford, in County Kilkenny. The project was similar to Habitat for Humanity in the U.S. The success of this project required that the volunteers work on Sundays, but the pastor of the parish objected to it because he felt we were breaking the Sabbath. Well-meaning though the pastor was, he did not appreciate that helping others in need was not breaking the Sabbath. The pastor eventually came to his senses when he realized that he too could spend his retirement years in these apartments, which he did.

Keeping the Lord’s Day holy means more than not working on Sundays. It is about making room for the Lord throughout your Sunday; it is about following Jesus in whatever form that freely takes for “the son of man is indeed Lord of the Sabbath.”

Fr. Hugh Duffy

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