Pallikoodas 2nd S,Nov.8,09

Pallikoodasa 2nd S.,Nov.8,09
(Mt.12:1-14)


The reading that we heard just now from St. Matthew’s Gospel presents the escalating controversy between Our Lord and the Pharisees. The Pharisees are out in the open to trap Jesus in his ministry and to accuse him falsely of violations of the rules about the observance of the Sabbath. The pharisaic tradition has established 39 categories of actions as forbidden on the Sabbath. Harvesting is one of these.
So in their eyes, what the disciples did by picking the ears of the grain when they felt hungry is an action forbidden on the Sabbath. They use this incident to accuse Jesus of encouraging his disciples to violate the laws of the Sabbath. Jesus blunts the power of their arguments by showing how their own ancestors did the opposite of what they were saying.
Jesus confronts them with four arguments to show the hollowness of their accusations. First one was the example of David who ate the Show Bread or the Bread of the Presence which only priests were allowed to eat. Second, priests themselves make a lot of actions in order to prepare themselves for the observance of the Sabbath. Third, from their own prophets’ statements, Jesus shows how acts of mercy are more important than Temple sacrifices. The last and the most important of all is that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. They become speechless before these arguments
Jesus uses the occasion to show them the meaning of the religious traditions and rituals. The whole purpose of religious observances is to help people to come closer to God. Rituals and traditions become meaningless if they distract people from coming closer to God.
Again, to highlight the importance of mercy, Jesus heals the man on the Sabbath. Even healing a man is considered a violation. There are no words to describe the hypocrisy and shallowness of these leaders of the community. Who could ever give such a sudden healing? They should have fallen on their knees and adored God in gratitude when they saw the healing. Instead, they begin to plot how to kill Jesus. Inhumanity has reached its bottom through their actions.
These words and actions of Jesus are a powerful reminder to each one of us to look at the way we lead our lives. For many of us, a life of faith means a life of rituals and traditions. It does not change a bit our selfishness and arrogance, our lack of compassion and unforgiving attitudes. It is when we stoop down to serve our neighbors and the poor that we make our faith alive.
Innumerable are the occasions when we have ignored opportunities where we should have shown mercy and compassion, love and forgiveness. Today is the day for us to make a deep transformation in our lives and allow our faith to change the way of our life. As Mother Teresa has said, “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”