Pallikoodas 2S,Nov.7,10

Pallikoodasa 2nd S.,Nov.7, 10
(Mt.12:1-14)

When John Paul the First was elected the Pope, there was not much awareness among the public as to who he was. But during the public audience, when he began to receive the people, there was a wide acclaim about the way he interacted with them. One student at a University rushed to his classmates to tell how he was thrilled from toe to head when he saw the Holy Father greeting a young girl in the audience. The Holy Father was all smiles when he leaned forward to greet the young girl. For people accustomed to dour traditions and rituals of the time, the attitude of the Holy Father was a welcome change.

Traditions and rituals have a meaning. When they are practiced without the soul that inspired them, they become cruel and suffocating. In religious life, traditions and rituals are observed in order to become more spiritual and reverential and not to become hard-hearted and insensitive.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds his listeners about the purpose and goals of traditions and how necessary it is to show compassion and mercy in one’s attitudes in the observance of rituals.
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.
The 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 come 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.

The Church becomes a cold place if the people do not develop mercy and compassion in their lives.Of all the religions, Christianity is the only one founded on love. If our lives are solely engrossed in our own selfish designs and ambitions, we become the laughing stocks of the world. Let there be a strong decision on our part to reach out to one another and to get reconciled.

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.”