Love of God Enhanced by Love of Neighbors!

Friday, November 3, 2023

Romans 9:1-5; Luke 14:1-6

Today’s Gospel raises an important question: ‘Why would Jesus target the Sabbath days to perform the cures?’ 

Whenever Jesus found that the Lord’s Day stood bereft of its meaning and relevance because of pointless legalism, he invited himself to offer the needed correctives. 

In what he does in the Gospel, Jesus corrects the inhumanity that was being orchestrated in God’s name. 

Their silence to Jesus’ question, ‘Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath or not?’ denotes their moral culpability, which they could not deny. Jesus is enraged by the scenario of meaningless legalism that gave the impression that, if it came to the question of humanity on the Sabbath, animals and not humans were loved better. When humans stood so devalued because of such rigid laws, Jesus invoked the example of an ox along with that of a son. 

Rankled by the scenario of indignity, Jesus sets out to show a worthy way to honor God on the Sabbath. Through the cure he performs, Jesus demonstrates that observing the Sabbath does not mean declaring a spiritual holiday. For Jesus, adoring and worshipping God are done better through respecting and restoring human dignity. Jesus makes them understand that there would be no better day than the Lord’s Day to perform the cures because, if the Sabbath means worshipping God truthfully, then the healings mean precisely that.  

In what he does, Jesus highlights the urgency and necessity of doing good works in God’s name, and that is the most fitting manner to celebrate the Sabbath. 

Worshiping God and liberating humans are not two different things for Jesus. The former stands more enhanced by the latter. Let us embrace the example of Jesus!

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar