Religious Traditions – Purpose and Meaning!

Tuesday, January 20, 2026

1 Sam 16:1-13; Mk 2:23-28

Today’s Gospel highlights Jesus’ teaching on the religious tradition of fasting.

As we begin to read the text, just as the Pharisees accuse, it looks as if Jesus approves of his disciples violating the law of fasting on the Sabbath. However, if we read the text closely, we discover that Jesus forbids the Pharisees from reducing the law of the Sabbath into an oppressive tool against the unlettered and ordinary. Viewed thus, Jesus fights for justice in order to bring out the true essence of God’s law. 

In teaching the Pharisees that ‘the Sabbath was made for humans, not humans for the Sabbath,’ Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of religious leaders who hold on to the letter dimension of God’s law, abandoning its spirit as God had originally intended. This is why the angelic doctor St. Thomas Aquinas believed that God gave the law for the good of humanity, not to serve any personal need of the Creator. In essence, Jesus reclaims God’s will in his teaching on the Sabbath law. 

Further, Jesus prompts his listeners to reflect on the meaning and worth of religious traditions. Jesus enlightens us with the conviction that religious traditions benefit humanity when they bind us to meet the needs of others with compassion. In other words, religious traditions must shape our ministry in a way that reflects God’s love. Instead, they cease to be useful when they fail to inspire us to respond out of love and compassion towards others. 

Let us pray that our religiosity may manifest itself in a gentle and kind love towards others. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar