Catechism Links [1]
CCC 345-349, 582, 2168-2173: the Lord’s Day
CCC 1005-1014, 1470, 1681-1683: dying and living in Christ
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| “Cure of the Withered Hand” by Ilyas Basim Khuri Bazzi Rahib, c. 1684 |
Readings for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time [2]*
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [3]*
Readings and
Commentary: [4]
*Because this Sunday celebration has been superseded by the Easter Season for over 16 years, no reading links are available from either USCCB or Universalis.
Reading 1: Deuteronomy 5:12-15
Thus says the LORD:
"Take care to
keep holy the sabbath day
as the LORD, your
God, commanded you.
Six days you may
labor and do all your work;
but the seventh day
is the sabbath of the LORD, your God.
No work may be done
then, whether by you, or your son or
daughter,
or your male or
female slave,
or your ox or ass
or any of your beasts,
or the alien who
lives with you.
Your male and
female slave should rest as you do.
For remember that
you too were once a slave in Egypt,
and the LORD, your
God, brought you from there
with his strong
hand and outstretched arm.
That is why the
LORD, your God, has commanded you
to observe the
sabbath day."
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Commentary on Dt 5:12-15
This passage establishes the sabbath day as a day dedicated
to God and to rest. It differs from Exodus 31:16-17 which focuses
on God’s completion of creation. In this case it is clear that while the day is
to be set aside for God, it is to be reserved as a day of rest, a commemoration
of the bondage and slavery experienced in Egypt.
CCC: Dt 5:12-15 2167; Dt 5:12 2189; Dt 5:15 2057, 2170
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 81:3-4, 5-6, 6-8, 10-11
R. (2a)
Sing with joy to God our help.
Take up a melody,
and sound the timbrel,
the pleasant harp
and the lyre.
Blow the trumpet at
the new moon,
at the full moon,
on our solemn feast.
R. Sing with joy to
God our help.
For it is a statute
in Israel,
an ordinance of the
God of Jacob,
who made it a
decree for Joseph
when he came forth
from the land of Egypt.
R. Sing with joy to
God our help.
An unfamiliar
speech I hear:
"I relieved
his shoulder of the burden;
his hands were
freed from the basket.
In distress you
called, and I rescued you."
R. Sing with joy to
God our help.
"There shall
be no strange god among you
nor shall you
worship any alien god.
I, the LORD, am
your God
who led you forth from
the land of Egypt."
R. Sing with joy to
God our help.
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Commentary on Ps 81:3-4, 5-6, 6-8, 10-11
Psalm 81 is a prophetic liturgy generally associated with the
Feast of Tabernacles. Here David rejoices in God’s mercy, freeing his people
from constant toil, giving them rest from their labors through the Mosaic
Covenant. It reinforces that covenant reminding the people they have One True
God who is their salvation.
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Reading 2: 2 Corinthians 4:6-11
Brothers and
sisters:
God who said, Let
light shine out of darkness,
has shone in our
hearts to bring to light
the knowledge of
the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ.
But we hold this
treasure in earthen vessels,
that the surpassing
power may be of God and not from us.
We are afflicted in
every way, but not constrained;
perplexed, but not
driven to despair;
persecuted, but not
abandoned;
struck down, but
not destroyed;
always carrying
about in the body the dying of Jesus,
so that the life of
Jesus may also be manifested in our body.
For we who live are
constantly being given up to death
for the sake of
Jesus,
so that the life of
Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
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Commentary on 2 Cor 4:6-11
St. Paul begins this selection paraphrasing Genesis 1:3. The Apostle views
conversion of the faithful as a new beginning, a light shining in the darkness.
“The transformation we experience in Chris thus parallels the transformation
effected by the word of God when he first dispelled the darkness with light at
the dawn of history. This was already hinted at by Isaiah, who developed the
theme of light’s victory over darkenss as a sign of salvation (Isaiah 9:2; 49:6; 60:1-3). Paul experienced
this first hand when the blinding light of Christ knocked him to the ground on
the Damascus road (Acts 9:3; 26;13) (CCC 2583)” [5]
The Apostle continues explaining the paradoxical nature of
ministry in Christ. Our immortal souls, transformed in Christ contained within
perishable bodies. The earthly body (earthen vessels) may be destroyed but the
glorified body is imperishable.
CCC: 2 Cor 4:6 298, 2583; 2 Cor 4:7 1420
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Gospel: Mark 2:23-3:6*
A
Longer Form
As Jesus was passing
through a field of grain on the sabbath,
his disciples began
to make a path while picking the heads of
grain.
At this the
Pharisees said to him,
"Look, why are
they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?"
He said to them,
"Have you never read what David did
when he was in need
and he and his companions were hungry?
How he went into
the house of God when Abiathar was high priest
and ate the bread
of offering
that only the
priests could lawfully eat,
and shared it with
his companions?"
Then he said to
them,
"The sabbath
was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son
of Man is lord even of the sabbath."
Again he entered
the synagogue.
There was a man
there who had a withered hand.
They watched him
closely
to see if he would
cure him on the sabbath
so that they might
accuse him.
He said to the man
with the withered hand,
"Come up here
before us."
Then he said to
them,
"Is it lawful
to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil,
to save life rather
than to destroy it?"
But they remained
silent.
Looking around at
them with anger
and grieved at
their hardness of heart,
he said to the man,
"Stretch out your hand."
He stretched it out
and his hand was restored.
The Pharisees went
out
and immediately
took counsel with the Herodians against him
to put him to death.
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Commentary on Mk 2:23-3:6
[2:23-28] In this passage from St. Mark’s Gospel the Lord has
another conflict with the Pharisees over laws they have implemented. In this
case the laws are about doing no work on the Sabbath. The disciples of Jesus
were hungry and as a result gathered and ate grain on the Sabbath. Strictly
speaking this was labor (Leviticus 24:9) and that is what
the Pharisees were objecting to.
Jesus responded by reminding them (the Pharisees) about a
story form the first book of Samuel (1 Samuel 21:2-7) in which
restrictions not included in Mosaic Law but established by men were relaxed at
need. The example can be seen as a link between Jesus’ own genealogy (coming
from the line of David) and the mission as Savior, the Anointed One, the
Messiah. It also teaches a more pragmatic lesson about the Sabbath being
created for man and not as the rules of Pharisaic law had restricted it.
[3:1-6] The man with the withered hand is used to trap Jesus
into doing something that by Pharisaic Law was considered “labor”. Jesus tries
to show them the flaw in their logic with a question; “Is it lawful to do good
on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?”
But they will not respond because the answer is obvious. With his opponents
reduced to silence, the cures the man (see also John 5:17-18). Their attempt
foiled, they run to the minions of King Herod to continue their plotting.
CCC: Mk 2:23-27 581; Mk 2:23-26 544; Mk 2:25-27 582; Mk 2:27-28 2167; Mk 2:27 2173; Mk 2:28 2173; Mk 3:1-6 574; Mk 3:4 2173; Mk 3:5-6 1859; Mk 3:5 591; Mk 3:6 574, 591
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OR B Shorter Form
Mark
2:23-28
As
Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath,
his disciples began
to make a path while picking the heads of
grain.
At this the
Pharisees said to him,
"Look, why are
they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?"
He said to them,
"Have you never read what David did
when he was in need
and he and his companions were hungry?
How he went into
the house of God when Abiathar was high priest
and ate the bread
of offering
that only the
priests could lawfully eat,
and shared it with
his companions?"
Then he said to
them,
"The sabbath
was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son
of Man is lord even of the sabbath."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Mk 2:23-28
In this passage from St. Mark’s Gospel the Lord has another conflict with the
Pharisees over laws they have implemented. In this case the laws are about
doing no work on the Sabbath. The disciples of Jesus were hungry and as a
result gathered and ate grain on the Sabbath. Strictly speaking this was labor
(Leviticus
24:9) and that is what the Pharisees were objecting to.
Jesus responded by reminding them (the Pharisees) about a story form the first
book of Samuel (1
Samuel 21:2-7) in which restrictions not included in Mosaic Law but
established by men were relaxed at need. The example can be seen as a link
between Jesus’ own genealogy (coming from the line of David) and the mission as
Savior, the Anointed One, the Messiah. It also teaches a more pragmatic lesson
about the Sabbath being created for man and not as the rules of Pharisaic law
had restricted it.
CCC: Mk 2:23-27 581; Mk 2:23-26 544; Mk 2:25-27 582; Mk 2:27-28 2167; Mk 2:27 2173; Mk 2:28 2173
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Reflection:
We reflect on these scriptures as the COVID 19 pandemic continues to impact the United States. How easy it is to forget to keep the Sabbath Day holy when our Sunday obligation has been suspended out of fear of spreading or contracting the deadly virus. Even those not at high risk are sheltering in place, to attending Sunday Mass, even where they are offered. At this time, the first wave has already taken its toll and now the second wave is pushing back the relaxed restrictions toward lock-down.
How important it is to retain that part of Mosaic Law which we heard first in the reading from Deuteronomy and then reiterated so forcefully in the Gospel of St. Mark. It is interesting that the Lord did moderate the pharisaic legalistic view of “work” on the Sabbath. Once more they thought to trap him by challenging the actions of his disciples who casually plucked grain and at it as they walked. It was “work” they claimed that his disciples did, in violation of the restrictions of God’s day.
To bring home the point more forcefully the Lord took the topic to the synagogue where he did, according to the legalists, the unthinkable by curing the man with the withered hand. We are reminded of a reflection about testing from our hero, Fr. Simeon (AKS Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis) who once said of the testing by the Pharisees: “’Test him’: the text has πειοαξων, a word that may also be translated as ‘to tempt’ and ‘to submit to trial’. Matthew uses the term six times altogether from one end of his Gospel to the other (4:1,3; 16:1; 19:3; 22:18; 22:35), and two things are significant about this use. The first time the term appears the tempter is Satan himself, and this fact lends to every other occasion a satanic whiff; and secondly, the object of the tempting or testing in every case is Jesus himself.” [6]
Here the Lord, as he always does, uses his love of us all – this time using the poor infirmed man with a hand made useless (and according to the Jewish leadership as a punishment from God). His cure shows those present (and those hearing the story all these millennia since) that love is not work! That God, who is love, is master of the Sabbath and it is his law that reigns.
As we suffer in our isolation it is wise to remember that we are called to hold the Sabbath as God’s day, set aside for him and that just as he rules this day, let his love rule it for us and our actions.
Pax
[1] Catechism links are taken from the Homiletic
Directory, published by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the
Discipline of the Sacraments, 29 June 2014.
[2] The picture is “Cure of the Withered Hand”
by Ilyas Basim Khuri Bazzi Rahib, c. 1684.
[4] The readings are taken from the New
American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were
developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This
republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[5] Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, © 2010, Ignatius Press, San Francisco,
CA. p.317
[6] Fire
of Mercy Heart of the Word Volume III, Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis, Ignatius Press,
San Francisco, CA, © 2012 p. 576.
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