Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

When I was growing up, Thanksgiving was a big feast and much anticipated holiday. In our family, we always started the feast with my grandmother’s “palate cleanser” – a crystal goblet of sparkling apple cider and a small scoop of lime sorbet. For dinner, we always had a long grace, followed by every person’s individual recitation of things they were thankful for. Then we dove into our feast: roast turkey, mashed potatoes gravy, as well as sweet potatoes with brown sugar and lemon pepper butter, green bean casserole, corn casserole, plus red raspberry jello with a special cream cheese frosting. There were fresh homemade dinner rolls on the side, with generous portions of butter and jam. For dessert (should I mention dessert?), we would usually have three kinds of pie (pumpkin, pecan, and my mother’s specialty, grape chiffon), and a dollop of whipped cream to go with each slice. The meal wasn’t only about the food (of which there was a lot), it was also about the traditions. There was a set way we did things as a family and there were things we always expected to see – like that sparkling cider and sorbet. It just didn’t feel like a holiday without it.

So maybe I can understand the Pharisees’ discontent in today’s gospel passage (Matthew 12:1-8). People have tended to be dismissive of the Pharisees here, I think, because they think we know that the Jewish law is clearly oppressive and has lots of strange rules that do not make sense. But think about it from the Pharisees’ sensibilities for a moment. Jesus is not just messing with the rules, he’s messing with the way things have always been. It doesn’t “feel” like the Sabbath if someone’s working unlawfully that day, or picking grain, or healing people, just like it wouldn’t have felt like Thanksgiving to me if something had been out of place.

Jesus’ words remind us, though, not to be selfish and want things to go “our way” just because otherwise it makes us feel like something is out of place. Jesus proclaims that God desires mercy, not sacrifice. One year at Thanksgiving, following a hard time for my family when one of us had been sick for a long time, we decided to do something different. We went out to eat, instead of doing the big meal. It was simple, and we still did some of the same things like the thanksgiving blessing, but it was definitely different. It was also difficult to compare past Thanksgivings that had come in happier times, to that restaurant meal. But it was definitely necessary and better for us, that year. Maybe a lesson from today’s readings is that mercy can only come when we are willing to let go of our own presuppositions and assumptions about the way things should be.

This is true of the first reading as well (Exodus 11:10-12:14). In this passage are the instructions God gives to the people as they prepare to flee from slavery in Egypt. This is to be the first Passover meal, and it is to eaten quickly, in preparation for a long journey, and it is one of the most solemn feasts for Jews today, as they remember again and again the God who saves his people from slavery. Astonishingly, after the Hebrews have safely escaped from slavery in Egypt, they complain to Moses and to God not just once, but MANY times, that they would have been better off back in Egypt. The quick meal hastily eaten, the wandering in the desert with no home, the lack of recognizable food and water all took their toll on the Hebrews’ sensibilities.

To allow God to lead us from slavery, to allow mercy to prevail over sacrifice, means we have to be willing to turn away from our own closely held assumptions. This was a major shift in thinking the apostles had to make at the last supper, when Jesus turned the traditional Passover meal into a meal about him and his own sacrifice for us – his Body, his Blood. Talk about presuppositions being overturned! My prayer for today is that God will help me remove whatever assumptions of mine stand in God’s way to help me find mercy.

-Jana M. Bennett