Friday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Scripture


There is a very devout and pious woman I have often talked to often recently. She is ill and she cannot come to the Church. I have arranged for her to receive Holy Communion each Sunday. However, the person taking her Communion had to leave town on an emergency. She called her to let he know that she would bring Communion to her communicant on Monday instead. Most people find that acceptable in case of emergency. But my friend finds herself unable to make that change. I don’t blame her. She wants to do the right thing. But in her mind to receive communion on any other day except Sunday does not fulfil her Sunday obligation. While I admire her piety and sense of communion with the rest of the Catholic community, I also sense that for her, her sense of obligation has also become her burden. I tried to reason with her. I told her that in exceptional situations it is fine to receive communion whenever it was possible. But she will not succumb to my “devilish” suggestions.

In the above instance, all the above parties are trying to do the right thing. It is precisely this point that make the situation complicated. The question though is – what if my very intention to do the right thing becomes a shackle? Can religion become a shackle rather than a freeing experience? Let’s take the Pharisees in today’s gospel passage. Their intention was good – to follow the Law to perfection. They made sure to keep the Sabbath holy. But as Jesus asks, Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?” (Lk 14:3). Jesus tries to present exceptions to the Law. He was trying to suggest that if religion become a shackling experience rather than a freeing experience then perhaps then it has lost its value.

This is Paul’s dilemma in the first reading as well. He was not mean scholar of the Law. Yet he has experienced salvation outside the Law. His experience of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ was indeed a freeing experience. He does not discount the Law but sees its freeing power through faith in Jesus Christ. He hopes that his people, the Jews, would also experience the same power. He is even willing to be separated from Christ, if only, his people would accept Christ. Not that he wants to be separated from Christ but he is willing to abandon the shackling power of religion for a greater good.

We are all susceptible to the shackling force of false religiosity and piety. God came to set us free, not to enslave us further. Are there aspects of our faith that we practice out of fear, or meaningless obligation, or even out of enslaving habit? When it came to healing the man, Jesus took recourse to the liberation aspect of religion. He healed the man even though his action led him to disagreement with religious authorities. Let us examine our faith and if we find that our beliefs come from fear or mere sense of obligation, then let us ask Christ to set us free. May the source of our faith be love – sincere and genuine love of God and neighbor.

- Fr. Satish Joseph