Saturday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Growing up I encountered a phenomenon that I'm sure was not unique to my childhood. It was the paradox of 'mandatory fun time.' It could be assigned by a teacher thinking they were being nice. It could be commanded by your parents as they shoved you outside and told you to 'go have fun.' It could just be that feeling of watching the clock, on a Sunday before school, tick closer and closer to bed time as you convinced yourself that 'I must have as much fun as possible between now and bed.' The paradox of it is that 'mandatory fun time' was never any fun. The entire time your enjoyment is skewed just enough to ruin it because you had to do it.
Looking at the portrayal of the sabbath in the gospels and seeing the strictness of the rules surrounding it makes me feel like many first century Jews would understand the paradox of 'mandatory fun time.' The sabbath was to be a day of rest, worship, and fellowship. It was the day of the week that the Jews were to set aside for God, their family, and themselves. However, there were so many rules making sure that everyone was 'resting' adequately that I feel like it had to be the most stressful day of the whole week! To have so many regulations governing a day of worship and recuperation would not leave me feeling rested, but restive. And that is the scene that today's gospel presents us.
Jesus and the disciples get accused of not lawfully observing the sabbath. The dialogue that follows ends with a strong proclamation from Jesus, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.” There are many things that Christ is saying with this one phrase. He is letting the Pharisees know that though he justified His picking grain as they walked through a field, He didn't need to justify it. He shouldn't have to, because the sabbath is subject to Him, not the other way around. By making a proclamation of His authority over the sabbath He is also helping to identify Himself with God, who as the giver of the sabbath is its true master. More than just exerting His authority over a single day in the week, I think He is making a statement about who He is in our lives as the “lord of the sabbath.”
Unlike offering us a supposedly restful day of strict observances, which if any of them are broken our faithfulness to the Lord will be called into question, Christ offers us Himself. I believe one of the several meanings of Christ's declaration, is that He is the lord of our rest. It is in Him that we will truly find our recuperation from the trials of life. It is through Him that we will really be able to worship God like never before. It is with Him that we will be able to substantially improve our relationships with others.
As this Saturday, the old sabbath, rolls over into Sunday, the sabbath (so to speak) of the new covenant. Let us not look at our attendance at Mass as 'mandatory church time,' but as a chance to really, truly, and substantially encounter Christ in the Eucharist. So that we can truly give us rest through Himself, and in making us part of the Body of Christ, He allows us to share ourselves and our load with each other.
- Spencer Hargadon