"Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"

Jesus' teaching: Jesus challenged his critics by asking if it was lawful to do good or save a life on the Sabbath,

and he argued that healing is a righteous act that doesn't break the Sabbath but rather magnifies its meaning.

   

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Romans 9:1-5

I tell you,

Sincerely, in Christ, and my conscience assures me in the Holy Spirit, that I am not lying:

I have great sadness and constant anguish for the Jews. I would even desire,

that, I myself, suffer the curse of being cut off from Christ, instead of my brethren: I mean, my own people, my kin.

They are Israelites, whom God adopted, and on them, rests his glory.

 

Theirs, are the Covenants, the law, the worship and the promises of God.

They are descendants of the patriarchs, and from their race, Christ was born,

he, who, as God, is above all distinctions. Blessed be He forever and ever. Amen!

 

Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20

Praise the Lord, Jerusalem

 

＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊     

Luke 14:1-6

ne Sabbath Jesus had gone to eat a meal in the house of a leading Pharisee, and he was carefully watched.

In front of him was a man suffering from dropsy; so Jesus asked the teachers of the law and the Pharisees,

"Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?" But no one answered. Jesus then took the man, healed him, and sent him away.

And he said to them, "If your lamb or your ox falls into a well on a Sabbath day,

who among you doesn't hurry to pull it out?" And they could not answer.

 

Gospel Reflection ：

"Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"

In their interpretation and application of the Jewish Law,

the Pharisees followed a curious mix of excessive rigor in obeying some commandments

or prohibitions along with subtle hair-splitting to find a way around other prohibitions.

This meant that they were overly strict on some matters, while the Sadducees found the Pharisees' interpretation too lax on others.

 

Today's Gospel focuses on healing on the Sabbath.

Here the Pharisees are exaggerating a prohibition of the healing of minor ailments on the Sabbath, presuming that it prohibits all healing.

This was not the case: one could certainly bind up a wound and attend to serious illnesses.

Christ was not breaking the Law in saving the man from his affliction of dropsy or edema,

which in those times up to the nineteenth _century was largely fatal, as it was a symptom of organ failure.

 

Here the Pharisees are putting obstacles in the way of due care and compassion.

However, in matters of charity and justice, the love and due respect we pay to God,

religion should never be a cause for not showing the love and due respect to one's neighbor. Quite the opposite!