Posted by The WORD in other words (2009) by Fr. Jun de Ocampo SVD – Cologne, Germany
Saturday 22nd Week in Ordinary Time
According to St. Paul, the whole purpose of Christ’s coming to earth was to reconcile us sinful people to God through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. By his suffering and death, God proved His love for us. By his resurrection, Christ has shown that he has conquered every opposing power and there is nothing in life nor in death that can bind him. This entitles him to supreme lordship.
So in the Gospel, when Jesus declared before the Pharisees, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath,” he was making a point: Human need should override bare legalism. The Law of Moses is not intended to make life harder for man, but to help man. Salvation of man is not gained through fulfilling every letter of the Law by sheer human effort. It is this Sabbath issue that eventually led the Pharisees to plot for his death on the cross.
We now regard Sunday as the “Day of the Lord” and no longer Sabbath which is a Saturday, because on Sunday we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. More importantly, every Sunday is a celebration of our reconciliation with God through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Going to our Sunday worship therefore is not only a fulfillment of an obligation but also a joyful event we always long for with eagerness.
Every celebration of our Sunday worship, the Spirit of reconciliation that made us closer to God makes us also closer to the people in our community. We are the people who received God’s love and mercy. Consequently, we must also be loving and merciful people ourselves.
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