September 6, 2025
Saturday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 436
Reading I
Brothers and sisters:
You once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds;
God has now reconciled you
in the fleshly Body of Christ through his death,
to present you holy, without blemish,
and irreproachable before him,
provided that you persevere in the faith,
firmly grounded, stable,
and not shifting from the hope of the Gospel that you heard,
which has been preached to every creature under heaven,
of which I, Paul, am a minister.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (6) God himself is my help.
O God, by your name save me,
and by your might defend my cause.
O God, hear my prayer;
hearken to the words of my mouth.
R. God himself is my help.
Behold, God is my helper;
the Lord sustains my life.
Freely will I offer you sacrifice;
I will praise your name, O LORD, for its goodness.
R. God himself is my help.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father except through me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath,
his disciples were picking the heads of grain,
rubbing them in their hands, and eating them.
Some Pharisees said,
“Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Have you not read what David did
when he and those who were with him were hungry?
How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering,
which only the priests could lawfully eat,
ate of it, and shared it with his companions?”
Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090625.cfm
Commentary on
Colossians 1:21-23
This brief reading follows immediately on the triumphant
hymn in praise of Christ, head of all creation and head of his body, the Church
(see Col 1:15-20).
Having said that Christ had reconciled the whole world to
himself and brought peace by his death on the cross, Paul reminds the
Colossians that they themselves have experienced the reconciling effect of
Christ’s death, and appeals to them to adhere firmly to him as their only
mediator with God:
And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind,
doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so
as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him…
Paul rejoices that the Colossians are among those who, once
alienated from God by a pagan and sinful life, have now been reconciled and
united with him through the death of Jesus. The “fleshly body” is that of his
Son. This provides the locus where reconciliation takes place. Into this body
the entire human race is effectively gathered. This is beautifully put in the Letter
to the Ephesians where it says that Jesus, through his death, broke down the
divisions and brought peace and reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles,
creating a single new Person (see Eph 2:14). This work has to continue between
peoples everywhere. Our world today is riven with divisions.
This state of peace and reconciliation will only continue:
…provided that you continue securely established and
steadfast in the faith…
They can now stand before God “holy and blameless and
irreproachable”, provided they remain true to the foundation of their faith and
keep close to the hope engendered by the gospel message. It is a message that
is extended to the whole world and Paul is its servant.
We, too, need to remain faithful to the gospel message we
have received through Christ and his Church. We, too, are called, like Paul, to
be its servant and to be agents of peace and reconciliation in every area where
we discern harmful divisions between peoples and groups. As the popular song
says:
Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.
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Commentary on Luke
6:1-5
Yet another confrontation between Jesus and some Pharisees
is described in today’s Gospel. Following immediately, as it does, after the
parable about the patch and the wineskins (Luke 5:33-39), it confirms what
Jesus said about the gap between the traditionalists and his vision.
He and his disciples were walking through a cornfield and it
was a Sabbath day. The disciples were plucking heads of grain, rubbing them in
their hands and eating them. The Sabbath did not forbid walking short
distances. And custom did not forbid ‘gleaning’, that is, taking grain left
over by reapers. It did forbid reaping and threshing. Only a very narrow-minded
interpretation could have described plucking as reaping and rubbing between the
hands as threshing, but that seems to be what is happening here.
The disciples are asked:
Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?
Jesus answers very quickly and to the point. He makes no
reference to the narrow-minded legalism that his critics reveal, the ‘old
wineskin’ mentality. Instead, he throws at them an incident from the past.
David and his men were hungry so they went into the house of God and, with his
approval, ate the holy bread of the Presence which only the priests were
allowed to eat (1 Sam 21:6). Each Sabbath, twelve loaves of fresh bread were
set on a table in the Holy Place. The stale bread was eaten by the priests.
As king, David put himself above the law. Both David’s and
the disciples’ actions involved godly men doing something forbidden by law.
However, it is never a violation of a law to do what is good and to save life
(eating for survival). In that sense both David and the disciples were within
the spirit, though not the letter, of the law.
And Jesus, too, is above the law:
The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.
Jesus has the authority to overrule man-made laws concerning
the Sabbath, particularly as interpreted by the Pharisees. This does not mean,
of course, that Jesus (or even God for that matter) will do anything he feels
like doing. Jesus will never go against anything that involves the True or the
Good; with his Father he is the Source of all that is true and good.
But many of the Jewish laws (like civil laws) are ‘positive
law’. In themselves, they involve matters which are neither good nor bad. In
itself, it is neither good nor bad to stop at a green light or go through a red
one. It is neither good nor bad of itself to abstain from work on the Sabbath.
What makes these acts good or bad is the deeper good of which they are a sign.
That deeper good may sometimes involve their non-observance. Hunger and
survival may over-ride a rule to fast. In a matter of extreme urgency it may be
necessary to drive (safely) through a red light. The letter of the law is
violated, but not the good it intends.
As noted in the Jerusalem Bible, “some
manuscripts of Luke contain a very pertinent [but likely spurious] saying at
this point”:
On the same day, seeing a man working on the Sabbath day,
Jesus said to him: ‘Friend, if you know what you are doing, you are blessed;
but if you do not know, you are accursed as a breaker of the Law’.
That is a sentiment that goes with new wine and new
wineskins. If truth and goodness are not violated by doing or not doing
something, can we say there is sin or evil there?
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o1227g/
Saturday,
September 6, 2025
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Almighty God,
every good thing comes from you.
Fill our hearts with love for you, increase our faith,
and by your constant care
protect the good you have given us.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Luke 6: 1-5
It happened that one Sabbath Jesus was
walking through the cornfields, and his disciples were picking ears of corn,
rubbing them in their hands and eating them.
Some of the Pharisees said, ‘Why
are you doing something that is forbidden on the Sabbath day?’
Jesus answered them, ‘So you have not read
what David did when he and his followers were hungry- how he went into the
house of God and took the loaves of the offering and ate them and gave them to
his followers, loaves which the priests alone are allowed to eat?’
And he said to them, ‘The Son of man is master of the
Sabbath.’
Reflection
The Gospel today speaks about the conflict
concerning the observance of the Sabbath – Saturday. The observance of the
Sabbath was a central law, one of the Ten Commandments. This was a very ancient
Law the value of which was stressed after the Exile. During the Exile, the
people had to work seven days a week from morning until evening, without any
conditions to meet and meditate on the Word of God, to pray together and to
share faith, their problems, and their hopes. Therefore, there was an urgent
need to stop at least one day a week to get together and encourage one another
during the very difficult situation of the exile. Otherwise, they would have
lost their faith. It was then that faith was reborn, and the observance of
Saturday was re-established.
•
Luke 6: 1-2: The cause of the conflict. On
Saturday the disciples were walking across the cornfields and they were picking
ears of corn. Matthew 12: 1 says that they were hungry (Mt 12: 1). The
Pharisees invoke the Bible to say it was a transgression of the Law of
Saturday: Why do you do this which is not permitted to do on Saturday?” (cf. Ex
20: 8-11).
•
Luke 6: 3-4: The response of Jesus. Immediately
Jesus responds recalling that David himself also did things which were
prohibited, because he took the sacred bread from the Temple and gave it to the
soldiers to eat because they were hungry (IS 21: 2-7). Jesus knew the Bible and
referred to it to show that the arguments of others had no foundation. In
Matthew, the response of Jesus is more complete. He not only recalls the story
of David, but also quotes the Legislation which permits the priests to work on
Saturday and he quotes Prophet Hosea: “Mercy is what pleases me, not
sacrifice.” He quotes a Biblical text or a historical text, a legislative text
and a prophetic text (cf. Mt 12: 1-18). At that time there was no printed Bible
as we have it today. In each community there was only one Bible, handwritten,
which remained in the Synagogue. If Jesus knew the Bible so well, it means that
in the 30 years of his life in Nazareth he participated intensely in the life
of the community, where every Saturday the Scriptures were read. We still lack
very much to have the same familiarity with the Bible and the same
participation in the community.
•
Luke 6: 5: The conclusion for all of us. And
Jesus ends with the following phrase: The Son of Man is Master of the Sabbath!
The Lord of Saturday! Jesus, Son of Man, who lives in intimacy with God,
discovers the sense of the Bible not from outside, from without, but from
inside, that is, discovers the sense starting at the roots, beginning from his
intimacy with the author of the Bible who is God himself. Because of this, he
calls himself Master of Saturday. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus revitalizes the
law of Saturday saying: “Saturday was instituted for man and not man for
Saturday.”
Personal Questions
•
How do you spend Sunday, which is our “Sabbath”?
Do you go to Mass because it is an obligation, in order to avoid sin or to be
with God?
•
Jesus knew the Bible almost by heart. What does
the Bible represent for me?
Concluding Prayer
My mouth shall always praise Yahweh, let every creature bless
his holy name for ever and ever. (Ps 145: 21)
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