Sabbath
Gospel Reflection for January 21, 2025 - Mark 2:23-28
I don’t know about you but when I hear the word sabbath, rightly or wrongly, I immediately think of rest or that I should be resting.
It is such a challenging idea to give a whole day over to rest, to pause our daily chores, duties, and work. If I’m being honest Sundays are a day of management for this mom. From getting the kids up, fed and ready for Mass, to planning and preparing for the week ahead. Groceries are purchased, a meal plan set, one or two of those meals are prepped, laundry is finished, floors swept, and the kitchen is brought back to some sense of order.
But rest - that is usually the last thing on my mind.
So what does the sabbath mean to us today, in a modern world full of demands on our time?
In Today’s gospel we see the scene of Jesus and His disciples walking through a field of grain on the sabbath. As they meander along they begin to pluck the heads of this grain. Pharisees nearby saw what was happening and immediately questioned the situation with “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?”
Jesus shares with them the story of David and his companions starving, of David entering God’s house and eating the bread of offering and sharing with those with him. It was not lawful, yet David did so. Then Jesus very clearly states “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath; so the Son of man is lord even of the sabbath.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) states that “Just as God ‘rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done’ human life has a rhythm of work and rest. The institution of the Lord’s Day helps everyone enjoy adequate rest and leisure to cultivate their familial, cultural, social and religious lives.”
It goes a bit further in CCC 2186, “Christians will also sanctify Sunday by devoting time and care to their families and relatives, often difficult to do on other days of the week. Sunday is a time for reflection, silence, cultivation of the mind, and meditation which furthers the growth of the Christian interior life.”
And finally, in CCC 2191 it states, “The Church celebrates the day of Christ’s Resurrection on the ‘eighth day,’ Sunday, which is rightly called the Lord’s Day.”
Friends, when we read Jesus’ words “The sabbath was made for man” I invite you to reflect on what your Sundays look like currently. Are they just a day to check off your list of to-do’s, filled with chores? Have we placed Mass on that to-do list, instead of seeing it as a feast of celebration and worship of the true God? Is the sabbath and the idea of rest a foreign concept? Or setting aside intentional time to grow your interior life? What ways could you add in time for reflection, silence, and meditation outside of Mass to grow in your Christian faith?
How can we approach our Sunday’s as that “eighth day” giving it over fully to the Lord, making Him the center of not only our sabbath but of every moment? As Jesus said “so the Son of man is lord even of the sabbath.”
Let us ensure Him the proper place both in our hearts and in our lives.
As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath,
his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain.
At this the Pharisees said to him,
“Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”
He said to them,
“Have you never read what David did
when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?
How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest
and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat,
and shared it with his companions?”
Then he said to them,
“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”