Sine Dominico Non Possumus

A Reflection on the Friday Gospel of Matthew 12:1-8

Internet Image of the Martyrdom of the Forty-Nine of Abitinae

     Several years ago, Religious Sisters from a local school came to speak to our parish Youth Groups. One of the young Sisters, Sister Mary, who spoke to the High School youth really connected. She described her life to this point as being VERY unexpected. For example, she had completed a degree in medicine and was now a second-grade teacher. She stated that she had never seen that coming! She also added that becoming a Religious was not in her plans at all. Yet here she was, “so very joyfully by the grace of God.” Sister Mary stated that this part of God’s plan began in her junior year in high school at a moment of rebellion against the “rules.”

     Sister Mary began the story of her conversion with the statement that she was like any other high school teenager trying to find and define herself both within, and outside of, her family. So, she said with a smile, “I wasn’t the easiest of children.” Her family had always been very devout, and her parents were greatly troubled over their rebellious daughter. So, they decided to take a different sort of action. They gave it to the Lord.

     The family parish was walking distance from their home and about halfway between the high school and the family home. There was a Chapel for perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at the Church. So, Mary’s mother asked that on the way home, that they both meet in the Chapel and spend time with Jesus each day after school. Sister Mary said that she had agreed, “kicking and screaming.” But the “alternative” was such that mother and daughter made the pact.

     Sister Mary described that at first, she would go before the Blessed Sacrament defiantly. She would wear her most bored expression, fidget, distract herself, and others, hoping to erode her mother’s will. Sister said that if she would have had a phone, she would have been on it. This elicited a giggle from most in the youth group. Slowly though, she continued, her attitude changed. She decided that if she “had” to sit before Jesus, she would use the time for something. In time, she began to pray and review her day with Jesus and ask for His help and guidance. Soon, her mother took a part-time job and could no longer meet her at the chapel. The young Sister told the group that, much to the surprise and joy of her family, she went anyway. She began to look forward to her time with Jesus. She stated that, “like water on a rock,” Jesus changed her heart. He was defining her. This became the best time of her day. As she attended college, she stated that she resisted the student culture to, “ditch Mass.” She tried to attend Mass daily and never missed Sunday Mass and time with Jesus in the Tabernacle. This became the center of her life. She concluded with the very frank statement that Holy Mass and the Eucharist were a tremendous gift, an undeserved grace for her and for anyone who will really give themselves to Jesus, to be defined in Him, through Him. Jesus was the Lord of her Sabbath!

     In listening to this Sister, I could not help but recall the words of the forty-nine Martyrs of Abitinae (in modern day Tunisia). These holy martyrs, during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian, stubbornly gathered when it was against the law, punishable by death, to celebrate the Sunday Eucharist. Earlier Fundanus, the local bishop in Abitinae, waffled, and out of fear, obeyed the edict and closed the Church. Forty-nine Christians continued to meet illegally under the priest Saturninus. They were eventually apprehended and interrogated by an amazed and especially cruel proconsul named Anulino. He was astounded that they would still gather despite the certain torture and death that awaited them if they were caught. Anulino asked; “why?” The response of the group was recorded in Latin as; “sine dominico non possumus,” (“we cannot [live] without Sunday”). (Paraphrased from Mason) They could not live without the gift of Holy Mass. Jesus was the Lord of the Sabbath. It was not about a temple but about God, the Christ, the Son of Man, and the defining center of their lives. All died rather than give in. This is a testimony that we, as a Church, could all learn from.

     In the Gospel today the Pharisees attack Jesus, accusing His disciples of violating the Sabbath. Work was prohibited on the Sabbath. The Pharisees divided work into thirty-nine categories, with many subcategories. Three prohibited categories were picking, threshing, and winnowing. The disciples picked grain and rubbed it between their hands to remove the husks and thus broke the highly restrictive rabbinic law on three different counts. Jesus reminds them that the human derived Sabbath law was overridden by priorities such as genuine human need (1 Samuel 21:1–6); right worship (Numbers 28:9–10); and acts of kindness (Hosea 6:6). Finally, He reminds them that,

If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned these innocent men. For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath." (Matthew 12:8 NABRE)

     Jesus is pleading with the Pharisees, He is pleading with us, to make our worship of God the center of our lives, its defining principle, not through a set of rules but from a heart responding in love, adoration, and joy, to grace. I always flinch when I hear the words, “our Sunday Obligation” or I am asked, “does this Mass or that Mass count?” These statements come from rule-bound hearts. The Christian Sabbath (celebration of the Lord’s Day of Resurrection) is worship of a heart yearning to be with the One we love, the center of our lives. In our worship and prayer, a public profession of a life centered on receiving the Lord in the Eucharist, God defines our lives, and in this changes the world. Think of the world as Anulino and the Church as the Martyrs of Abitinae or Sister Mary. Wouldn’t we amaze and attract the world of Anulinos to Christ if we, through our words and actions, proclaimed in every circumstance,

“Sine dominico non possumus,” “we cannot [live] without Sunday”?

Yes Lord, define my life! You are Lord of the Sabbath!

End Notes:

Mason, Arthur James PhD. The Historic Martyrs of the Primitive Church. Logman’s, Green and Company. New York and Bombay, 1905. Print.

New American Bible. Revised Edition. Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2011. Print.