20190719 RITUALS
AND LAWS
19 JULY, 2019,
Friday, 15th Week, Ordinary Time
RITUALS AND LAWS
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Green.
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First reading
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Exodus 11:10-12:14 ©
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The institution of the Passover
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Moses and Aaron worked many wonders in the
presence of Pharaoh. But the Lord made Pharaoh’s heart stubborn, and he did not
let the sons of Israel leave his country.
The
Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:
‘This
month is to be the first of all the others for you, the first month of your
year. Speak to the whole community of Israel and say, “On the tenth day of this
month each man must take an animal from the flock, one for each family: one
animal for each household. If the household is too small to eat the animal, a
man must join with his neighbour, the nearest to his house, as the number of
persons requires. You must take into account what each can eat in deciding the
number for the animal. It must be an animal without blemish, a male one year
old; you may take it from either sheep or goats. You must keep it till the
fourteenth day of the month when the whole assembly of the community of Israel
shall slaughter it between the two evenings. Some of the blood must then be
taken and put on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where it is
eaten. That night, the flesh is to be eaten, roasted over the fire; it must be
eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or
boiled, but roasted over the fire, head, feet and entrails. You must not leave
any over till the morning: whatever is left till morning you are to burn. You
shall eat it like this: with a girdle round your waist, sandals on your feet, a
staff in your hand. You shall eat it hastily: it is a passover in honour of the
Lord. That night, I will go through the land of Egypt and strike down all the
first-born in the land of Egypt, man and beast alike, and I shall deal out
punishment to all the gods of Egypt, I am the Lord! The blood shall serve to
mark the houses that you live in. When I see the blood I will pass over you and
you shall escape the destroying plague when I strike the land of Egypt. This
day is to be a day of remembrance for you, and you must celebrate it as a feast
in the Lord’s honour. For all generations you are to declare it a day of
festival, for ever.”’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm
115(116):12-13,15-18 ©
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The cup of salvation I
will raise; I will call on the Lord’s name.
How can I repay the Lord
for his goodness to me?
The cup of salvation I will raise;
I will call on the Lord’s
name.
The cup of salvation I
will raise; I will call on the Lord’s name.
O precious in the eyes of the Lord
is the death of his faithful.
Your servant, Lord, your servant am I;
you have loosened my bonds.
The cup of salvation I
will raise; I will call on the Lord’s name.
A thanksgiving sacrifice I make;
I will call on the Lord’s
name.
My vows to the Lord I will fulfil
before all his people.
The cup of salvation I
will raise; I will call on the Lord’s name.
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Gospel Acclamation
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cf.Ps26:11
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Instruct me, Lord, in your way;
on an even path lead me.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Jn10:27
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The sheep that belong to me listen to my
voice,
says the Lord,
I know them and they follow me.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 12:1-8 ©
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The Son of Man is master of the sabbath
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Jesus took a walk one sabbath day through
the cornfields. His disciples were hungry and began to pick ears of corn and
eat them. The Pharisees noticed it and said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are
doing something that is forbidden on the sabbath.’ But he said to them, ‘Have
you not read what David did when he and his followers were hungry – how he
went into the house of God and how they ate the loaves of offering which
neither he nor his followers were allowed to eat, but which were for the
priests alone? Or again, have you not read in the Law that on the sabbath day
the Temple priests break the sabbath without being blamed for it? Now here, I
tell you, is something greater than the Temple. And if you had understood the
meaning of the words: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice, you
would not have condemned the blameless. For the Son of Man is master of the
sabbath.’
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Exodus 11:10-12:14; Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18; Matthew 12:1-8 ]
We can fall into extreme
positions by being legalistic about the observance of rituals and laws of
religion and society; or a total disregard for them, seeing them as childish
and silly. The
truth is that every religion and society needs rituals and laws to guide the
community. This was why Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for
humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath.” (Mk 2:27)
Rituals are important to
call to mind what happened in the past so that remembering the past will help
the present community to be grateful for the present. By celebrating the past, we also
learn the lessons our ancestors had gone through so that we would not repeat
the same mistakes and at the same time celebrate their achievements and
joy. Celebrating the rituals also has to do with the sense of the Sacred;
that there is something beyond the individual and the community. Whether
they are religious rituals or national rituals, there is a sense of the sacred
even though it is not always explicitly mentioned, especially in cultural and
community celebrations. If not, why do we stand upright or salute our
National Flag and sing our National Anthem with respect and reverence?
Simply because there is something sacred in what we are doing.
Furthermore, this is the way communities celebrate their dreams and hopes for
their community and nation.
So, for every culture,
community, country and religion there will be rituals. In the first
reading, we have the institution of the Feast of the Passover. For the Israelites, this was by far the
most important among all the other rituals and celebrations. The Lord
said to them, “This day is to be a day of remembrance for you, and you must
celebrate it as a feast in the Lord’s honour. For all generations you are
to declare it a day of festival, for ever.” Indeed, this was the decisive
event that changed the lives of the Hebrews. They were liberated from the
slavery of the Egyptians after spending four hundred and thirty years with
them! From then on, they would become a nation themselves, with
their own land and their own king. But it would be another four hundred
and forty years before they could enter the Promised Land and eventually
establish it as a United Kingdom under King David! What kept the
dream and the hopes of the people alive was the celebration of the rituals,
particularly the Passover. Not only did it keep their dreams alive but it
also brought the people together.
Besides the rituals,
every community, religious or otherwise, requires laws to govern the people so
that they can live in harmony with one another, respecting the rights and freedom of
each other. Again, no organization or community can do without laws. Laws
are meant to help everyone to be disciplined so that justice will
prevail. In the gospel, we have the Sabbath Law, which the Jews kept
meticulously. As in all laws, there is also a narrow interpretation, that
is, according to the letter of the law; and there is a broad interpretation
according to the Spirit of the law. This is where the tension
arises.
Some are too legalistic
in the interpretation of the laws and would even elaborate all the specific
instances how the law, in this case, the Sabbath, is to be applied. The Sabbath only requires the Jews
to make a day of rest, freed from work, so that they can spend time with their
loved ones at home and make time to acknowledge God as the creator and their
divine providence. This was the intent of the Sabbath Law. However,
those with legalistic minds began to inquire what this “rest” entailed.
They took the law so seriously that they went to the extent of specifying
exactly how this law was to be observed. So over and above the basic
Sabbath Law, they also expected all Jews to observe the extrapolations of this
fundamental law. This made the Sabbath Law rather burdensome.
For this reason, Jesus
sought to recover the true spirit and intention of the Sabbath Law. He was not against the practice of
rituals, customs and the laws of Moses. On the contrary, He made it
clear, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I
have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” (Mt 5:17) He reminded us to keep the
principle and intention of the Law in perspective in the way the law is
applied. The purpose of the Law is for the good of man. It is to
protect him, not to destroy him. It is meant to give him life not to
kill. So in the application of the law, we must always bear in mind
whether we are promoting life and love. Rituals and laws must be at the
service of love and life. Otherwise, they are redundant and only make us
slaves.
Jesus illustrated how
laws are to be interpreted by citing examples from scriptures. In the
first instance, he gave the example of King David and his followers who ate the
loaves of offerings meant for the priests only when they were hungry. David’s justification was that they were
also on a holy mission. He said, “‘Indeed women have been kept from us as
always when I go on an expedition; the vessels of the young men are holy even
when it is a common journey; how much more today will their vessels be
holy?’ So the priest gave him the holy bread; for there was no bread
there except the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before
the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.”
(1 Sm 21:5f) So the law is not
absolute. It should be flexible enough to meet the basic needs of the
people.
Secondly, Jesus said,
“Have you not read in the Law that on the Sabbath day the Temple priests break
the Sabbath without being blamed for it?” Indeed, for the good and service of others,
such obligations supersede that of the Sabbath Law. For the greater good
of the people, priests, pastors and lay workers work even more on the
Sabbath. Those providing public service and security are exempted from
observing the Sabbath Law. The truth is that if everyone does not work on
the Sabbath, then the whole city or town would be paralyzed and no one would be
dealing with emergencies and the basic needs of life. In a pointed
manner, Jesus put this question to the religious leaders when He wanted to heal
the man with a withered hand, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the
Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” (Mk 3:4) And to the leader of the synagogue who
was indignant when Jesus healed a woman who was crippled for 18 years, He
reprimanded them, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie
his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And
ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long
years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” (Lk 13:15f)
Indeed, let us not be
hypocritical in using the laws to judge people. We must take into consideration that
people are human beings with feelings, limitations, different strengths,
conditioned by upbringing and circumstances. Whilst the laws are
objective principles, not every human person can measure himself perfectly to
what the law demands. The laws unfortunately do not take into
consideration the subjectivity of a person. This explains why Jesus said,
“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you
make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.”
(Mt 7:1f)
God does not look at the
external action we do, but He reads the intentions of the heart. That is
why God’s judgement is always just.
“O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down
and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my
path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.” (Ps 139:1-3) Again Jeremiah said, “The
heart is devious above all else; it is perverse – who
can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the
heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of
their doings.” (Jer 17:9f) Only
God’s judgement is just. Our judgment is always lacking justice because
we do not take into account the situation of the person. We can never
know fully what the person has gone through in life, the hurts, the wounds that
he had suffered, and thereby conditioned him to act in such a manner. But
God understands us and He knows our struggles and what causes us to act
accordingly.
However, it is important
that we do not fall into a situation where we discard all rituals and laws and
fall into lawlessness.
Indeed, those who think that they are beyond all laws must be careful to
examine themselves to see whether they have been slaves to the works of the
flesh, namely, “fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery,
enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions,
factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am
warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit
the kingdom of God.” (Gal 5:19-21)
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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