From the responsorial psalm: “The LORD is just in all his ways and holy in all his works. The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth. The Lord is near to all who call upon him.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 6:1-5)
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.”
As Jesus and his disciples walk through a grain field on the sabbath, the disciples begin to pluck the heads of grain and eat them. The Pharisees are critical of this, believing that any form of work, including harvesting grain, was prohibited on the sabbath. In response, Jesus refers to David, making clear that human needs can take precedence over strict interpretation of the law and that mercy and necessity are more important. “The Son of Man,” Jesus says, speaking of himself, “is lord of the sabbath.” It is God’s right to interpret the meaning and purpose of the sabbath.
God, thank you for this day and for every good gift! Finding quiet time to be with you today may turn out to be challenging, but I want to trust in the companionship of Jesus Christ your Son. Help me be aware that as I desire to walk with him, he is present with me in the midst of the day’s events. Help me find the sabbath rest in knowing that when I call on him, he is near. Lord of the sabbath, give me the food that sustains me in this life and prepares me for the life of the world to come. “No one comes to the Father,” Jesus said, “except through me.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.