3rd Sunday after the feast of Exaltation of the H.Cross

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Devotional Thoughts for 3rd Sunday after the feast of Exaltation of the H.Cross 5th Oct 08

Reading: From the Gospel according to St. Mark 2: 23-28

Dear and Respected Brethren,


In today's reading we find our Lord Jesus Christ and His blessed Apostles crossing a corn field. And the Apostles plucked the ears of corn. The sight of this made the Pharisees angry and irritated only because it was a Sabbath day. They immediately approached our Lord and questioned him "why His Apostles were not following the laws of their sacred religion". In fact plucking the ears of corn was as good as doing certain job and thereby dishonoring the law. They had considered the protection of the law and the observation of Sabbath as their right and privilege. The Israelites still consider and behave so. They still follow the laws of the religion with much care and significance. But they had wrong information that man is made for law and not laws are made for man. Our Lord reacted to their complaint very softly. Our Lord did not try to justify what His Apostles did. But whereas He tried to make everyone learn the great lesson how to observe the laws.

We also follow such a type of observation in our Church lives. We all are interested to see whether the priests and Bishops are behaving properly or not. If any one is found indifferently, we might utilize all our might to publicize them as much as we could. Are we not trying to utilize the 'Forums' meant for nourishing our spiritual growth and knowledge, for our own arguments and counter arguments? First of all we all must realize that the Church is the body of Christ, our savior and redeemer, where Christ himself is the head. A physical body exercises its physical and mental activities in accordance with the instructions from the brain. If it is so, why we can't wait for the instructions from Christ, the brain of the Church? Kindly think about our role slowly and calmly. So he calmly asked them another question, which was His answer to their query. The main accusation of the Pharisees was that the disciples of Lord Jesus did some unlawful things and they were totally worried about the unlawful things. That is why our Lord referred to an incident of unlawful deed done by nobody else other than King David, whom all the Jews are honoring alike. Our Lord referred the incident explained in I Samuel 21: 6 and asked them "Have you never read what David did when he had need and was a hungered, he and they that were with him". (Verse 25) According to the teaching explained in Exodus 25:30, 29: 32-33, and Leviticus 24: 9, the showbread was to be consumed by Aaron and his sons only and no stranger was allowed to touch it. Still King David who was fully conversant of these rules and laws took them and ate and gave the share to others with him. Our Lord succeeded in pointing out the wrong procedure in the lives of the Jews in general.

The incident of plucking the ears of the corn was not the only incident questioned by the Pharisees and Sadducees. Whenever our Lord performed a miracle, for the benefit of the suffering and the needy, these Pharisees and Sadducees were always there to question our Lord for not honoring the Sabbath. They followed our Lord wherever He had gone, but always they had a hidden agenda of trapping our Lord by hook or crook.

In the contemporary world, we could notice many who might be spending their time with us as our well wishers. Their intention must be certain hidden agendas like the Pharisees. In our lives we should not try to follow the life style of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Our main and only intention in associating with the Church should not be in putting a control over the clergy. There are few people among our midst also who are only interested in finding fault with our Vicars and the High priests.

As stated in verse 27, our Lord made it clear that the Sabbath was made for men and not man for Sabbath. This is in fact a great lesson for us. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite cannot be counted as unkind. They were rushing to the Jerusalem Temple to offer their prayers in the strict manner as per the law. So they could not wait there for a few seconds. In our Christian lives we should go after such leavened rules and regulations. We should not give a chance in our lives to give priority for the leavened ones. The only way to save us is to throw away all leavened styles, manners, rules and regulations as we might throw away the extremely leavened food items. Our priority must be for the love of God and will of God. Before committing something, let us make sure that it would be good enough to share the love of God and do the will of God. Let us the Holy Spirit in us guide us in our domestic and church lives.

In verse 28 we read, "Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." We might think and say, let Jesus Christ be the Lord of Sabbath, I don't mind. Let us examine our own hearts. Let us decide what position is granted to our Lord and Savior in our privacies. Let us place our Lord as the Master and everything in our lives.

May God bless us all in our words and deeds.

Jose Kurian Puliyeril.

Abhu Dhabi