Luke 6:1-5
One of the Ten Commandments of God is to keep holy the Sabbath Day (Exodus 20:8; Deuteronomy 5:12). What is the spirit of this divine law? First of all, the Sabbath Day is a day specially set apart so that we can worship and give thanks to God for His great goodness which is manifested in His unending work of creation and redemption. And second, this day is set apart so that human beings and creation could have a regular moment of rest and refreshment which are essential for their total well-being.
In today's gospel, the Pharisees fault the disciples of Jesus for doing something unlawful, that is, plucking heads of grain and rubbing them in their hands on a Sabbath. In response to their criticism, Jesus uses the Scripture to explain that if there is a serious reason, people may excuse themselves from the obligation of a law. David and his men, for example, ate of the holy bread offered in the temple even if it was forbidden by law (1 Samuel 21:2-7).
Today, the gospel challenges us to acquire the virtue of knowledge of God's laws. Let us try to understand the real intention of every law of God so that we will not impose a law to ourselves or to others unnecessarily as the Pharisees did.
