Gospel for October 26, 2009, Monday
Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc. | 10/26/2009 12:12 AM
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30th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Rom 8:12–17
Gospel: Lk 13:10–17
Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath and a crippled woman was there. An evil spirit had kept her bent for eighteen years so that she could not straighten up at all. On seeing her, Jesus called her and said, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.” Then he laid his hands upon her and immediately she was made straight and praised God.
But the ruler of the synagogue was indignant because Jesus had performed this healing on the Sabbath day and he said to the people, “There are six days in which to work; come on those days to be healed and not on the Sabbath.”
But the Lord replied, “You hypocrites! Everyone of you unties his ox or his donkey on the Sabbath and leads it out of the barn to give it water. And here you have a daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound for eighteen years. Should she not be freed from her bonds on the Sabbath?”
When Jesus said this, all his opponents felt ashamed. But the people rejoiced at the many wonders that happened through him.
Commentary
It is noteworthy that all of the Sabbath healings reported in the gospels are performed by Christ on behalf of chronically sick persons. These intentional healings serve to demonstrate how Christ fulfilled messianic expectations, nourished by the celebration of the Sabbath. The fourth commandment instructed that the seventh day was set apart by God and didn’t instruct people on what they were to do on that day, just what they were not to do. Jewish legalism had created a plethora of laws restricting the very basics of human activity. Yet, even their regulations gave way to emergencies like getting a sheep out of a pit on the Sabbath. Christ declared that the Sabbath was a day in which good should be done.
Christ is the great liberator and we should understand God’s intent for Sabbath observance. Even strict Jewish regulations allowed for the feeding of animals on the Sabbath. So, if caring for the life-needs of animals wasn’t breaking the fourth commandment, then how much more is healing appropriate on the Sabbath? Christ’s example reminds us that the Sabbath is an appropriate time to visit the sick and elderly, helping them celebrate the day of renewal, on their life’s journey.
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