Daily Retreat 09/09/06
2006 Sep 9 Sat: Peter Claver, p, r, ms M
1 Cor 4: 6b-15/ Ps 144(145): 17-18. 19-20. 21/ Lk 6: 1-5
From today’s readings: “But if you have received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it? ... The Lord is near to all who call upon Him.... The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath....”
Lord of the Sabbath
Among the Jews at the time of Jesus, there was an exaggerated preoccupation with observance of the Sabbath rest enjoined by God in the 3rd Commandment of the Decalogue. Clearly, the labor of harvesting was a violation of the Sabbath, but to some Jews, that meant that anything remotely similar was also forbidden, such as the disciples’ innocent act of plucking a few heads of grain for a light lunch on the go.
Some very strict Jews still have this same extreme approach to Sabbath observance. For instance, because the work of making a fire is considered incompatible with Sabbath rest, I understand that some rabbis have extrapolated that even pushing an elevator button is illicit on the Sabbath, since the button causes a spark as the electrical circuit is closed. So, there are actually elevator controls designed for apartment towers in predominantly Jewish regions, which run automatically on the Sabbath, stopping at each floor.
But for most modern people, objections could be raised about the laxity, rather than the severity of their Sabbath observance. Since Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, from the Church’s beginning, Sunday has been observed by Christians as the Sabbath of Christ’s new creation, in commemoration of His Easter victory over sin and death. But, if Sunday is truly the Lord’s Day, and if we are to properly acknowledge Him as Lord of the Sabbath, then going to Church on Sunday is certainly the essential climax, yet not in itself the complete fulfillment of remembering to keep the Lord’s day holy. For, the Sabbath spirit should permeate all of our Sunday activities, thereby keeping a true Sabbath, an entire sacred day of turning to God in a bigger way, a sacred day of resting and remembering that we are more than machines, a sacred day of making more space for God in our life than our usual minimum, because it is so easy to allow other things to encroach on the sacred space and time that God want us to have for Him in our life!
1 Cor 4: 6b-15/ Ps 144(145): 17-18. 19-20. 21/ Lk 6: 1-5
From today’s readings: “But if you have received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it? ... The Lord is near to all who call upon Him.... The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath....”
Lord of the Sabbath
Among the Jews at the time of Jesus, there was an exaggerated preoccupation with observance of the Sabbath rest enjoined by God in the 3rd Commandment of the Decalogue. Clearly, the labor of harvesting was a violation of the Sabbath, but to some Jews, that meant that anything remotely similar was also forbidden, such as the disciples’ innocent act of plucking a few heads of grain for a light lunch on the go.
Some very strict Jews still have this same extreme approach to Sabbath observance. For instance, because the work of making a fire is considered incompatible with Sabbath rest, I understand that some rabbis have extrapolated that even pushing an elevator button is illicit on the Sabbath, since the button causes a spark as the electrical circuit is closed. So, there are actually elevator controls designed for apartment towers in predominantly Jewish regions, which run automatically on the Sabbath, stopping at each floor.
But for most modern people, objections could be raised about the laxity, rather than the severity of their Sabbath observance. Since Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, from the Church’s beginning, Sunday has been observed by Christians as the Sabbath of Christ’s new creation, in commemoration of His Easter victory over sin and death. But, if Sunday is truly the Lord’s Day, and if we are to properly acknowledge Him as Lord of the Sabbath, then going to Church on Sunday is certainly the essential climax, yet not in itself the complete fulfillment of remembering to keep the Lord’s day holy. For, the Sabbath spirit should permeate all of our Sunday activities, thereby keeping a true Sabbath, an entire sacred day of turning to God in a bigger way, a sacred day of resting and remembering that we are more than machines, a sacred day of making more space for God in our life than our usual minimum, because it is so easy to allow other things to encroach on the sacred space and time that God want us to have for Him in our life!
posted by FrPitstick | 9/07/2006
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