O Heavenly Father, You call us to live in the light of
Christ; may His guidance form our lives in Your truth and our hearts in Your
love. Amen.
Reflection
Rules, human traditions, and lots of expectations don’t
seem to matter very much to Jesus in Luke’s Gospel. For Jesus, it’s all about who is called and
who sits at table to break bread. He
calls as friends and Apostles fishermen and prostitutes, Zealot Party members
and Pharisees. He dines with the power
brokers and those utterly rejected by society.
Jesus rebuffs some Pharisees for putting cultic law
before the genuine needs of people; needs like hunger. (Luke 6:1-5) He says pointedly, “The Son of Man is master
of the Sabbath.” In other words, while
the Mosaic Law stipulates rest and forbids harvest work on the Sabbath, people
cannot be nourished with God’s word if they are physically hungry.
When legalists refuse to interpret the law in the light
of the spirit in which it was given, it is used to entice us to sin. In keeping
the law, like the Pharisees, let’s not become experts at avoiding its commands.
God’s law requires mercy and compassion.
I am reminded in this reflection of Supreme Court “Justices”
who have interpreted the freedom OF religion (the right of every citizen to
choose his or her own religion as opposed to establishing a “state religion”)
in the Constitution as freedom FROM religion.
And I am reminded of legislators who have used that obviously flawed interpretation
to remove prayer from schools, take away “conscience clauses” for medical
providers who refuse to dispense birth control or perform abortions, and make
end runs around the electorate to allow same-sex unions and call it “marriage.”
We must pray continually for people of law and
authority in the world who, given the burden of responsibility to make just
decisions affecting the lives of others, will be surrounded by the Holy Spirit.
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