Sunday morning. A typical Catholic wanders through the church door, dips his hand in a bowl of water, makes some kind of fly-swatting gesture on his body, goes to his favorite pew and dips his knee quickly, again does the fly-swatting routine, plops down on the bench and then starts surveying the church to see who happens to be there that Sunday. Is this nonsense or what? Going through liturgical rituals without the participation of the heart and mind has no value at all. All of the gestures, postures, and responses at Mass are ways of expressing one’s love for God and deepening a person’s connection with the One he loves above all else. When they are done mindlessly they are formalism not worship.
The Jews had many practices for almost every occasion to help them stay in touch with God. These were intended to be, not meaningless rules, but ways of nurturing their covenant relationship with Him. For some they had become meaningless routines.
This issue arises in today’s gospel story (Mark 2:23-28).
“As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath, his disciples began to make a path, while picking the heads of grain. At this the Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?’”
Sabbath rules were important. They served the purpose of helping get their minds off work and onto their Creator. It was a special day to let their bodies rest and to renew their covenant relationship with God. Rules helped the people keep focused on what was important.
This group of Pharisees knew the rules but forgot about the relationship it was intended to sustain. They may have been angry that the disciples were making a path through the fields, who knows. Interpreting this as a violation of one of the sabbath rules, they challenged Jesus about the behavior of his disciples.
As a matter of fact Jesus and his disciples were honoring the true purpose of the sabbath. They were getting a break from their work routine and enjoying fellowship with God and one another.
Jesus responded by citing a Scripture passage in which David and his companions ate sacred food that was meant only for the priests. As king, David had this right, and his circumstances prompted him to exercise it. Then he went on to say:
“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
As David was king over Israel and had the authority to break the rules when necessary, so Jesus was (and is) king of Israel as well as king of all creation, and has the authority to ignore rules that stand in the way of doing the will of his Father. Jesus is teaching us to put love of God before all else, and to use the sabbath in a way that deepens our union with Him.
What can we learn from this? Let’s start by connecting our minds and hearts to the liturgical routines we practice. When we dip our hand into the holy water, let us ask that the waters of our baptism flow anew inside us. When we recite the sign of the cross, let us do it slowly and remind ourselves of the power we have to all in name of the Trinity. And let our genuflections be acts of love and obedience to Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament. Let us put love, devotion, and mindfulness back into our religious practices.
