HOMILY FOR FRIDAY OF THE FIFTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR II. 17.07.2020.
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WHAT I WANT IS MERCY, NOT
SACRIFICE.
The liturgy of
today makes us realize that our sins are not greater than God’s mercy. The mercy
of God is crystal clear as Hezekiah prayed for forgiveness, and Christ in the
Gospel placed God’s mercy over religious laws and sacrifice.
In the first
reading, God heals King Hezekiah, who had been expected to die, and by turning
back the shadow of the sun proves that Hezekiah will again go to the temple for
prayer. At his awareness of his death, he turned his face to the wall and
prayed to God. His prayer was so important. By all indications, if Hezekiah had
not made his passionate prayer, then his life would not have been extended. With the prayers of Hezekiah, God showed
mercy and brought him healing through medical treatment when Isaiah said, “Let them take a cake of figs, and apply it
to the boil, that he may recover.” Apparently, God used this medical
treatment at the very least, He used it as a sign to bring Hezekiah’s healing. God can, and often does, bring healing
through medical treatments, and apart from an unusual direction from God,
medical treatment should never be rejected in the name of “faith.”
In the Gospel, we
are requested to practice more of mercy not sacrifice. This teaching of Christ
emerged as a result of the Sabbath controversies. The Pharisees in Christ’s day
cared more about legal regulations than on the basic purpose and meaning of
religion. This made them suspicious of Christ and sharp, and led them to
many verbal clashes with him. As he and his hungry disciples walked through
the fields on a Sabbath day, they began to pluck the heads of grain and eat
them. There was nothing wrong with what they did, because their actions was not
considered stealing according to Deuteronomy 23:25. The issue was only the day
on which they did it. The rabbis made an elaborate list of “do” and “don’t”
items relevant to the Sabbath, and this violated several items on this list.
In the previous
chapter of Matthew, we hear Christ offering us an easy yoke and a light burden,
now he shows us the kind of heavy burdens and hard yokes the religious leaders
put upon the people. When the disciples began to pluck the heads of grain, in
the eyes of the religious leaders they were guilty of violating the prohibition
of work on the Sabbath, and so they complained about it. Christ did not reject the traditional practices that had developed,
insofar as they fostered a good quality of life. But he countered the
objectors on their own grounds by citing biblical passages about David and
referring to the work of priests on temple duty. The Scriptures, he says, do
not endorse the strict interpretation made by the Pharisees. For if God “wants mercy, not sacrifice,”
then the Sabbath is better celebrated by affirming life than by ritual; indeed,
life gives ritual its true meaning. The people in the temple, like David or
the priests, are more important than the temple itself, so the disciples could
act as they did for the sake of life.
To conclude this
scenario, Christ made the Pharisees understand that he is Lord over the Sabbath
and he is greater than the temple, even as much as they honoured it. Base on this
and the resurrection of Christ, which brings new life to us, the early Church
changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. Invariably, God wants us to value
and celebrate life than placing burden on others. We pray that God will help us
to constantly sustain the lives of the dying as we show mercy on them through
Christ our Lord. Amen! Peace be with you!
Fr. Ken Dogbo, OSJ
Pe.Kenny your reflection is good. In today's world or put better, are Priests is doing the same or are human made norms more impotant than the human person who is to keep them?
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