Luke 6: 1 – 11 The Sabbath

Luke 6: 1 – 11


While he was going through a field of grain on a Sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" Jesus said to them in reply, "Have you not read what David did when he and those (who were) with him were hungry? (How) he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions." Then he said to them, "The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath." On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the Sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him. But he realized their intentions and said to the man with the withered hand, "Come up and stand before us." And he rose and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?" Looking around at them all, he then said to him, "Stretch out your hand." He did so and his hand was restored. But they became enraged and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.

Jesus continues to rattle the cages of the authorities. They watch him like hawks, determined to preserve their rules and their prerogatives at all costs. And Jesus continues as well, determined to do something new. This brings to mind a question and a thought. Can any one institution remain vibrant without significant renewal? And what constitutes renewal? Can it be brought about from within or must it come from outside??? I saw a brief snippet on a local Public TV show the other evening on this very topic. John Carroll was being interviewed by the host about his new book “Practicing Catholic”. He said that the Catholic Church is the largest NGO in the world, that it has done and has the capacity (and the call) to do much more in the world. He remarked how deeply the world needs an active, self-critical, reformed Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church that we have seen in recent weeks, trying to deflect blame and criticisms seem very far from that place. During Lent I read a short but very interesting book by Phyllis Tickle called “The Great Emergence – How Christianity is Changing and Why”. She makes the case that about every 500 years the Church has a “giant rummage sale” cleaning out old, calcified structures and replacing them with new. To shore up her point she goes back about 500 years to the mid 1500s to the Great Reformation when Martin Luther tacked up his 95? theses. The ensuing times gave birth to Protestantism in all its forms. Five hundred years before that was the Great Schism between the Eastern (Greek) Church and the Roman Church, 500 years before that was the Fall of the Roman Empire and the Dark Ages when Christianity basically only survived because of the monasteries and the abbeys, and then 500 years before that was the effective birth of the Apostolic Church. She says that we are currently in a “hinge time” where the current forms of the church seem dated and in vast need for reform. This is what I have prayed for today – that that reform comes to the Catholic Church – either from within or without – in my lifetime.