Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.
On Our Way to Maturity
This confrontation between Jesus and scribes and Pharisees has two features worth noting. First, Jesus realized their intentions, literally knew their thoughts, certifies that Jesus was a prophet of God. That means no mind-reader reader but a reader of human hearts, as the Psalmist sang, The Lord knows human thoughts/1/, and as Jesus observed in another place, the heart gives birth to all thoughts./2/ In a confrontation with some Pharisees just before this one, Luke recalled, Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply, “What are you thinking in your hearts?”/3/ In scripture the heart is the wellspring of thoughts, intentions and actions.
Second, already in his Chapter 6 of his gospel, Luke prepared for the trial of Jesus by stating the Pharisees’ intention: they were senseless with anger and discussed together what they might do to Jesus. Why did their hearts, so enraged, poison their thoughts and warp their intentions?
The Pharisees protected the Sabbath and the rest of torah by making equal every observance of its commands and rituals. The Sabbath was cited most because it contrasted Jews with the world. The ancient world, its easy for us to forget, had no weekends let alone one work-less day. Imagine telling your conqueror and controller that you did no work the same day each week!Jesus, in testing his testers, “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?” showed in God’s hhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifeart not every observance is equal and that responding to human needs exceeds all others in the moral realm.
This applies to us today. This was St. Paul’s goal: he desired to form everyone in the gospel of Jesus so that all may become mature in Christ. St. Paul sought to prepare us to become fully developed in our Messiah. Where in this development of heart and action are we? Consider asking today for the grace to know that more clearly and to become even more mature in Christ.
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/1/ Psalm 94.11.
/2/ See Matthew 15.19.
/3/ Luke 5.22.
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