Friday of the
Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
(Isaiah 38:1-6.21-22.7-8; Matthew 12:1-8)
Sixty years ago, all Catholics were to abstain from meat
on Fridays and adults were not to eat between meals during Lent. The practices distinguished Catholics from
others and instilled a sense of sacrifice for the Lord. However, they also fostered criticism of
those who did not abide by these penances.
As much as anything else, this third result probably led the bishops to withdraw
the obligations. In today’s gospel Jesus
gives his position on imposed dietary regulations.
He does not oppose such restrictions, but he is open to
exceptions. He defends his disciples’ eating
grain on the Sabbath as akin to David’s men eating the Temple bread. He further points out that just as priests do
not violate the law by working on the Sabbath, neither do his disciples who are
on a kind of mission. Jesus clinches the
argument by citing the prophet Hosea who said that God wants “mercy, not
sacrifice.” That is, God is more pleased
when we judge mercifully than when we abstain or fast. The latter is not to be forsaken, but the
former is to be pursued.
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