Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
While passing by fields of wheat the apostles grab a few ears and eat the seed within. It seems of little importance - a few grains - but not to the Pharisees, who see it as a direct violation of the Law. Jesus did not come to do away with the Law, but to fulfill it, to see the essence of each particular law, the sense of its proscriptions, not the accessions.
What is essential here is why a law is obeyed. We should pray. That’s a law. But one can devote himself to saying many devotional prayers, while being deaf and blind to the needs of a fellow human being he could help. Authentic prayer leads one to see his selfish tendencies, weaknesses, and sins, and as a result his need for God’s mercy, as well as the need to show mercy, forgiveness and care for those about him. You can’t have one without the other.
During his ministry, Jesus uttered strong words against the Pharisees precisely because they claimed to live the one without the other, and ultimately, as we read in Acts, they failed to live both.
Resolve. I shall thank God for having given me the grace to live a life, for the most part, pleasing to him and I shall ask him to forgive me for my lack of love and concern shown for those he has put alongside me on our mutual pilgrimage to our common place of rest.