TO PRESERVE LIFE – NOT TO DESTROY IT
Introduction
The community of Corinth has problems not only of unity but, as an important pagan port city, it is also easy-going on morality. Paul reminds them that this is intolerable in Christians. They are now identified with Christ and should have become new.
It is strange how, as we read in the gospel, faithful, practicing religious people, like the scribes and Pharisees – the regular churchgoers of their day – were a big obstacle to the work of Jesus. They are upset and angry because Jesus cures a man with a withered hand on the Day of the Lord. Jesus came to do good and to preserve life, as he said, to carry out a mission of love and life, and these cannot be adequately expressed in laws and commands. We may and should do good also on Sundays!
Opening Prayer
God our Father,
we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ.
He went around doing good
and no law made by human beings could keep him
from carrying out his mission of life and love.
Let your Spirit enlighten us
to understand his mentality
and to give first place to what is important,
that we may live by the law of love
of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen!
1 Reading – 1 CORINTHIANS 5:1-8
Brothers and sisters: It is widely reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of a kind not found even among pagans – a man living with his father’s wife. And you are inflated with pride. Should you not rather have been sorrowful? The one who did this deed should be expelled from your midst. I, for my part, although absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as if present, pronounced judgment on the one who has committed this deed, in the name of our Lord Jesus: when you have gathered together and I am with you in spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not appropriate. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough? Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our Paschal Lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Responsorial PSALM 5:5-6, 7, 12
R. (9) Lead me in your justice, Lord.
For you, O God, delight not in wickedness;
no evil man remains with you;
the arrogant may not stand in your sight.
You hate all evildoers. R.
You destroy all who speak falsehood;
The bloodthirsty and the deceitful
the LORD abhors. R.
But let all who take refuge in you
be glad and exult forever.
Protect them, that you may be the joy
of those who love your name. R.
Alleluia JOHN 10:27
Alleluia, alleluia.
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel LUKE 6:6-11
On a certain Sabbath Jesus 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.
Commentary
When Love Trumps Law
In August 2020, a Sunday edition of the Spanish newspaper, El País, carried a two-page story on how, between 1940-1944 in the Nazi-occupied France, four Claretian Missionaries in a Spanish mission in Paris forged baptismal and matrimonial documents to help 155 Jews in France to pass off as Catholics in order to escape being caught and deported to concentration camps by the Nazis. (Read the story here: http://lightoftruth.in/coverstory/lying-for-the-gospel/). Had the missionaries been caught doing so then, they would have endangered not only their own lives, but also the French-Spanish diplomatic relations, and probably triggered Nazi reactions against the Vatican as well as Catholics (as the Nazis did to the Dutch Church). They violated the Church laws as well. But they did so at the behest of the Gospel. Tony de Mello once observed: “Obedience keeps the rules; love knows when to break them.” Jesus would agree.
Intercessions
– That on the Lord ’s Day people may be given the time to rest and recover from the pressure of their work and have the opportunity to worship God and help people, we pray:
– That the people who go to Mass on Sundays may also live according to the gospel on weekdays, we pray:
– That the Eucharistic celebration on Sundays may be to all Christians a source of great joy and an encouragement to serve people, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God,
we bring these gifts before you
to celebrate the mystery of the death and life
of your Son Jesus Christ.
Give us the wisdom of the Spirit
to opt always with your Son,
not for death, but for life
and to let even death become
a promise and a seed of your life,
which you give us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen!
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
we are afraid of becoming fixed and rigid
in our attitudes and practices,
even with the best of Intercessions.
By the word of your Son spoken here
and by the bread of life he has given us,
keep us always young and flexible of heart
and attentive to your presence and call
in the people around us.
Let us never stand in the way of any good
done in the name of Jesus the Lord. Amen!
Blessing
It is lawful to do good on Sundays. It is even commendable for it makes the day of the Lord greater, more wonderful. May almighty God bless you for the good you do: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!