Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath

It is extremely important that clear and transparent principles of spiritual and moral life should be kept in the community of believers. If the uncoupling and blurring of the bases is allowed, there is a gradual degradation. As we can see from the example of Corinth, even in the earliest communities there was a temptation to exercise the freedom of God's children in a completely unauthorized way. Saint Paul must have written elsewhere: For you were called for freedom, brothers. But do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love.

(cf. Gal 5:13)

There is a very great temptation to use freedom to worship the body, which does not have to be reduced to sins related to sensuality, but to forcing your own likes and dislikes, even spiritual ones, but immoral ones. The spiritual life is a constant struggle with one's own lust in the name of obedience to God and His Law. It requires constant vigilance and listening to what comes from God. However, it cannot be reduced to rigid formulas, absolute rules and norms, because life is richer than any law and its norms. In today's Gospel, we have an example of a conflict between rigid normative thinking and an authentic divine call. The scribes and Pharisees wanted to test the Lord Jesus, taking into account His "keeping" the Sabbath. The norm relating to the Sabbath, and understood in the way they themselves adopted, was for them a criterion of discernment. The Lord Jesus, seeing their stiffness, placed the man in front of them with his suffering and asked: Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” (cf. Lk 6:9)

It was an appeal to the heart and conscience. What is spiritual life all about - keeping the norm or life? Well, he himself gives an unambiguous answer: God wants to give life, and the norms are there to protect this gift, to allow us to live God's life in an authentic way. But first we must give life. Norms can kill sometimes. Therefore, sensitivity to the authentic needs of others, the needs that give and protect life, is the most important thing in moral life. Through this, love is realized, which is the desire for genuine good for others, life is the greatest goods of man. God's Son became one of us to give us a share in the fullness of life.

Until Tomorrow

fr. george