Saturday of Week 22 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
St. Gregory the Great, Pope, Doctor
1 Corinthians 4:6-15 | Psalm 144:17-21 | Luke 6:1-5
Few bible passages were as deeply embedded into my childhood brain as this one:
Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. (Exodus 20:8)
So to church the family would go every Sunday, no ifs, ands or buts. Back then, of course, life was a lot less complicated, and Sundays were easily set aside for communing with God.
Now, the prevailing sentiment seems to be “thou shalt fill every day with mundane activities, especially Sunday”, so much that “anticipated” Lord’s Day celebrations on Saturday evenings became a thing. “Just one hour on Saturday evening, then my entire Sunday is free? Sweet!”
Somewhere along the line, the holiness of the sabbath got quietly trampled and kicked into a dark corner.
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
When I started collaborating with my oldest friend as business partners, I emphasized to him that Sundays were sacrosanct…except for “exigencies of secular service”. Bless his atheist heart, he’s always respected that, never disturbing me for weekend seminars and other scheduled events.
Even when the proverbial faeces hits the air circulator on a Sunday, when our software mysteriously failed during production runs, he’d always tried to fix things himself first, only calling me in if matters were beyond his ken. Even then, he’d try to stonewall clients, taking them out for an early lunch till I could rush over after mass.
Ironically, he’s generally shown more respect for the sabbath that I have. To him, it was an ironclad rule, but to me, it was more like an option. Indeed, for quite some time, the real reason I came to church every Sunday was the obligation I felt towards the choir I conducted. Minus that obligation, I might well have spent most Sundays just writing code or aimlessly browsing the Internet.
I think the turning point came during a business trip to Taiwan that stretched through the whole of Holy Week. Because of production requirements, we ended up working all day every day…right through the Paschal Triduum.
That weekend, I experienced a terrible unease, an itch inside me that I couldn’t scratch, a gnawing sensation that something was horribly wrong. After the feeling receded, I took a serious look at my attitude towards the Eucharistic celebration, finally realizing what my inner self reacted to days earlier: that while I was still (roughly) facing God, I’d grown distant from Him over the years, and secretly longed to close the gap.
Now, Sunday isn’t something for which I need to drag myself out of bed any longer. It’s now a day to rest in God, set aside to let go of the detritus of the week before, to just stop and listen to God’s word, to just be close to Him, and to freshen my mind for the week ahead.
But I also think Jesus is pointing out in today’s Gospel that if a pressing need makes itself known in the midst of resting in God, He will not object to us taking care of that need (food, a toilet break, an emergency trip to the hospital for a loved one), then “come back to Me with all your heart.”
Brothers and sisters, if you find yourself rushing through Saturday mass so you can cram your Sundays with recreational activities and other demands on your time, yet find yourself starting the work week in unbridled apathy, try emptying that period for quiet contemplation of your life in God instead, and how it can be made better. You may be surprised how refreshing the act of simply resting in the peace of Christ can be, and there’s no better time to discover it than the sabbath that we are commanded to keep holy.
Amen.