7 September 2024 -- Saturday of the 22nd week of Ordinary Time
Homily
As in so many other cases, it is again today the last sentence of the Gospel reading that gives meaning to the text we have been reading: ‘The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath’. With these words Jesus reveals to us the ultimate meaning of the law -- of all law.
The law itself has no authority; it is not there to exercise tyranny over anyone. On the contrary, it is simply an instrument in the hands of Jesus, the Son of Man, who is the master of the law. It is there to show us the way so that we can return quickly to the Father, not to put obstacles in our way. This applies to all laws, including ecclesiastical laws and our monastic Rules.
Saint Benedict, at the beginning of his Rule, says that he wrote it for anyone who, having turned away from God through disobedience, wants to return to Him by the way of obedience; and he describes in his Prologue how anyone who walks faithfully in the way of the Lord's commandments will come to the point where he will no longer walk painfully but will run, his heart enlarged by love, in the way of the commandments.
This is the same message given by Paul to the Colossians in today's first reading: ‘You were once alienated from God... and now God has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ, bringing you into his presence, holy, blameless and beyond reproach’. But for this, Paul adds, we must, through faith, remain steadfast in our faithfulness to the Gospel. And these words of Paul bring us back to the meaning of every law: not a recipe for salvation, as the Pharisees thought, but a light on the path of faithfulness to the Gospel, in faith.
Armand VEILLEUX