Friday in the 15th Week of Ordinary Time, July 19, 2024

Matthew 12, 1-8

Jesus was going through a field of grain on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the Sabbath.” He said to the them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry, how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he nor his companions but only the priests could lawfully eat? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath and are innocent? I say to you, something greater than the temple is here. If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned these innocent men. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

In understanding the literal meaning of today’s Gospel Reading we need to understand that nothing like today’s highway system existed in ancient times.  Connections between towns came by way of trade routes.  Using only a trade route might mean that travel between towns within four miles of each other as the crow flies could take an entire day or longer because these routes avoided obstacles like hills and gullies.  Most people who needed to get to a local destination simply headed off cross country, trekking a more direct path and saving substantial time.  Jesus and the Apostles were doing exactly this in the grain field.  The Law allowed the picking of grain heads or fruit as one passed through a cultivated field as long as no attempt was made to strip plants of all their produce, so the Apostles were not stealing by plucking the heads of the grain.  Nor did the Pharisees have grounds for accusing them of forbidden labor on the Sabbath.  They believed they did, but only through a misapplication of the Law.  The Lord Jesus proves them wrong even granting their premise, citing the story of David and his forces in 1 Samuel 21, 1-6, and he uses the situation to reveal that he himself is the Lord of the Sabbath.

The deeper spiritual meaning can be understood in the following way.  The Son of God has come down to the earth, signified by the field.  He leads his followers through the field of the world, revealing himself to them, showing his love to them, teaching them how to live.  They are eager to serve him.  He leads them through the places where people live, signified by the grain field, and they, signified by the Apostles, hungrily pluck the heads of the grain to consume.  This action signifies the work of evangelization and the associated works of charity.  The Lord’s enemies seek to prevent them from doing this, for the Apostles are wresting souls from what they consider their dominion.  The Lord patiently answers their objections just as he answered the devil when the devil tempted him in the wilderness.  He does this for the edification of his followers.  At the end, he reveals himself to be the Son of Man, the true Lord of the world.

This interpretation helps us to understand that we must cultivate a great desire for the salvation of the people among whom Jesus leads us, even hungering to help save them.  The field does not go on forever and we must work while we can.  In truth, the hunger is the Lord’s, and he allows us to share in it.  We see this very plainly in the Scriptures when the Lord Jesus meets with the Samaritan Woman.  He was leading the Apostles through Samaria on the way back to Galilee from Judea and he rested, tired and hungry, at the well outside of the town of Sichar while the Apostles went into town to buy food.  When the Apostles return, they find Jesus talking to the woman, who runs off to tell her fellow townspeople about him and they urge him to eat.  He responds: “I have food to eat of which you do not know” (John 4, 31), then explaining, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work” (John 4, 34).

We do the work of Jesus in evangelizing through three means: by word, by deed, and by prayer.  The foundation of all the words and deeds we employ to bring the Gospel before others is prayer, and so all of us, whatever our condition or calling, may engage in this work.  The Lord reminds us that we have little time to do this work: “We must do the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work” (John 9, 4).