From: Mark 2:23-28

The Law of the Sabbath

[23] One Sabbath He (Jesus) was going through the grainfields; and as they
made their way His disciples began to pluck ears of grain. [24] And the Phari-
sees said to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
[25] And He said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in
need and hungry, he and those who were with him: [26] how he entered the
house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence,
which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who
were with him?” [27] And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man,
not man for the Sabbath; [28] so the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

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Commentary:

24. Cf. note on Matthew 12:2. [Note on Matthew 12:2 states: “The Sabbath”: this
was the day the Jews set aside for worshipping God. God Himself, the originator
of the Sabbath (Genesis 2:3), ordered the Jewish people to avoid certain kinds of
work on this day (Exodus 20:8-11; 21:13; Deuteronomy 5:14) to leave them free
to give more time to God. As time went by, the rabbis complicated this Divine pre-
cept: by Jesus’ time they had extended to 39 the list of kinds of forbidden work.

The Pharisees accuse Jesus’ disciples of breaking the Sabbath. In the casuistry
of the scribes and the Pharisees, plucking ears of corn was the same as harves-
ting, and crushing them was the same as milling—types of agricultural work for-
bidden on the Sabbath.]

26-27. The bread of the Presence consisted of twelve loaves or cakes placed
each morning on the table in the sanctuary, as homage to the Lord from the
twelve tribes of Israel (cf. Leviticus 24:5-9). The loaves withdrawn to make room
for the fresh ones were reserved to the priests.

Abiathar’s action anticipates what Christ teaches here. Already in the Old Tes-
tament God had established a hierarchy in the precepts of the Law so that the
lesser ones yielded to the main ones.

This explains why a ceremonial precept (such as the one we are discussing)
should yield before a precept of the natural law. Similarly, the commandment to
keep the Sabbath does not come before the duty to seek basic subsistence. Va-
tican II uses this passage of the Gospel to underline the value of the human per-
son over and above economic and social development: “The social order and its
development must constantly yield to the good of the person, since the order of
things must be subordinate to the order of persons and not the other way around,
as the Lord suggested when He said that the Sabbath was made for man and
not man for the Sabbath. The social order requires constant improvement: it
must be founded on truth, built on justice, and enlivened by love” (”Gaudium Et
Spes”, 26).

Finally in this passage Christ teaches God’s purpose in instituting the Sabbath:
God established it for man’s good, to help him rest and devote himself to Divine
worship in joy and peace. The Pharisees, through their interpretation of the Law,
had turned this day into a source of anguish and scruple due to all the various
prescriptions and prohibitions they introduced.

By proclaiming Himself ‘Lord of the Sabbath’, Jesus affirms His divinity and His
universal authority. Because He is Lord He has the power to establish other laws,
as Yahweh had in the Old Testament.

28. The Sabbath had been established not only for man’s rest but also to give glo-
ry to God: that is the correct meaning of the expression “the Sabbath was made
for man.” Jesus has every right to say He is Lord of the Sabbath, because He is
God. Christ restores to the weekly day of rest its full, religious meaning: it is not
just a matter of fulfilling a number of legal precepts or of concern for physical well-
being: the Sabbath belongs to God; it is one way, suited to human nature, of ren-
dering glory and honor to the Almighty. The Church, from the time of the Apostles
onwards, transferred the observance of this precept to the following day, Sunday
— the Lord’s Day — in celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

“Son of Man”: the origin of the messianic meaning of this expression is to be
found particularly in the prophecy of Daniel 7:13ff, where Daniel, in a prophetic vi-
sion, contemplates ‘one like the Son of Man’ coming down on the clouds of Hea-
ven, who even goes right up to God’s throne and is given dominion and glory and
royal power over all peoples and nations. This expression appears 69 times in
the Synoptic Gospels; Jesus prefers it to other ways of describing the Messiah
— such as Son of David, Messiah, etc. — thereby avoiding the nationalistic over-
tones those expressions had in Jewish minds at the time (cf. “Introduction to the
Gospel according to St. Mark”, p. 62 above).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: Green.

First reading
1 Samuel 16:1-13 ©

The Lord said to Samuel, ‘How long will you go on mourning over Saul when I have rejected him as king of Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have chosen myself a king among his sons.’ Samuel replied, ‘How can I go? When Saul hears of it he will kill me.’ Then the Lord said, ‘Take a heifer with you and say, “I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.” Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and then I myself will tell you what you must do; you must anoint to me the one I point out to you.’

Samuel did what the Lord ordered and went to Bethlehem. The elders of the town came trembling to meet him and asked, ‘Seer, have you come with good intentions towards us?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Purify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.’ He purified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

When they arrived, he caught sight of Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed one stands there before him’, but the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Take no notice of his appearance or his height for I have rejected him; God does not see as man sees; man looks at appearances but the Lord looks at the heart.’ Jesse then called Abinadab and presented him to Samuel, who said, ‘The Lord has not chosen this one either.’ Jesse then presented Shammah, but Samuel said, ‘The Lord has not chosen this one either.’ Jesse presented his seven sons to Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, ‘The Lord has not chosen these.’ He then asked Jesse, ‘Are these all the sons you have?’ He answered, ‘There is still one left, the youngest; he is out looking after the sheep.’ Then Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Send for him; we will not sit down to eat until he comes.’ Jesse had him sent for, a boy of fresh complexion, with fine eyes and pleasant bearing. The Lord said, ‘Come, anoint him, for this is the one.’ At this, Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him where he stood with his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord seized on David and stayed with him from that day on. As for Samuel, he rose and went to Ramah.

Psalm
Psalm 88:20-22,27-28 ©

I have found David, my servant.

Of old you spoke in a vision.

To your friends the prophets you said:

‘I have set the crown on a warrior,

I have exalted one chosen from the people.

I have found David, my servant.

‘I have found David my servant

and with my holy oil anointed him.

My hand shall always be with him

and my arm shall make him strong.

I have found David, my servant.

‘He will say to me: “You are my father,

my God, the rock who saves me.”

And I will make him my first-born,

the highest of the kings of the earth.’

I have found David, my servant.

Gospel Acclamation	Ps118:18

Alleluia, alleluia!

Open my eyes, O Lord, that I may consider

the wonders of your law.

Alleluia!

Or	cf.Ep1:17,18

Alleluia, alleluia!

May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

enlighten the eyes of our mind,

so that we can see what hope his call holds for us.

Alleluia!

Gospel	Mark 2:23-28 ©

One sabbath day Jesus happened to be taking a walk through the cornfields, and his disciples began to pick ears of corn as they went along. And the Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing something on the sabbath day that is forbidden?’ And he replied, ‘Did you never read what David did in his time of need when he and his followers were hungry – how he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the loaves of offering which only the priests are allowed to eat, and how he also gave some to the men with him?’

And he said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath; the Son of Man is master even of the sabbath.’