The Sánchez Archives NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Year B

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

Keeping Holy the Sabbath

DEUTERONOMY 5:12-15
2 CORINTHIANS 4:6-11
MARK 2:23-3:6

A chain of discount department stores in the southeastern section of the United States posts a sign on its doors that reads: “Closed Sundays: The Day is Worth More than the Dollar.” Over the past few decades, signs like this have become a rarity as businesses and consumers greet and treat what was originally “the Lord’s Day” like any other day of the week. Perhaps it is fortuitous, therefore, that today’s first reading from the Deuteronomic theologians and the Marcan gospel put before the gathered assembly the subject of the Sabbath and, with it, the challenge as to the manner in which the Sabbath is to be kept holy.

Etymologically, the word Sabbath is derived from the Hebrew root ŠBT which means to rest or to cease. Like most spiritual traditions, our Judaeo-Christian heritage prescribes a time each week during which the ordinary activities and busyness that fill and often clutter our lives are set aside so as to remember to celebrate who God is and who we are in relation to God and to one another.

Originally prescribed by law, the Sabbath observance has been variously explained in the Hebrew Scriptures. According to the priestly contributors to the book of Genesis (recall the well accepted theory of Julius Wellhausen (1874-1918) that posited four documents or sources within the Pentateuch), God rested after creating the universe (Genesis 2:1-3), therefore humanity should follow the divine lead and rest after its weekly labors (Exodus 20:8-10). In the Deuteronomic recension of the law, from which today’s first reading has been excerpted, the motivation for the Sabbath rest is more humanitarian. In remembrance of their years of slavery and enforced labor in Egypt, the Jewish people we to observe a day of rest and to extend the same privilege to all others (slave, aliens, beasts of burden, etc.).

In his commentary on the subject of the Sabbath, James F. Keenan (Commandments of Compassion, Sheed and Ward, Franklin WI: 1999) has explained that God gave us the third (fourth for some denominations) commandment (“Remember the Sabbath day; keep it holy”) so that we would rest, celebrate and gather so as to be shaped as a people, God’s people. On the Sabbath, we remember and celebrate the God who has created us. For Christians, the Sabbath or the Sunday rest is also a special consecrated time for remembering and celebrating the death, resurrection and return of Jesus to the glories of eternity. Therefore, keeping holy the Lord’s day should be understood, not in merely terms of obligation but as a celebration of liberation. Freed from sin and death, we celebrate each Sunday as a foretaste of the absolute freedom that shall be ours in eternity.

Unfortunately, however, for many, the Sabbath or the Sunday observance is far from restful, celebratory or liberating. The ever-increasing difficulty of “making a living” consumes the waking moments of so many of us. Even those of us, for whom a seven-day workweek is not a real necessity, seem to have little time for anything even remotely resembling “rest”. Wayne Muller (Sabbath: Remembering the Sacred Rhythm of Rest and Delight, Random House Inc., New York: 1999) suggests that some of us wear our busyness with no small degree of pride, as if one exhaustion were a trophy and our unavailability to our friends and family were a mark of real character. Much of modern life seems specifically designed to seduce our attention away from the weekly Sabbath or Sunday rest. Every responsibility (work, errands, housecleaning, children’s activities, etc. etc.) and every stimulus (hundreds of television channels, mail, e-mail, fax machines, telephones with multiple lines, call-waiting, etc.) competes for our attention.

Amid all the haste and hubbub, the Sabbath or Sunday rest is a revolutionary challenge to the violence of overwork in that it reminds us of the necessary wisdom of dormancy. If certain plants do not lie dormant for a time, they do not grow or develop. Nor can we human beings survive and thrive without the pause that renews us, enables us to remember one another and the rest of our blessings, and refreshes our bodies and spirits. More than the mere cessation of work, or rigidly imposed period of idleness, the Sabbath/Sunday rest helps us to reset our inner compass, revive our relationships and rethink our values and priorities.

In today’s gospel, Mark emphasizes the balance with which Jesus observed the Sabbath. Aware that love sometimes supercedes legislation, he kept the Sabbath holy by translating his faith-filled love for God into loving compassion and mercy for those in need. Jesus has set the example for his followers. Like him, we are to keep the Sabbath/Sunday sacred by allowing those moments of consecrated time to permeate and sanctify the rest of our weekly activities. Then, all that we are and all that we do in the interim from one Sunday to the next will become incorporated into the weekly dynamic of prayer and praise that we know and celebrate as liturgy.

DEUTERONOMY 5:12-15

Well over a century ago, mules were used extensively for work in the coalmines of several eastern states. These beasts of burden would dutifully haul wagon after wagon of coal through the mine’s underground tunnels. A visitor, passing through a coal-rich area of Pennsylvania noticed that there were great numbers of these animals in pastures along the way and asked the reason for this. “To keep them from going blind,” he was told. “If the mules are not brought up from underground at least one day in the week, they will eventually lose their eyesight. So, each Sunday, they are brought up to keep them from going blind.” Obviously, none of us are mules; nor will any of us lose our eyesight as a result of throwing ourselves into a seven-day workweek. However, without a regular respite from our routine activities, some of us may succumb to a “blindness” caused by a lack of balance and a weakened insight as regards our faith and our relatedness to God and to one another. For this reason, our spiritual lives are punctuated by periodic moments of rest.

For our Jewish forebears in the faith, rest was observed each Sabbath, viz., that sacred period from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. Moreover, this sacred rest was regarded as God’s gift and reward for covenantal fidelity. Recall the prayer of Moses to God when the covenant had been breached in Sinai wilderness, You have told me God that I am your intimate friend and “that I have found favor with you. If I have found favor with you, let me know your ways. Remember too that this nation is, after all, your own people.” In reply, the Lord said, “I myself will go along with you to give you rest” (Exodus 33:13-14). How comforting a thought that the very presence of God, supporting, sustaining and accompanying the people, even in the moments of infidelity, was the source of their rest.

In today’s pericope from Deuteronomy, the ancient author also encouraged his contemporaries to keep the Sabbath rest as a remembrance of and a memorial to that pivotal event in Jewish history, viz., the deliverance from slavery in Egypt.

Notice, the stipulation that God’s gift of rest was to be enjoyed by all, including the head of the household, the family, its servants, slaves and domesticated animals as well as the aliens who lived among them. Thierry Maertens and Jean Frisque (Guide For the Christian Assembly, Fides Pub. Inc., Notre Dame, IN: 1992) suggest that this detailed and inclusive legislation reflects an important social evolution that had taken place by the time the book of Deuteronomy appeared in the seventh century B.C.E. As small property owners were being ousted from their lands by larger landowners, these newly displaced peopled were forced to hire themselves out or even to sell themselves (and their families) into slavery in order to eke out a meager living. In their impoverished state, rest was an unlikely possibility. Burning the proverbial candle from both ends just to make ends meet, theirs was a sorry lot. Therefore the law provided that even the disadvantaged and downtrodden should be assured at least one day’s rest.

What might the Deuteronomic theologian have to say to his contemporary readers as regards the puritanical work ethic of so many? . . . an ethic that refuses to take a day of rest when there’s work to be done and money to be made? . . . an ethic that begrudges a day off or a decent vacation to the newly employed? en ethic that severely curtails the time that parents should spend with their newborns and withholds the salary of those parents who opt for the growth and the security of family bonds over that of stocks and bonds? an ethic that forces some into early retirement in order to reduce the benefits they have earned? As we ponder these issues and the gift of the Sabbath/Sunday rest, let us remember that the time that is consecrated to God is not time wasted but a pause that refreshes and renews. “Pause a while and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:11).

2 CORINTHIANS 4:6-11

By the time Paul wrote his second letter to the Christians of Corinth, ca 57 C.E., he had been active in the service of the gospel for about twenty years. Already into his third missionary journey, Paul had known many hardships along the way; the sufferings he listed in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 would have probably staggered someone less strong or dedicated. Indeed, any one of the horrors he endured (beatings, stoning, shipwreck, robberies, hunger, thirst, exposure, pressure and anxiety) might have caused another to ask for a perpetual Sabbath rest or an unending sabbatical, but not Paul. He refused to succumb to what contemporary believers would call “burnout”, i.e., physical and/or emotional exhaustion as a result of long term overwork and stress. On the contrary, Paul was virtually burning from within with zeal for God, the gospel and the people to whom he had been sent as an emissary of salvation. He attributed the fire within him not to any inner strength or determination but to the power and presence of God.

Calling the reality of God within him a “treasure” (v. 7), Paul readily admitted his own weakness, describing himself as an earthen vessel. As Kevin Quast (Reading the Corinthian Correspondence, Paulist Press, New York: 1994) has explained, the earthenware of clay jars to which Paul made reference served a variety of functions. Cheap and fragile, the value of a clay pot was limited to what it contained. So also the minister of Christ. Therefore, Paul claimed no credit for himself. Indeed, he even emphasized his weaknesses, so as to accentuate the power of God working in and through him. Afflicted but not crushed, doubtful but not despairing, persecuted but never abandoned, struck down but not destroyed, Paul realized that through each struggle, he was being further identified with Christ. He called his sufferings a share in the dying of Jesus and was secure in his faith that he would share in the rising to glory of Jesus as well.

Today’s second reading is part of a longer text in which Paul defended himself and his ministry against those who denied his apostolic abilities and the authenticity of his message (see 2 Corinthians 3:1-4:18). While his adversaries (false teachers and “super apostles”; see 2 Corinthians 11:5) prided themselves on their achievements (miracles, ecstasies, eloquent preaching, etc.) and expected to be remunerated for their services with special privileges and an exalted status, Paul regarded his vocation and his work as God’s gracious and merciful gifts to him, a sinner. As Paul Wrightman (Paul’s Early Letters, Alba House, New York: 1983) has noted, Paul lived in a state of wonderment at God’s choice of him to be an apostle; so awesome was his conversion experience that he compared it to God’s original act of creation (4:6). Paul lived out his ministry as a personal “thank you” to God for such wondrous and boundless grace and he would not allow that “thank you” to be marred or diminished by griping or grousing at his difficulties. Contemporary believers who find themselves besieged by burnout and weakened by suffering might be encouraged, edified and challenged by the example Paul has set.

MARK 2:23-3:6

In an effort to drive home the point of this gospel, a pastor told the following biographical anecdote to his congregation. Early one Sunday morning as I was driving to church, I noticed a car parked on the shoulder of the road. The hood was up and the engine was steaming while a young mother and her three small children stood by and looked on helplessly. Seeing their predicament but also keenly aware of the pastoral responsibilities that awaited me that morning, I slowed down, rolled down my window and shouted as I drove by: “I’m sorry I can’t stop to help you; I’m on my way to church!” Given the insight afforded by hindsight, the pastor admitted that he had fallen into the Pharisaic trap of placing legal obligations over and above the obligations demanded by love. He had failed to see that the immediate needs of the stranded woman and her children were more important than strict adherence to his schedule. In today’s gospel, Jesus makes a similar point.

Comprised of two Sabbath controversies, this Marcan pericope was intended to educate the disciples of Jesus in the proper attitude with which to observe the prescribed day of rest. By the time of Jesus, Sabbath legislation had mushroomed into a mountain of minutiae. After much casuistic discussion, the rabbis had enumerated a series of thirty-nine types of work that were forbidden. As John L. McKenzie (Dictionary of the Bible, Macmillan Pub. Co. Inc., New York: 1973) has pointed out, some prohibitions seemed unreasonably petty such as the prohibition of lighting a fire, clapping hands, jumping, and visiting the sick. Because of such rigorous and seemingly illogical and even inhumane legislation, Jesus and the religious authorities of his day were in frequent conflict.

When the Pharisees objected to his disciples pulling of heads of grain on the Sabbath (an action forbidden by law (Mishnah: Sabbath 7:2), Jesus met their objections by citing a precedent of his own. He reminded his critics that David had petitioned the priests that he and his soldiers be permitted to eat the showbread, i.e. loaves of bread that are placed on the table in from of the Holy of Holies. This bread, an offering to God, was replaced weekly; then, only the priests were permitted to eat it (1 Samuel 21:1-6; Exodus 25:23-30; Leviticus 24:9). By comparing the actions of his disciples with those of David, Jesus underscored the point that human need superseded the Sabbath law. Jesus further incensed his detractors by calling himself the Lord of the Sabbath who keeps that day holy and observes the divine gift of rest by being attentive to the needs of others.

Jesus incited a second legal argument when he healed the man with the shriveled hand on the Sabbath. Again, humanitarian concerns took precedent over legal prohibitions. When he made the issue one of good deeds and preserving life rather than blind and passionless adherence to law, Jesus succeeded in silencing the Pharisees (3:4). Nevertheless, they remained unconvinced and unconverted and as Mark tells us, “they immediately began to plot . . . on how they might destroy him.”

Ironically, plotting against the life of another was not one of the thirty-nine types of work forbidden on the Sabbath! As we reflect today on the attitudes and behaviors of Jesus and his disciples as compared with those of the Pharisees, we are thereby challenged to rethink our own attitudes and behaviors as regards the Sabbath rest. Is it an occasion for celebrating our life in union with God or is it an excuse for exempting ourselves from the care and compassion that mutual love and communal responsibilities demand?

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