Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath” (Lk 6:5).

The disciples were traveling with Jesus, they gathered food where they could. In today’s reading they picked heads of grain and rubbed them in their hands to make them easier to chew. The critique of those Pharisees, presumably, walking along with Jesus, was that his disciples were breaking the sabbath law by working and thus not keeping it holy.

The reason for this was that pious Jews would often practice what is called, building a hedge around the Torah, meaning that they would institute practices beyond the original law so that there would be no way of breaking it. Fr. Bill Burton, ofm, shared an example that has stuck with me since my Scripture studies in seminary. There is a prescription in Exodus 23:19, that states that you should not cook a kid (baby goat) in its mother’s milk. So as not to even come close to breaking this law, pious Jews developed the practice, which continues today, to not cook any meat and dairy together; thus the idea of building a hedge around the Torah. The hedge in today’s reading had to do with what constituted work and what did not, so as to keep the sabbath rest intact and keep the Sabbath holy. Jesus settled the debate by claiming that he was the Lord of the Sabbath.

The Lord of the Sabbath, needs to be the Lord of our lives. We live in a fallen world, but even at its best, we live in a finite and fragile world. We as human beings can only do so much. The best we can do is to use our intellect and ability to reason while at the same time seeking to discern God’s will and direction in our life, in the everyday affairs and matters of our life.

JoAnn and I, as well as many Floridians, are in the process of doing just that. JoAnn and I, having boarded up our home, made the determination, based on the Thursday tracking projections of Irma, to leave at 3:00 pm and head to the panhandle of Florida, outside of the cone of error. Driving through stop and go traffic until 1 am Thursday night, we stopped and slept in the car at a rest stop. We left at 7am and and made it to Panama City Beach about 5 pm last night. As we sat down for the tracking update we heard how the storm was no longer tracking east, but west. Here we are to stay, come what may. We trust in Jesus the Lord of our lives!

We continue to pray for those affected already and those who will be. May all our sisters and brothers in Florida be safe. May Jesus be with us to calm the storm without and within. In Jesus’ name, “Peace be still!”

Link for today’s Mass reading:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/090917.cfm

Picture I took on Panama City Beach. May the sun rays shining down on us represent the Son’s rays of support that is present with us!