May the Lord give you peace and health in the Holy Spirit.
It is 16th July 2021.
We reflect on Exodus 11:10 – 12:14 and the Gospel of Matthew 12:1-8.
Life is a celebration with its rich moments and memories of the past, present, and looking forward with hope.
Some events are remembered and repeated over and over not because of anything but their significance in the life of humanity. The maiden Pascha celebration. One such event that set a tone for the suffering of humanity under slavery in Egypt is the celebration of Passover. People of Israel were able to have the Passover from slavery to freedom, sinfulness to sensitive living, oppression to liberation.
God always takes the side of humanity in protecting, saving, and sharing. Passover is the event God shared God’s love to humanity in peril and pain. God continuously filling us with God’s love so that we become compassionate and merciful over keeping and guarding a set of norms.
God defended God’s people from the inhuman treatment of the selfish Egyptian leaders and lawmakers who oppressed them to the core.
In the Gospel, Jesus defends His disciples over keeping up the sabbath. There is nothing more important than the welfare of humanity. When humanity’s security and welfare are sacrificed over anything, it is the crime committed against humanity. Mercy and love silence the noises and voices of legalistic, crooked, and narrow-minded people who by all means silence the voice of humanity under the pretext of keeping up the normalcy, decorum, decency, order, and discipline.
Jesus said: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.” (Mt.12:8).
If our worship and liturgy cannot address the hunger of humanity whether it is physical or spiritual, it remains a show-off and ritual.
We need to celebrate the sabbath, the Passover to nurture humanity with gratitude to God for all that God has done to us.
It is our moral responsibility to celebrate humanity than to control, dominate and crush humanity with anything.
It is time to celebrate life by being conscious and aware of the hunger of the other. May God bless you.