I am sometimes guilty of feeling obligated to attend Sunday Mass. My irreverent mind will ask, “Lord, can we rest at home instead? After all, Sunday is a day of rest.”

But that’s exactly the point of Sunday Mass! Every Sunday, God invites us to rest—not in bed but in His Presence.

It’s a theologically accepted fact that God created the world in seven days. But if you think about it, all the work of creation was completed in six days. So why seven days?

Because God includes rest in the work of creation. It was not because He was tired from all the creation work He had to do in six days. It was because, on the seventh day, God intended to appreciate the beauty and spend time with His creation.

Friends, the reason why the Sabbath day is a day of rest is because God wants to spend time with us and appreciate our beauty every Sunday. Only in His presence is there real, relaxing, refreshing rest.

The Sabbath was made for man. It was made for us to rest in His Presence.

Boggs Burbos (boggsburbos@yahoo.com) 

reflect

Have you felt God’s Presence in the Holy Eucharist? Do you feel His Presence when you partake of the Host?

Father, forgive me if I see Sabbath as an obligation. Grant me the grace to see that Sabbath is made for me to rest in Your presence.

Saint Dionysius, pray for us.

God intends for each of us to become truly holy like Jesus. Saint Paul tells us that we can accomplish this if we persevere in our faith and do not get sidetracked. Today, let us pray for the gift of perseverance.

²¹ Brothers and sisters: You once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds; ²² God has now reconciled you in the fleshly Body of Christ through his death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him, ²³ provided that you persevere in the faith, firmly grounded, stable, and not shifting from the hope of the Gospel that you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, am a minister.

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 54:3-4, 6, 8

R: God himself is my help.

³ O God, by your name save me, and by your might defend my cause. ⁴ O God, hear my prayer; hearken to the words of my mouth. (R) ⁶ Behold, God is my helper; the Lord sustains my life. ⁸ Freely will I offer you sacrifice; I will praise your name, O Lord, for its goodness. (R) 

Gospel | Luke 6:1-5

The Pharisees had 613 laws that the people had to follow in order to fulfill the law of God as they interpreted it. On the Sabbath, people could not harvest grain. The Pharisees rebuked the disciples for rubbing grains in their hands and eating them because they saw this action as breaking the law. Jesus defended the disciples as He always placed the demands of charity above the law.

Gospel Acclamation

I am the way and the truth and the life; says the Lord; no one comes to the Father except through me.

¹ While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. ² Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?” ³ Jesus said to them in reply, “Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry? ⁴  How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions.” ⁵ Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

Read the Bible in one year! Read JEREMIAH 19 - 22 today.

Often, in this age of plethora, we feel empty, confused, and lost because everywhere we turn, everybody is screaming and telling us something to have and to believe in. Ads tell us that the way to happiness is to have more of their products as a measure of our value. Politicians and social advocates tell us a truth adapted to their self-serving agenda. Even some religious leaders manipulate—consciously or unconsciously—their teachings, to become more self-serving than life-giving.

In the Gospel today, Jesus confronted the Pharisees in strong terms by citing Scriptures to show how they had used the Law to control the people in order to advance their economic and political interests in the society. He emphasized to them—and to us today—how the law is meaningless if it does not embody the spirit of God who is always pro-people, especially the weakest and disadvantaged like the sick and the hungry. He cited the incident when David and his men ate the bread reserved for priests to show how they, too, were like the priests who had tried to live with a genuine relationship with God. Those bread were reserved for priests because they had left their homes to serve at the altar of the Lord. In the same manner, the disciples left everything to follow Jesus, the very subject of Sabbath

Like the Colossians, many times we become confused and lost in our delusive society that thrives on material things. Saint Paul reminds us today that we have been reconciled in Christ, in whom alone we can find meaning and 

fulfillment in life. There is only one Lord and Master who can complete us—Jesus Christ.

Fr. Nick Lalog

reflection question

Do you easily get swayed by what society dictates—especially on social media? How does it affect your relationship with God?

Lord Jesus, help me to persevere in my faith in You. You alone are my Lord and Master. Amen.

Today, I pray for: _______________________________