The law of Sabbath Rest still applies & so do all the commandments

 Friday of the Fifteenth week in Ordinary Time         19 July 2013

Exodus 11:10.12:1-14  -  The Passover. 

Although Moses and Aaron performed various wonders in Pharaoh's presence, the LORD made Pharaoh obstinate, and he would not let the Israelites leave his land.

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
"This month shall stand at the head of your calendar; you shall reckon it the first month of the year. Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household.
If a family is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join the nearest household in procuring one and shall share in the lamb in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.
The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.
You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present, it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.
They shall take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of every house in which they partake of the lamb.

That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

It shall not be eaten raw or boiled, but roasted whole, with its head and shanks and inner organs. None of it must be kept beyond the next morning; whatever is left over in the morning shall be burned up.  This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight. It is the Passover of the LORD. For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every first--born of the land, both man and beast, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt-I, the LORD!

But the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you.

"This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.

 

Psalm 116 

How shall I make a return to the LORD

for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.

Precious in the eyes of the LORD

is the death of his faithful ones.
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.

To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,

and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay  
in the presence of all his people.  

Matt 12:1-8.

 

Jesus was going through a field of grain on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the Sabbath."

He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry, how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he nor his companions but only the priests could lawfully eat?

Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the Sabbath and are innocent?

I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.

If you knew what this meant, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned these innocent men.

For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."

 

 Commentary of the day :

The Sabbath is a way of giving thanks to God for all He has done for us. We put aside our time to join with the community in praise, worship and Eucharistic thanksgiving.

The Sabbath is a concept I have had great difficulty convincing people is a law of God. The greater majority of humanity have neglected this significant Commandment of God in favour of choosing safety in numbers.

Jesus never rescinded the Sabbath obligation He was just explaining that the Sabbath was made for men, not a law that binds without reason. The Lord wants us to rest and give Him time. So He enforces a workfree day to allow people no excuse for giving Him worship and giving time to their family.

I have promised people who give up work on Sunday a reward from God which has always been fulfilled. I have never seen a person who neglected a day of income for God to have gone backwards financially. In fact, I see the exact opposity.

 

 Attributed to Saint Macarius of Egypt (d.390), monk  (Homily 35)

 

 

"The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath"

 

 

In the Law given by Moses... God commanded everyone to rest and do no work on the Sabbath day. But this was “a copy and shadow” (Heb 8,5) of the true Sabbath, bestowed on the soul by our Lord. For indeed, the soul deemed worthy of the true Sabbath no longer gives itself up to shameful, demeaning preoccupations and remains in them, but it celebrates the true Sabbath and enjoys true repose because it has been set free from every work of darkness...In former times it was decreed that even irrational animals were to rest on the Sabbath day: the ox was not to be placed under the yoke nor the ass to bear its burden, for the animals themselves rested from their hard labour. By his coming to us and giving us the true and eternal Sabbath, our Lord brought rest to the soul laden and burdened by the weight of sin which, subjected as it was to cruel masters, was constrained to carry out deeds of unrighteousness. He relieved it of the insupportable weight of vain and unworthy thoughts; he freed it from the bitter yoke of unrighteous deeds; and he granted it rest. For indeed, the Lord is calling us to rest when he says to us: “Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11,28). Now every soul that places its trust in him and comes to him... celebrates a true Sabbath, delightful and holy, a feast of the Spirit, in inexpressible joy and happiness. It offers God a pure worship, pleasing to him, from a pure heart. This is the true and holy Sabbath.