The Sabbath and Liberation

Most high, glorious God,  enlighten the darkness  of my heart and give me Lord,  a correct faith, a certain hope,  a perfect charity, sense and knowledge,  so that I may carry out  Your holy and true command.  AMEN-(Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi in front of Crucifix) God’s justice system is built on mercy. A mercy that brings all repentant believers into the fold of the church and is demonstrated in the miracle that Jesus performs today. Yet, His mercy for this woman threatened the status quo of a corrupt religious system. One of the religious leaders accuses Jesus of breaking the law by working on the sabbath. An accusation rich with hypocrisy for this religious leader, as Jesus points out, was breaking pharisaic laws in order to protect his donkey and ox by moving them to feed them. These leaders had more mercy toward their own animals than this woman’s dire need to be freed from the shackles of the evil one. There was a failure to honor and to understand the Sabbath. If we look to both Genesis and Deuteronomy we are reminded that the Sabbath is to honor the sacredness of life that God has given; to give thanks for the freedom that we enjoy in a sanctified world (Gen 2:2-4); and that all creation should rest so that we can allow the Glory of God to heal and replenish us (Deut 5:14). However, this lady had been tormented without the ability to rest and keep hallowed the sabbath—Satan bound her for eighteen years and would not allow her to rest. Clearly, she needed liberation, she needed God, she needed her community and Jesus gave that to her by healing her. She was no longer bound to Satan nor oppressed by the religious leaders at the synagogue. She was truly free to keep holy the Sabbath and to honor God. Jesus gives life and justice to this woman who couldn’t demand justice for herself on a day that honours God giving life and freedom to everyone who can’t advocate for themselves. The Sabbath recalls God’s justice and how we are liberated from exile whether from war to our own personal torments. God’s laws and Jesus enactment of these laws equip us to execute justice by spreading mercy and healing so that all people can honor what is truly Sabbath and truly holy, God’s creation itself. As true disciples, true students of the gospels, we must be ready to liberate our fellow brothers and sisters who need mercy and to not use the law of God as an obstruction for those desiring freedom from bondage. God’s kingdom is built on liberating the meek and lowly from the arrogant and mighty (Luke 1:46-55). Jesus gives this woman a place of dignity in the kingdom of God and in the house of the synagogue and certainly He would do the same for any refuge, immigrant, queer, non-binary person, poor, imprisoned, orphaned, or insert whoever you think is unworthy of God’s liberating mercy. Thus, everyone has a place at God’s altar, in God’s church, in God’s kingdom and everyone deserves God’s justice found in our participation to advocate for our brothers and sisters in captivity and in crisis. We can speak confidently of God’s promise of mercy to others because we all have been liberated by the One who broke the chains of our exile upon the cross. Every Sunday we are reminded of that liberation—our own freedom from sin—when partake in the bread broken for us in our Eucharistic celebration. Amen.