Aug 28, 2025 Written by 

Law or hunger: conflicts of conscience

Incarnation, or emptiness of humanity

(Lk 6:1-5)

 

On the conversion’s journey, conflicts of conscience are not parentheses or accidents of the path, but crucial knots.

The genuineness of believing then generates implicative strenght and new expressive abilities.

 

According to ordinary religious assessments, the legislation was worth more than hunger... but God’s experience in the life overturns ideas elaborated by experts.

To be honest, observance of the Sabbath had become a central law not because of theological subtleties, very well because in the period of the Exile the weekly rest had allowed believers to gather, share hopes, encourage each other, maintain the identity of the people.

But legalism ended up stifling the spirit of the day of worship, once a sign of a freedom in the service of people’s faith and happiness.

Thus where Jesus arrives, every spiritual module empty of humanity crumbles, and the Incarnation takes hold: the place where God and man  seriously rest [other than the saturday!].

In the parallel passage of Mt (12:1-8), Jesus' response is more articulated and complete:

On Jewish Sabbath, priests had many more sacred and preparation engagements, slaughter and reordering of the Sanctuary, than the other days of the week, and the Torah obliged them... it happens to us too.

Again in Mt, the Lord quotes a famous phrase from the prophet Hosea - a man of raw experience, but who well defines the peak of intimacy with God: an authentic rite is to realize the hopes of our neighbour and to have the heart in the needs of others.

 

Christ emphasizes the poverty of every legalistic and hypocritical attachment in the mode of conceiving relations with the Father.

The sign of the Covenant with God, and Encounter [authentic sanctification] is adherence that continues in the plot of the days and in his active Person - not a ridiculous idolatry of observances or cultic parentheses.

Facts and rites celebrate love; and the sincere fulfilment does not follow the pedantic "as we should be", but expresses a Liberation of the person.

 

The biblical episode that Jesus quotes could perhaps appear not entirely pertinent to the theoretical question: his disciples did not seem to be kings or even priests.

Instead, in the new time that’s urgent, yes: ‘sovereigns’ of one’s life by Gift and Call, as well as ‘mediators’ [of divine blessings on humanity] - and also Prophets.

The lovable God establishes with us a dialogue and a friendship that invites, gives impetus, transmits taste for doing.

It’s the result of a messianic conscience as «Son of man» (v.5): transmissible to us, his brethren and friends - very united to him by Faith.

For this reason [after the call of the disciples and the first healings, then the vocation of Levi and the controversy about fasting] the Lord presents himself to the Pharisees in the royal stunt double of David, who is about to conquer the "kingdom" even with a small handful of followers.

In the time of the global crisis that affects the future, and still tries to calculate it by directing it a priori, according to selective interests, the challenge is more open than ever.

 

 

To internalize and live the message:

 

How did you perceive that you were reliving Christ in the fluency of the norms?

 

 

[Saturday 22th wk. in O.T.  September 6, 2025]

223 Last modified on Saturday, 06 September 2025 11:59
don Giuseppe Nespeca

Giuseppe Nespeca è architetto e sacerdote. Cultore della Sacra scrittura è autore della raccolta "Due Fuochi due Vie - Religione e Fede, Vangeli e Tao"; coautore del libro "Dialogo e Solstizio".

The Church, having before her eyes the picture of the generation to which we belong, shares the uneasiness of so many of the people of our time (Dives in Misericordia n.12)
Avendo davanti agli occhi l'immagine della generazione a cui apparteniamo, la Chiesa condivide l'inquietudine di tanti uomini contemporanei (Dives in Misericordia n.12)
Addressing this state of mind, the Church testifies to her hope, based on the conviction that evil, the mysterium iniquitatis, does not have the final word in human affairs (Pope John Paul II)
Di fronte a questi stati d'animo la Chiesa desidera testimoniare la sua speranza, basata sulla convinzione che il male, il mysterium iniquitatis, non ha l'ultima parola nelle vicende umane (Papa Giovanni Paolo II)
Jesus reminds us today that the expectation of the eternal beatitude does not relieve us of the duty to render the world more just and more liveable (Pope Francis)
Gesù oggi ci ricorda che l’attesa della beatitudine eterna non ci dispensa dall’impegno di rendere più giusto e più abitabile il mondo (Papa Francesco)
Those who open to Him will be blessed, because they will have a great reward: indeed, the Lord will make himself a servant to his servants — it is a beautiful reward — in the great banquet of his Kingdom He himself will serve them [Pope Francis]
E sarà beato chi gli aprirà, perché avrà una grande ricompensa: infatti il Signore stesso si farà servo dei suoi servi - è una bella ricompensa - nel grande banchetto del suo Regno passerà Lui stesso a servirli [Papa Francesco]
At first sight, this might seem a message not particularly relevant, unrealistic, not very incisive with regard to a social reality with so many problems […] (Pope John Paul II)
A prima vista, questo potrebbe sembrare un messaggio non molto pertinente, non realistico, poco incisivo rispetto ad una realtà sociale con tanti problemi […] (Papa Giovanni Paolo II)
At first sight, this might seem a message not particularly relevant, unrealistic, not very incisive with regard to a social reality with so many problems […] (Pope John Paul II)
A prima vista, questo potrebbe sembrare un messaggio non molto pertinente, non realistico, poco incisivo rispetto ad una realtà sociale con tanti problemi […] (Papa Giovanni Paolo II)
There is work for all in God's field (Pope Benedict)
C'è lavoro per tutti nel campo di Dio (Papa Benedetto)
The great thinker Romano Guardini wrote that the Lord “is always close, being at the root of our being. Yet we must experience our relationship with God between the poles of distance and closeness. By closeness we are strengthened, by distance we are put to the test” (Pope Benedict)
Il grande pensatore Romano Guardini scrive che il Signore “è sempre vicino, essendo alla radice del nostro essere. Tuttavia, dobbiamo sperimentare il nostro rapporto con Dio tra i poli della lontananza e della vicinanza. Dalla vicinanza siamo fortificati, dalla lontananza messi alla prova” (Papa Benedetto)
The present-day mentality, more perhaps than that of people in the past, seems opposed to a God of mercy, and in fact tends to exclude from life and to remove from the human heart the very idea of mercy (Pope John Paul II)
La mentalità contemporanea, forse più di quella dell'uomo del passato, sembra opporsi al Dio di misericordia e tende altresì ad emarginare dalla vita e a distogliere dal cuore umano l'idea stessa della misericordia (Papa Giovanni Paolo II)
«Religion of appearance» or «road of humility»? (Pope Francis)
«Religione dell’apparire» o «strada dell’umiltà»? (Papa Francesco)

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