Repose of Our Venerable Father Constantine the Philosopher, in the Monastic Life, Cyril, Teacher of the Slavs (869). Holy and Great-Martyr Theodore the Recruit (286-305).
Great Fast Day 6. Feast of St. Cyril transferred from February 14. Polyeleos Feast.
Hebrews 1:1-12. 2 Timothy 2:1-10. Mark 2:23-3:5. John 15:17-16:2.
Read Mark 2:23-3:5
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
“The Sabbath,” Jesus said, “was made for the sake of man and not man for the sake of the Sabbath.” For us this statement of Jesus sounds as something self-evident, but it was not so for the Jews of the time. The Romans could not recruit the Jews to their army, for they refused to fight on the Sabbath to the extent that, at the time of the wars of the Maccabees, some Jewish rebels who found refuge in the caves allowed the Romans to kill them rather than choosing to fight the Romans back on the Sabbath day. Any work on the Sabbath was forbidden to the extent that the Jews elaborated thirty-nine different prohibitions, four of which, namely reaping, winnowing, threshing, and cooking, were broken by Jesus’ disciples because they began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat them on the Sabbath.
This passage, as well as the next one about healing of the crippled person in the synagogue, reveals something very important about the Christian faith in contrast to Judaism based on the strictly juridical interpretation of the Mosaic Law. In Christianity, we also have many rules and regulations, but our faith is not limited to them. For instance, the Sunday obligation or fasting restrictions play a very important role in our spirituality, but there is so much more to our faith than the Sunday observance and fasting. In fact, it would be too easy if we would downsize the Good News exclusively to resting on Sundays and fasting during the Great Lent without investing our time and efforts in the works of charity, forgiveness, love, and service to those in need. Our faith is so much more about doing things rather than abstaining from doing them. Our faith is so much more about beatitudes that encourage us to action than about merely commandments that tell us what we are not supposed to do.
Being raised behind the iron curtain, I know too well what it means to place the system higher than the people. By healing the crippled on the Sabbath, Jesus emphasises that human well-being is much more important than observing the rules. If our faith, for whatever reason, restrains us from helping our neighbours then it is very questionable if any truth stands behind such a faith at all. Rituals are not more important than genuine care for others. In fact, the best way to use sacred things and rituals is to use them in such a way so they can serve the true spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of people, for only love and not the law is the ultimate determiner of all things.