The Holy Prophet Amos (8th c. BC); Venerable Jerome, Presbyter of Stridonium (420)
Apostles’ Fast. Abstinence from meat and foods that contain meat.
Read
Romans 11:25-36; Matthew 12:1-8
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
“For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” In the Gospel of Matthew, and in many places in the other Gospels, Our Lord Jesus Christ speaks of Himself in relation to the Sabbath and what is prescribed or not prescribed for this holy day. In today’s passage, Jesus speaks plainly on this issue as this brief phrase indicates. The Sabbath is the Lord’s Day. It is a great gift to us from God. It is the day of the Holy Eucharist par excellence because every Sunday is a little Pascha in which we sing and pray again and again to the Resurrected One as we partake in His precious body and blood. Just as God made the Sabbath as a day of rest and ordained this in the old covenant as a day set apart from all others, so has Christ through His Resurrection hallowed the Sabbath again.
Every Sunday for us should be a day of great joy, but how can we share in this great joy and proclaim it to others if we are distracted by other things? Shopping is not the Lord of the Sabbath. If we decide to go skiing or make a trip to the beach instead of attending Divine Liturgy and partaking of the Eucharist we make skiing or a day at the lake the Lord of Sabbath instead of Christ. In a general sense, shopping is a good and necessary thing because we need to purchase food in order to feed ourselves and our families, or we need to purchase clothes to clothe ourselves and our children. Likewise, leisure time and sports are good, but in their proper time and in their proper place. So much of what makes for a healthy spiritual life is related to where we place our priorities and who or what we view as the Lord of the Sabbath. In other words, it matters whether we, out of self-interest, appoint our own Lord of the Sabbath or whether we humble ourselves and recognize Christ as Lord.
The Sabbath is ultimately not about obligation -it is about celebration and it is that day on which we strive to understand the great gifts that Our Lord has given to us. Our place on that day is with our brothers and sisters in Christ and with them in the Lord’s house, where we receive that greatest gift He gives us -Himself! Where else would we want to be? What else would we want to do? If we truly come to embrace the Sabbath in all of its joy and in all of the life given to us on that day we would desire that day and the Eucharist above all other things. May it be so!