Wednesday, 2nd Week

I Sm 17:32-33, 37, 40-51; Ps 144: 1, 2, 9-10. 
Mk 3: 1-6.

Theme: “But they were silent.”

In Today’s Gospel, we see that man was there with a withered hand. He was suffering. He was need of healing. Nobody wants to help him but to obey the law. Jesus looked at the Pharisees with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart. Pharisees make this law more burdensome to the common people. That is why Jesus asks them the question: is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. The Pharisees went out, and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Silence can be good and bad. Today silence is used to attack Jesus. It is used in a bad way. Jesus did the miraculous healing on one Sabbath. He did it to prove that God’s intention for the Sabbath was to do good and to save life rather than to do evil or to destroy life. Observation of this law can be found in Ex20:8 and Dt 5:12. For Jesus, the Sabbath was a day of rest. It should to be used in adoring God, learning, teaching His laws, and doing good to/for others. By doing all these, He wants to keep the day as Holy. Hence, Jesus took the liberty of granting healing to a man with a withered hand in the local synagogue immediately after the worship service.  It hurt the Pharisees. They kept quit and held counsel to destroy him.

Today’s gospel challenges us with several questions. Are you courageous enough to break the law? Do you use your power of silence to properly? Do you use your power of silence to protect the innocent and rightful person or to destroy him?