Today’s gospel presents an interesting story and is very inspiring for me: „At that time Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.” He said to them “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry, how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he nor his companions but only the priests could lawfully eat?” (Mt 12,1-4).
Lately I have been thinking a lot about sin. Based on my own experience and some observations of the world, it seems to me that it can be understood in two ways depending on the attitude that we present. The first attitude is when we understand sin as violation of the law, disappointing God in His expectations for us, not keeping our word. We then seem to live in view of the penalty, which can be understood as the anger of God, eternal condemnation, or maybe just God’s slight disapproval for our happiness. Typically in this approach, sin appears as the forbidden fruit, which essentially would be nice to eat, but it is „not allowed”. It is also not proper to ask God why it is forbidden, because it might seem like questioning his omniscience… Our favorite quote from St. Paul is: „Refrain from every kind of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22). We tend to hide in a safe harbor, where we try to be „correct” and where no one can find anything against us or, in other cases, certain of our excellence we look at others pointing out their mistakes.
The second attitude is very different from the first. We understand sin as lack of love, a lost opportunity to be close to the one whom we love most; as pain that we apply to ourselves (even though we might not feel its effects yet). We are longing for fullness, we see how far we are from true Love. Then we have a lot of questions, doubts, we argue with God, we walk away, we come back, we look for our own way towards Him. We live on the fringes of the law, often exceeding them, we expose ourselves to criticism, allow ourselves to be questioned. We do a variety of stupid things, but we have confidence in the heart of the two: Firstly, we know that sin is the worst thing in the world, because it separates us from eternal and temporal happiness – we realize that it’s the devil’s doing, that it appears to be a tasty treat. Secondly, we have unwavering confidence that God is waiting for us with open arms to welcome us back, even if we get very lost. Though often we do not do as we want, we are not afraid to make mistakes, because we believe that they teach us how to be better and let us grow. We also know that sin is not a matter of external acts, but can be seen in the heart that is known only to God. Our favorite quote from St. Paul is: „Everything is lawful for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is lawful for me, but I will not let myself be dominated by anything.” (1 Cor 6:12)
Do these images seem familiar? Of course, the Merciful Father and his two sons! An image so important in the year of mercy. It encourages me first of all to look at the older son and let go of the attitude that led him to a tragedy. His biggest fear is the thought that there will be no judgment, there will be no penalty and there will be no justice, in the sense we see it today. This fear is quite justified, because he is trying all his lifetime to live righteously, and not be like the „prodigal” one, sacrificing his own happiness for God. If that’s how you see the world, listen today to the strong words of Jesus and do not look now down at the prodigal, but learn from him an important lesson:
„If you knew what this meant, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned these innocent men. For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.” (Mt 12: 7-8) And not only the sabbath, but also the world, sin and EVERYTHING!
