God is Lord

July 18: Friday of Week 15 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

Isaiah 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8; Canticle: Isaiah 38:10, 11, 12, 16; Matthew 12:1-8

Thoughts to help us surrender to Jesus expressing himself through us in ministry.

God is Lord

“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Matthew 12:7

God is Lord:

• over the laws of biology: he cured Hezekiah’s sickness to preserve life;

• over the laws of nature: he reversed the shadow of the sun as a sign;

• over his own laws: in today’s Gospel Jesus does not say his disciples are not violating the Sabbath. He says God permits it because they are hungry and God is merciful. And “the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Eastern Catholic tradition (the Greek Church Fathers, St. Basil) uses the word oikonomia for “a moral concession in contrast to the rule of order.” It means that, in “imitation of the divine mercy” and in “fidelity to the Redeemer who did not come for the just and strong, but to heal the sick and the weak,” we allow people to break laws impossible for them to observe—as long as nothing done is intrinsically evil. Its purpose is “to remove the hindrances to salvation” created by laws so impossible for particular persons that enforcing them would cause spiritual harm. The model of oikonomia is Jesus who broke the law by eating with tax collectors and letting sinners touch him (Luke 7:34-39. Google John Sabu, oikonomia; see Catechism of the Catholic Church 236).

Pope Francis referred to oikonomia when calling for more “merciful” treatment of the divorced and remarried. It gives us something to think about.

PRAY: “Lord, have mercy. Kyrie eleison.”

PRACTICE: Show God’s mercy when dealing with the weak.