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July 15, 2016
Walking through standing grain rings a bell in my experience, a reminiscence of childhood walks along still green wheat fields with my dad and brother at my uncle’s farm. We were not hungry, but we picked heads of wheat for the fun of it, for the taste of the still milky grains. Jesus’ situation was different. He was an itinerant rabbi without income, depending on people’s goodness of heart and at times both he and his disciples were hungry, as the gospel reading tells us was the case today. So they helped themselves to a few heads of grain.
Now, no one accused my brother and me of stealing: what is a few heads in a wheat field? Actually stealing was not the point of the Pharisees’ reproach either. What raised their hackles was the violation of a norm of behavior and that is precisely what Jesus rejects: the absolutizing of norms, placing norms above people.
We need to remain aware that the Sabbath is for people and not people for the Sabbath. Norms are for people, not vice versa. I think we could diffuse much of the tension present in today’s Church, if we remained aware of the Lord’s position.