Once again, the spirit of the law

Luke 13:10-17

         Once again, the Spirit of the law

          Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. ¹¹And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. ¹²When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’ ¹³When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. ¹⁴But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, ‘There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.’ ¹⁵But the Lord answered him and said, ‘You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? ¹⁶And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?’ ¹⁷When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing

          Here we have a law that comes from God, one of the commandments in fact, about keeping holy the sabbath. The Rabbi shows impeccable logic, quite reasonable if you think about it. Out of the 18 years and 6 days this woman has been crippled, why does she come on the Holy day? The Sabbath. Has she no respect for God's laws? And who is Jesus or any child of God for that matter, to 'work' on the Sabbath? I think we have all learned the lessons here.

           First, on an elementary level, is God subject to the laws he created himself? 

           Second, Jesus points out a bigger problem here.  Are we as humans, as Rabbi's, Imam's, Bishops or Popes, to create strictures on man that limit the power and love that God wishes us to live out and profess to each other? To his vast creation? Once again, Are we take this prohibition on 'working' on the Sabbath literally? It would appear Jesus is saying no.

          Third, I did not miss the reference to what the Roman Catholic church calls the Sensus Fidelium., or sense of the faithful. "the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things taht he was doing". Yes, the faithful knew what Jesus was doing was correct. The hierachy, the Rabbi, did not get it but the faithful did. Curing a woman on the Sabbath is a an act of love, an act of God's love, a sign of God's love. The faithful rightlfully judged what could be wrong with that? 

           Today the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church does not get many, many things. Whether we are speaking of birth control, woman clergy, gay rights or marriage equality, they are wrong hearted and simply wrong. The faithful gets it. The people in the pews get it. The hierarchy acts like the Rabbi, they use an argument that will help you come to the conclusion they want or think is valid but the faithful know differently. The Spirit lives and the hierarchy is deaf and blind.  It would be bad enough if they were deaf and blind simply to the faithful but in so doing they are deaf and blind to the Spirit, to the spirit of love and respect for God's creation.