Fr. Michael Osatofoh Eninlejie, MSP - Homily for Tuesday Week 2 of Ordinary Time Year I - January 19, 2021

TUESDAY 2ND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR 1

Hebrews 6:10-20

Mark 2:23-28

LAW IS MEANT TO SERVE HUMAN NEEDS

To keep the sabbath day Holy is one of the ten commandments that needs no much emphasis. This is because the sabbath day is a public holiday, and not to go to church on Sunday sounds very awkward. Nevertheless, some people still have the habit of not keeping the day Holy by giving some flimsy excuses.

There is the saying that in every law, there is always an exception. It is that exception that shows that laws are made for human beings to serve our needs. Some doctors, nurses, security agencies and other professionals who have the duty to keep human life and the society running, and are on duty and necessarily have to work on Sunday, may not be said to have violated the law of the sabbath. This is why we have masses for such people on Saturday evening in most parishes.

In the gospel reading of today, the pharisees accused the disciples of Jesus of breaking the law of the sabbath. This is not because they did not go to the temple, but because they picked ears of corn to eat as they were passing by. They were not accused of stealing the corn since it was not their own, this is because the laws allows those who are hungry to pick ears of corn from fields from which the owner has already harvested crops and left few for the less privileged and passers by.

For extreme pharisees, no work should be done on Sundays. This is why someone will leave a sick and dying person at home to go to the church. This is why someone will leave accident victims on the way to the church because he wants to get to the church early. Human life comes first before any law. Any law that does not have the human person at its aim, is not a law to be obeyed.

Jesus, recalling what David did in the Old Testament, said that when David broke the law and he and his followers ate the food in the temple that was meant for the high priest, God did not hold the law against them because he knew that they were hungry.

All law makers and those in authority therefore, should have the good of the human  person at the fore front of laws and decrees. God help us to obey his laws and grant us the grace to apply it wisely. Amen.

Fr Michael Osatofoh Eninlejie MSP