Year B: 9th Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading: Deuteronomy 5: 12-15

The First Reading takes us back to the time when God gave the ten commandments to His people - and particularly the commandment regarding the Sabbath.

God is quite explicit that it is to be a day of rest - a day set aside for worship and renewal. Not only was it to be a rest for the Israelites themselves but it was to be a day of rest for their servants too - and their animals. The whole nation was to set the sabbath aside - and be still before God.

As God reminds them, they were forced labourers in Egypt - in the Promised Land, a time of rest is to be sacrosanct not just for God’s people but for all the creatures who share the Land with them.

For former slave labourers, such a law must have confirmed their status as free people. They were being given permission to do as their masters had done - to take time for themselves. But God insists that they are not to behave as their masters did - and take time off only for themselves - they are to accord this privilege to everyone in the land.

What is contrasted in the First Reading and the Gospel is what people made of such a law. From being a rule which elevated the status of the people into free people - worthy of a day of rest - it became a rule which enslaved them again.

 What does it mean for me?

There have been many debates and discussions about the place of Sunday in contemporary society. Some Christians have said that Sunday should be kept special - others claim that this is no longer necessary. Many people who are nominally Christian have no objection to working on Sundays. Those who belong to other religions hold another day as their day of rest.   What does keeping the Sabbath mean in such a society?

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