Message of Abbot Paul - Friday 15th July

Yesterday was another busy day at Chapter, where we discussed monastic formation, the way we train newcomers to the monastic life and how the rest of us keep on our toes and up to date. I won’t bore you with the details, but the discussions were fruitful and , I believe, will give excellent results. I attach a few photographs of the abbey church and one of myself with the abbot, who looks as though he were my son!

Our Gospel passage for today begins a new section of Matthew, (Mt 12: 1-8), an episode I’ve always found a breath of fresh air and most encouraging. It begins, “Jesus took a walk one sabbath day through the cornfields.” Jesus invites each one of us to walk with him today through the cornfields, to walk each day of our lives with him. “His disciples were hungry and began to pick ears of corn and eat them.” I’m not sure what the Pharisees we’re doing there in the cornfields to see this, unless they were spying on Jesus, which is possible. They complain to Jesus that his disciples are doing something forbidden on the sabbath. Jesus replies with two examples from the Old Testament, firstly of how King David and his men also broke the Law by eating of the loaves of offering in the Temple on the sabbath because they were hungry. Then there’s the case of the priests of the Temple who regularly break the Law on the sabbath and no one blames them. Jesus reminds them that, “there is something greater than the Temple here.”

Jesus tells the Pharisees that they have forgotten the true purpose of the Law and forgotten the meaning of God’s words in the Prophet, “What I want is mercy, not sacrifice.” Charity is above the Law and Jesus, Son of God, is the only true interpreter of the Law. The disciples were hungry, so they had every right to eat. There is no virtue in going hungry just to keep the pharisaic interpretation of the Law. Those who are hungry have the right to eat: they do not break the Law in doing so.

Today’s Gospel is a timely reminder to help those who are going hungry in our world, especially in our own country. It also reminds us of the freedom we have as disciples of Jesus always to act with charity, walking with him through the cornfields of life.