Note: On Fridays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
Oh, those silly learned people of Jesus’s time.
In today’s Gospel reading from Luke 14, a man is suffering, possibly due to swelling in his legs and feet that could be a sign of congestive heart failure. But it’s the Sabbath, and you know what that means: as far as the scholars and
Pharisees are concerned, he’ll just have to wait. Healing just isn’t done on the Sabbath, you know. That would go against the law.
Jesus, a dinner guest at the home of a leading Pharisee, goes ahead and heals the man anyway. Then he asks if they wouldn’t have saved their own son or even a beast of burden who met with an accident on the Sabbath. The answer? Nothing.
Today, our world, our country, our states, our local governments are suffering. Next week, people around the nation will vote for U.S. senators, representatives, governors, and other offices. There are important questions to ask the candidates. You’ll find one list, with questions on issues such as changes in the Affordable Care Act, comprehensive immigration reform, same-sex marriage, the federal minimum wage, and the environment at the Virginia Catholic Conference Web site. Why not pose the questions to representatives for the candidates in your area? Do they nimbly stick to talking points, never directly answering out of concern for losing a vote? Or do they share the candidate’s position clearly and thoughtfully?
Oh, those silly learned people of our time.
