While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath,
his disciples were picking the heads of grain,
rubbing them in their hands, and eating them.
Some Pharisees said,
"Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?"
Jesus said to them in reply,
"Have you not read what David did
when he and those who were with him were hungry?
How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering,
which only the priests could lawfully eat,
ate of it, and shared it with his companions?"
Then he said to them, "The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath."
his disciples were picking the heads of grain,
rubbing them in their hands, and eating them.
Some Pharisees said,
"Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?"
Jesus said to them in reply,
"Have you not read what David did
when he and those who were with him were hungry?
How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering,
which only the priests could lawfully eat,
ate of it, and shared it with his companions?"
Then he said to them, "The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath."
One of the best things about Jesus is that he is in touch with his natural freedom. With Jesus being both human and divine, sometimes I disqualify myself from trying to imitate him because the divinity just trumps my abilities. Then I remember he was not just human, but fully human. So on saner days I make it my goal to work on being human, more fully human.
Not so concerned with being human are the Pharisees, seen in their typical mode of correction in this passage from Luke (6:1-5). The Pharisees had a lot in common with the older brother in the Prodigal Son story. They are such experts of convention. This is the only way we do things; this is not the way. These are the rules; any other behavior is breaking the rules. Be careful not to break rules. Following the well-trod path is the only sure way to God and the way to show respect for our sacred tradition.
What a constricted way to live! The Pharisees forget that life is meant to be lived! That’s why they need to meet Jesus, who said, “I have come that you might have life and have it to the full.” Like the older son in the Prodigal Son story, the Pharisees never see themselves as co-owners of the farm. They don’t take in Genesis’ charge to “have dominion” seriously. Really dominion is taking care of things, like God does.
What is so frustrating to me about the Pharisees is that they crush creativity. Back to Genesis again, what does God give to humans? God’s image. What is included in the image of God? By reading the beginning verses of Genesis I’d have to say creativity is a big part of the image of God. Creativity, among other things, is being able to move beyond convention. Sometimes, on bad days, I confuse convention with moral goodness.
A lot of people in the church have this confusion. To be holy is to be conventional. Lots of times this confusion plays out in the way we pray. Sometimes it seems like our prayer practice is an addiction to pattern, to traditions. Many people think it’s the primary job of catechesis to teach people Catholic prayer traditions: mass, traditional hymns (from exactly which period of Catholic history? 1950’s? 9th century?) formulaic prayers (rosary, novenas, divine office, exposition with benediction).
If that's our primary goal in sharing "the faith" then prayer as a relationship with God takes a back seat to these patterned external practices. Where’s the uniqueness of each believer’s relationship with God? Surely God has a unique way of reaching each one of us. God communicates with the believer in the language the believer knows best. An extravert might come to know God through some powerful experience of community. A scientist would bump into God through her discovery and pursuit of truth. An artist would meet the Lord in what develops on the canvas in front of his eyes, as he opens himself to the creative process. A naturalist would bump into the presence of God while attentively meandering in the woods. Any seeker or believer can connect with her maker by reveling in the surf at Popham Beach
We Catholics do have the reality of an inherited pattern in our prayer. We have embraced the mass as the height of communal prayer. It is the one prayer we all pray. It’s possible for mass to remain an external practice of merely patterned behavior, but it’s also possible for me to pray it involving my whole self. To let the word “I” in the prayer truly mean me. To listen to scripture as if it’s truly directed to me, and my community. To feel the music as I sing it. To receive the Eucharist as an act of intimacy with God, expecting my own transformation, my liberation from selfishness, to follow.
Beyond the mass there are no required forms of prayer for Catholics. We are not obligated to practice some checklist of conventional prayers. We are free to pray as the Spirit inspires: with pen on paper, with camera in hand, with the music turned up, naked in the bathtub surrounded by candles and tending the seedlings in the garden. Or, as Mary Oliver put it in Wild Geese:
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
