Letter of the law

In the Gospel today, we read about Jesus healing a lame man at the pool of Bethesda in the Temple.  A beautiful gift a healing, yes?  To be sick for so many years...and a man whom you've never met says to you "Take up your mat and walk."  And to BE ABLE TO DO SO!  I simply cannot imagine the shock and joy this poor man felt at that moment; maybe a contemptuous second of  "Yeah, RIGHT..." in his mind, and then suddenly legs that hadn't worked in God knows how long...moved.  Bent.  Supported his weight as he STOOD.  Seeing the world from the height of a healthy man instead of on the ground like a cripple.  What a moment!!!

Except it was the Sabbath. The priests and the scribes berate the man for "working on the Sabbath" by carrying his mat.  They begin to plot and plan against Jesus for daring to heal the man on the Sabbath.  The man just says to them "Look this guy told me to get up and walk...and I got up and walked.  Something that was impossible for me to do.  If he tells me to carry the mat, that's what I'm going to do!"

And they still don't get it.  Yup, according tot the law of the Sabbath, work is forbidden; which includes carrying stuff and healing the sick and carpentry.... wait go back one.  Healing the sick.  A man was lame and now can walk.  The Letter of the Law was broken. And the Spirit of the Law, that the Sabbath is a good blessing and is a gift to all, remained rock solid.

In our churches/synagogues/temples today, we can see this type of thing playing out all the time.  Since it is Lent and I'm Catholic, I think of the rule abstaining from meat on Fridays.  I can go go to an Italian restaurant (or order in, taking the corona virus into account) and sit down to a sumptuous shrimp parmigiana dinner.  And I will have followed the letter of the law.  I will have "abstained".  But isn't the SPIRIT of the abstention law to do without a luxurious meal (which historically speaking was meat), in solidarity with the poor and destitute?

Would not the spirit of the law be better served by having a plain bologna sandwich instead???

The Roman Church likes her letters of the law.  It is up to each of us to follow the SPIRIT of them.  That spirit ought ALWAYS to trace back to God is LOVE.

Just a heretic's perspective... ;)

Daily Mass Readings
Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12
Psalms 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9
John 5:1-16