30th Week in Ordinary Time : Friday 3rd November 2023

Which is more important – the person or the rules for the person, especially religious rules? In today’s Gospel, for Jesus, it is the person who is more important than the Sabbath rules. The Pharisees were watching Jesus closely to see if He would break any of the Sabbath rules concerning the man with dropsy. They wanted to discover a way to make an accusation against Jesus.

However, the Pharisees were well known for their careless approach to the Sabbath, especially with feasting and drinking excessively. They had no reservations about throwing a party on the Lord’s Day, but to heal the sick on the Sabbath was, to them, unforgivable.

As for dropsy, this is the only case found in the Gospels. Dropsy is considered to be a symptom of an organic disease, usually one of the heart or kidneys, where water accumulates in parts of the body, resulting in swelling. Ironically, medically, this person thirsts for more water.

By healing him, Jesus quenches his physical thirst for water and spiritual thirst for the living water. That’s what Jesus meant when He asked the Pharisees, “Which of you here, if his son falls into a well, or his ox, will not pull him out on a Sabbath day without hesitation?” We and even animals go looking for water every time, even on the Sabbath, and shouldn’t that be fulfilled even on the Sabbath? What more our spiritual thirst?

Lord, I thirst for You; give me Your living water.