The Word of God comes to us today to show us how easy it is for us to limit our conversion and judgments based on rigid interpretations of the law. We rigidly obey the rule of the law but not the heart of the law. We use the law as an instrument of war to judge, harm, and condemn others.
Samuel was sent by the Lord to Bethlehem to anoint a new king from the sons of Jesse. Samuel uses his own personal criteria and the traditions of inheritance while looking for the king. Surely the oldest, the biggest, the loudest, the strongest should be the new king. But the Lord, going outside the legal tradition, chose David the youngest. David was so small, so young that his father did not even bother to call him to the family prayer with the prophet.
In the second reading Jesus and the disciples are moving from one town to another on the sabbath and take time to pull some gain off the wheat plants. Immediately the legalists condemn them because harvesting is considered work which is prohibited on the sabbath. Jesus quickly points out that the Law and the sabbath were made for the good of the people – to build up our relationship with God, to build up our heart and soul.
We are called to use our free will, illuminated by tradition and rules, to maintain a positive relationship with God and with others. The law and our traditions should not be used to attack others. It is very easy to dedicate ourselves a cold, heatless life dedicated to strict obedience to the law while at the same time lacking any compassion and any form of deep conversion.
There is no place in our evangelization efforts for modern-day Pharisees or legal minimalists. The false testimony of their lives damages the image of the Church in the world. Our world desperately needs new disciples who have let tradition and the law penetrate deeply into their hearts and live lives truly changed in all aspects from their contact with the Savior.
Not as man sees does God see,
because he sees the appearance
but the LORD looks into the heart