Fr Paul reads from Matthew’s Gospel (12: 1-8), in which Jesus is challenged by the Pharisees when his disciples are perceived to break the Sabbath by picking ears of corn to eat when they were hungry.

Matthew now tells three stories of Jesus’s own interpretation of the Law stressing his own authority.  The real point of this Gospel is not in the details of who did what on the Sabbath, but it is about the authority of Jesus.

Jesus uses his own authority to respond to human needs even more effectively than the Law. He uses examples that show that the Sabbath can, occasionally, be broken because, as he states, there is someone greater than the temple present, and that someone greater is Jesus.

For our reflection today, Fr Paul says, let us always be mindful Jesus’s authority in our own lives.