Rules, Rules...

Mt 12:1-8

Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath.
His disciples were hungry
and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him,
“See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.”
He said to the them, “Have you not read what David did
when he and his companions were hungry,
how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering,
which neither he nor his companions
but only the priests could lawfully eat?
Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath
the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath
and are innocent?
I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.
If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
you would not have condemned these innocent men.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”

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For some weird reason, I love watching Spongebob Squarepants. And honestly, I am quite astonished at how the spirituality of Saint Ignatius is inspiring me to seek God in the most unlikely things. Like cartoons.

There's this episode where the lead character, Spongebob, throws a party. But because he wanted the party to run smoothly as he wants, he made a rigid schedule for it, very detailed enough to even allot activities for a given number of minutes. He then invited his guests, and as they arrived, he even scolded the ones who were late! When things have been getting out of schedule, despite the enjoyment that all the guests have been relishing at the party, Spongebob then throws tantrums, and tells them to stop whatever they're doing and stick to the schedule. Of course annoyed, the guests managed to get Spongebob out of the picture. He then ended up not being there to enjoy his own party.

Rules, rules. We sometimes become control freaks in our drive to make things our way. But are the people around us being loved? Being cared for? Being noticed at least?

I desire mercy, not sacrifice. In this day and age where everything seems to be a rat race, how are we to be merciful to others? My morning daily reflection said about various religious practices and their uselessness if not being coupled with faith and good works. Are we just mumbling our prayers and doing our best for what we think would earn us our own salvation? This is quite a very selfish orientation of how one may practice Christianity.

Jesus preached to us about such concepts as surrender, service and martyrdom for the sake of others. Some Korean Confucian philosophers once scoffed at Christianity, concluding it as a selfish way of thought. But what these people miss out is the virtue of mercy, verily preached and practiced by Christ on the cross.

Let us pray that God may enable us to love others as much as how we love God by doing our religious practices, whatever they may be.

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Saint Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us.

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Spongebob Squarepants, ©Nickelodeon.
photo credits: http://www.uark.edu/misc/wheat/Images/wheat1.jpg, http://i.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/020613/17573__spongebob_l.jpg, http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/9995/rosary9ot.jpg