In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.   In this beautiful gospel, Jesus truly makes known His divine power in that His divine power and by His divine authority, defines the terms of the Sabbath and truly sets us free from the burden of the law and brings us to freedom as the Lord of the Sabbath. Defining for us those terms of the Sabbath in which we see that the Sabbath is not to be a burden to man but to bring true freedom in bringing rest and refreshment and renewal, but above all to bring us closer to God, to bring us closer to God. And this is, and what our Lord is doing is trying to make known that there are circumstances which, there are circumstances that exist which, by which the laws of the Sabbath are no longer bound, such as hunger and the law that He is triumphing over the Sabbath is mercy and love, that mercy and love come before the burden of the law. That if someone has, is hungry, and they need nourishment and need food, they are not bound to observe the Sabbath because the mercy of God is greater than the burden of the law, and so that they are permitted to do what is necessary to receive the sustenance they need to live, to live.   And so our Lord is just showing His divine authority, but also that His mercy and His love, by His mercy and love bring us to understand that the Sabbath is to set man free in order to put himself, to bring him renewal, refreshment, and to bring him, of course, closer to God.
And this is important in our observance of Sunday, our Sunday, in which we rejoice in the victory over Christ, over sin and death in His resurrection, that we should recognize that God gives us this day to bring us closer to Him, to renew us, to refresh us, and to help us to prepare for the coming week that we may serve God with greater love, greater dedication, greater zeal. We should, of course, avoid unnecessary work and labor, but it's also to be an important part of that day that we spend time with God as we go to Mass, to worship, and seek to spend time with God through prayer and meditation, that not only our body is renewed, but our spirit is renewed, that our spirit is renewed as it rests in God.
Today we honor one of the great martyrs of the Church, St. Sebastian, who was a Roman soldier. He died about the year 288. St. Sebastian was converted to Christianity and lived his faith secretly until it was made known that he was a Christian, and he lived it openly. And he was known for his work in converting others to the faith from paganism, working to bring others to come to Him. And many were converted and became Christian because of his efforts. Traditionally, St. Sebastian was first put to death. He was to be put to death by arrows, and the arrows actually did not kill him. And he was nursed back to health by a Christian woman who brought him back to health, but eventually he would be recaught for his ministry of working for conversion to Christianity, and he would be clubbed to death.
St. Sebastian, of course, was a Roman soldier, so he's a patron of soldiers amongst all his various titles. Above all, St. Sebastian is an example of courage for us, that he would not stop his work and not hide his faith and work continually to bring others to Christ, even if it meant risking his own life that he saw in this God's call to share the gospel and to be a witness to the gospel, to the truth of that faith, even to the point of death.
May St. Sebastian pray for us that we may have the same courage to be witnesses of our faith each day as we share and bring our faith to others by our example and our daily witness.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.