SUGAR LAND, TX (Catholic Online) The faithful observance of the sabbath is at the heart of Jewish religious and cultural identity.  The holiness of that day derives from the sanctification of time through God's creative activity.  In the first creation account, the sacred author characterizes the seventh day of the week as especially holy to God, "because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation" (Genesis 2:3).

As a devout Jew, Jesus observed the sabbath conscientiously.  Describing the usual practice of Jesus, St. Luke writes, "He went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day (Luke 4:16).  As the eternal Son of the Father, the Lord must have felt especially at home in the synagogue and the Temple, the places in ancient Israel where his divine Father was worshipped and glorified (cf. Luke 2:49).  

One sabbath, while teaching in a synagogue, Jesus heals a woman who had suffered for eighteen years (cf. Luke 13:10ff).  The fact that this miraculous work took place on this particular day stirs the ire of the synagogue leader.  "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the sabbath day," he says (Luke 13:14). 

This official, though misguided in his application of Scriptural principles, had a point.  In the Decalogue, God commands his Chosen People to respect the special character of the sabbath. \"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. in it you shall not do any work" (Exodus 20:8,10).  While trying to uphold the dignity of the sabbath, however, the synagogue official mistakenly presumes that God's sabbath commandment prohibited even works of charity and mercy.  

How could the leader of the synagogue fall into this error?  Perhaps there are two reasons.  First, his respect for the Divine Law may have led him to regard the Commandments as petrified, lifeless constraints rather than as a path to authentic flourishing.  His diligence for upholding the integrity of the Law blinded him to the virtue of charity to which the Commandments are ordered and from which they draw their meaning (cf. Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Luke 10:27).

Second, it seems as though this synagogue official suffered from an overly critical outlook.  Someone with a critical spirit tends to look for what is evil, while ignoring what is good.  They also tend to elevate their private judgment to the level of absolute truth, without considering that they could be wrong in their point-of-view.  Because this man was too ready to see a supposed transgression, he was blind the grace of God at work. 

St. Josemaría Escrivá wrote, "To criticize, to destroy, is not difficult; the clumsiest laborer knows how to drive his pick into the noble and finely-hewn stone of a cathedral.  To construct - that is what requires the skill of a master" (The Way, no. 456).

How do we avoid developing a critical spirit?  The first step is to cultivate an interior attitude of thankfulness for the graces God has given ...