Some of us were taught to think of God's commandments as rules imposed on us by God that interfered with our happiness, but which we had to follow to get to heaven. They were tests in some way; if we passed, we could get in. They had no grey-- they were bright lines of "do this/ don't do that." Today's Gospel (Mk 2: 23-28) stands in stark distinction to that kind of thinking. The Pharisees confront Jesus about the fact that His disciples are picking grain aas they walk through a field on the sabbath. That action would be "work"-- harvesting-- and thus would be in violation of the third commandmenyt, which required Jews (and us) to honor the sabbath. In response, Jesus tells the Pharisees that the sabbath was made for people, and that people were not made for the sabbath. In other words, the point of the commandment was to give humanity a day of rest to rechange, worship God, connect with family and such. God doesn't need the sabbath, Jesus is saying, but people do. For that reason-- since the point of the sabbath is to benefit people-- there are times when the prickly rules that had grown up around what was "work" that did not honor the sabbath could be, in fact should be, ignored. When people are starving, for example, they can harvest grain on the sabbath, since at that moment getting something to eat is more important than having a day of rest. That was the situation of David and his men which Jesus uses as an example. That's a different way of looking at the commandments, isn't it? It is a way of seeing them as not just requirements imposed by a distant, demanding God, but as rules for our own good, which need a circumstantial context. So it turns out that this rule about the sabbath isn't such a bright line at all, but is subject to analysis and consideration of facts and circumstances. Is the third commandment the only one which works that way? I doubt it. The seventh commandment prohibits stealing, but who would say it is wrong to steal food when you are starving or when your family is starving? It is for our good that we shouldn't steal, but sometimes our good requires that we take something that isn't ours. What about the eighth commandment, which prohibits lying? Again, many people would say that facts and circumstances need to be considered there as well. Yes, it is good for us not to lie, but there are times when it is more important that the truth not be told. Or consider the fourth commandment. Yes, we are to honor our father and mother. But what if doing so means physical or psychological abuse? Do we violate the commandment if we avoid interactions with someone who has abused us? Perhaps not. I suppose one could say that what we're talking about here is God's mercy-- that these things are wrong but in His mercy God forgives us because of the situations involved. But that doesn't seem to be what Jesus is saying. He's saying that what might in some other context be wrong isn't wrong in this particular situation. We're all tempted to think in bright-line terms when it comes to the rules, especially when it involves someone else. Pope Francis and others in the Church keep cautioning us against that, and reminding us that the facts of a situation matter, facts we can't possible know. We might keep that in mind. After all, as Jesus tells us today, sometimes you can pick grain on the sabbath, even if it does look like work.