It was during last Lenten season when someone came to me almost in tears saying: Father, I totally forgot and I ate meat on Friday, I am so sorry, would God forgive me? Of course, He will, I said. Our God is much more than just being angry for our forgetfulness. And I am sure that we all agree that we need to follow the commandments and the church laws and never deliberately seek out ways to break them. However, there are times when we are forgetful, or we don’t know what decision to make, or the temptation becomes too strong to fight, or simply there is a greater need, just like in the Gospel reading today. The disciples were very hungry, and so they simply picked some grains of wheat just to ease that hunger a little. But for the Pharisees that was a breaking of the Law since it happened on a holy day of Sabbath. So, Jesus defends His disciples saying that He desires mercy not sacrifice. Again, I say, we need to follow all of our commandments, but on the other hand, we can’t become too scrupulous either. We are only human beings, and at times we simply sin; but God desires mercy, not sacrifice.
