Jesus' dispute with the Pharisees over his disciples plucking and eating some grain on the Sabbath provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the significance of rules and regulations in our lives.

One of the best ways to understand the function and value of rules and laws is to regard them from the perspectives of harmony, the common good and a value system that promotes human dignity.

All laws help to promote the various harmonious relationships which are interwoven into our human existence, where we are all bound together in various ways: families, nations, social structures. The Book of Genesis teaches us to realize how sin eventually broke these relationships.

When Jesus affirms that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, he does not intend to affirm that people can do whatever they like with laws, whether divine or merely human. We may say that he is, perhaps somewhat indirectly, teaching that there is a virtue which we have come to call epikeia, namely the wisdom which understands when laws must be strictly enforced and when there are mitigating circumstances demanding less strictness and even overriding the laws themselves. Commitment to the promotion of human dignity and human rights will foster this wisdom.