The synagogue incident in which the Jewish leaders try to catch Jesus in violation of the Jewish Law, offers us a deeper comprehension of Jesus' mission. A man with a chronic ailment is sitting in the front row of the synagogue. Was he intentionally placed there in order to see how Jesus would react to his condition? In any event, the religious leaders were waiting for Jesus to make a misstep, either by something He says or something He does.

Not surprisingly, Jesus uses the occasion to expound the meaning of Sabbath by asking: Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to destroy it? The irony is that, while Jesus was intent on doing good by healing the hand of the cripple, the religious leaders were intent on implicating Jesus and care nothing about the crippled man on the day they regarded as most holy.

We face similar situations when customs and traditions, or more often our understanding of them, come into conflict with the mandate to 'do good.' Here, a discerning love is crucial. It is developed through prayer and walking together with the Lord, to see the world and all its situations through His eyes. As St. Augustine once wrote: "Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved."