SABBATH ELEVATOR

Saturday of the 22nd Week in Ordinary Time
Lk 6:1-5

My first pilgrimage to the Holy Land is very memorable because of the Sabbath. I was billeted several floors above the lobby of a hotel in Jerusalem. When Sabbath came, the hotel was crowded. A big number of families decided to partake of the Sabbath meal and spend the Sabbath holiday in the same hotel I was staying.

Arriving from a whole day visit to several holy sites, I was rushing to get to my room because I needed to go to the bathroom. The “call of nature” is always urgent; thus, I took the elevator. Despite the crowd inside the elevator, I squeezed my self in. I pushed the button of my floor. The door closed. The elevator moved. The door opened. Lo and behold, I was only a floor above the lobby and my room was in the 34th floor! So, again, I pushed the button of my floor. The door closed. The elevator moved. The door opened. I was two floors above the lobby and my room was still more than thirty floors above me. I had to repeat the process of pushing the 34th button and waiting for the elevator door to close and open at every single floor of the hotel. By the time I reached my room, I was sweating cold. I barely made it to the bathroom because the elevator I took was the Sabbath elevator.

The Sabbath elevator is a Jewish device of using the elevator without breaking the Sabbath rest. The doors of the elevator open and close and open automatically at every single floor; thus, you do not need to push any button at all. For even pushing a button during the Sabbath breaks the Sabbath rest. Ridiculous? Say that to a devout Jew and you pick a fight with him, unless of course it is Sabbath.

Going to the bathroom is not the only “call of nature”. Often, nature’s call is even louder when it sounds hunger. This second kind of call comes upon the disciples today. They are hungry and so they pick ears of corn as they pass through a field. But some of the Pharisees will rather see the disciples starve because today is Sabbath.

The call of nature to relieve one’s self in the bathroom should not be difficult to answer. All that is needed is an easy access to the bathroom. Hunger, too, should be an easy problem to solve. Hunger is quickly solved by eating. But both calls can be preludes to unnecessary and prolonged discomfort, if not death in itself. What if an elevator that opens and closes and opens at every single floor delays the much needed visit to the bathroom? What if a legal interpretation keeps not only the food from the hungry but also the hungry from the food?

On my way to the dining, after my visit to the bathroom, I came to know that beside the Sabbath elevator in every Jewish hotel is a non-Sabbath elevator. A non-Sabbath elevator is the regular elevator: it opens and closes and opens not at every floor but at every push of a button. From that first pilgrimage onward, one of the first things I do when I arrive at a hotel in Israel is identify which among the elevators is a Sabbath elevator and a non-Sabbath elevator. Knowing which is which spells a lot of difference.

On our way to heaven, during our pilgrimage here on earth, may we come to know more and more what it means to believe that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath and that Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Knowing thus may save someone from hunger.

Should someone suffer the embarrassment of not reaching the bathroom on time because of a Sabbath elevator? Should anyone endure the pangs of hunger because of the Sabbath rest? Jesus says, “No.” Do I hear a Pharisee now saying, “Yes?”