Please read the passage before the homily.
When you have paparazzi following you, you know you are popular. The scribes and Pharisees are paparazzi for Jesus. He had become popular, so the reporters went out to follow him and take notes.
It was said that he healed on the Sabbath! This should not be, for the Sabbath is the most sacred day of the week. What would Jesus be thinking?
Six days God made the earth and all within it. Then God rested on the seventh day. God was the master crafter, but God did not let work define him. God’s definition is love and freedom. To a people enslaved in Egypt or recently escaped from slavery, or defeated during the Exile, the Sabbath had given them hope and reassured them of their human dignity. Because we are human, we have received the gift of the Sabbath.
When Jesus healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath, he was fulfilling the purpose of the Sabbath: he was setting a person free and giving that person a new lease on life.
It is in the context of the great Sabbath, the great day of rest between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, that Jesus destroyed our sin, gave us new life and called us into his family, the Church.
The paparazzi had to have this explained to them. Did they continue to check up on Jesus, that remains to be seen. They followed for negative reasons; we follow out of faith.
If we follow out of faith, then we must give life, respect the dignity of all people so that they can enjoy the Sabbath God has made for them.