The Question about Fasting

  Today's Reflections 

 

 

 

January 16, 2012

St. Priscila
Monday of the Second Week
GREEN

1 Sm 15:16-23
Ps 50
 
Mk 2:18-22

The Question about Fasting

¹⁸The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to [Jesus] and objected, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁹Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. ²⁰But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. ²¹No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. ²²Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

Reflection:

While the bridegroom is with them. Jesus is our joy. To experience Jesus is to pass from darkness to light, from agony to glory, from sorrow to joy, from the cross of crucifixion to the crown of redemption. If we have Jesus in our life, we are like wedding guests who cannot fast because the bridegroom is with them. If we have Jesus in our hearts, we have nothing to fear.

Jesus is our life. When we commit ourselves to Jesus, we pattern our ways to his will. We let go of our bad habits and get rid of our selfish ways. We give Jesus control of our lives. We make Jesus reign in our hearts. “No one pours new wine into old wineskins.” If we have given ourselves over to Jesus, we are changed persons who have left our old sinful lives behind.

Is Jesus your life and your joy? What aspects of your life need to be conformed to the new life Jesus brings?