The Question about Fasting

Today's Reflections

 

                               

 

     

The Question about Fasting 

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Mt 9:14-17

¹⁴The disciples of John approached [Jesus] and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast [much], but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁵Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. ¹⁶No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. ¹⁷People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Reflection:

They pour new wine into fresh wineskins. The new wine is the gospel, or Jesus who presents himself as the bridegroom. He can only be received by fresh wineskins, that is, people who have been made new. That is why Jesus’ announcement of the coming of the kingdom of heaven is preceded by a call to metanoia (conversion), which is a change of mind, a change of heart, and a change of behavior (cf Mt 4:17). Conversion is a life-change which we cannot do by ourselves. It can happen only by the grace of God. To the unconverted, Jesus and his gospel will seem like a stumbling block or foolishness (cf 1 Cor 1:23).

Ask the Lord to change you, so that you see things from God’s point of view, love what God loves, and do God’s will.

Receive Christ and his gospel, and experience

the joy of having him as your bridegroom.