REFLECTIONS TODAY
Fasting is an important spiritual discipline observed by the Jews and shared by people of other faith or beliefs. It is done to express sorrow for sins, to implore God’s intervention during times of public calamity, and, for many in Israel, to hasten the coming of the Messiah.
On a personal level, fasting helps one to curb one’s physical and material appetite so as to sharpen one’s awareness and desire for spiritual realities. The scribes and the Pharisees practice fasting conscientiously. So do the followers of John the Baptist.
Jesus’ disciples, who drink and eat freely, scandalize these groups. Jesus replies by speaking about a wedding feast and the bridegroom. Jesus obliquely refers to himself as the bridegroom who has come to inaugurate the wedding feast. Fasting has to be set aside during the grand feast of salvation.
Jesus opens the eyes of the blind, forgives sinners, heals the sick, and proclaims the Good News to the poor. He uses the images of wine and a new piece of cloth to illustrate the newness of the wedding he has come to inaugurate. This union between God and his creatures would require a new mind and a new heart, and will not thrive in an old conventional way of thinking and doing things that resists God’s spirit. Fasting may be done only when Jesus undergoes his passion, in solidarity with him, the suffering Savior.
Gospel • Luke 5:33-39
The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.” Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.”
And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins. And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’ ”
Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2025,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: publishing@stpauls.ph; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.
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