Friday, September 04, 2015
22nd Week in Ordinary Time 1st reading:
Colossians 1.15-20
Gospel: Luke 5:33-39
The scribes and Pha- risees asked Jesus, “The disciples of John fast often and say long prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why is it that your disciples eat and drink?” Then Jesus said to them, “You can’t make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them. But later the bridegroom will be taken from them and they will fast in those days.”
Jesus also told them this parable, “No one tears a piece from a new coat to put it on an old one; otherwise the new will be torn and the piece taken from the new will not match the old. No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed as well. But new wine must be put into fresh skins. Yet no one who has tasted old wine is eager to get new wine, but says: The old is good.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
The Pharisees questioned Jesus why his followers ate more but prayed less. In contrast, their followers recited long prayers and fas- ted more often than required by law. Jesus answered by shifting the focus of the Pharisees to the joy of His presence. He said, “You can’t make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them. Jesus wanted people to celebrate the blessings of life as often as possible.
The Eucharist which, in essence is a festive table celebration, establishes Jesus’ preference for joyful discipleship. He could have left behind a different way of remembering him. He did not. He spent the last minutes of his earthly life sharing a meal with his apostles and commanding them to do it more often in remembrance of Him.
Joyous discipleship is not evasive of suffering but looks forward to it without seeking it out. It looks forward to it because sufferings deepen the joy of a person as he moves higher up the ladder of spirituality. But it does not seek suffering out because such would be inconsistent with joy as mark of Christianity. In the context of joy, then, we distinguish between meritorious suffering and useless suffering.
Suffering is useless when it comes as a result of one’s indulgence in vices. Suffe- ring is useful when the proximate cause is the misuse of another person’s freedom. If you are bearing useless sufferings now, realize that no resurrection awaits you in the end. But there is a way out! You can do fasting to exercise discipline over the body so that the soul can break free from the shackles of the flesh and rejoice heartily in the Lord. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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