March 8, 2019 Friday
After Ash Wednesday 1st
Reading: Is 58:1–9a Gospel: Mt 9:14–15
The disciples of John came to Jesus with the question, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast on many occasions, but not your disciples?”Jesus answered them, “How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? Time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, then they will fast.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
Jesus compared his mission of proclaiming God’s kingdom to a wedding feast (See Matthew 22:3,8, 10-12, Luke 12:36, and Luke 14:8). This takes us to a better understanding of his stand on fasting. As practiced by the Jews fasting was supposed to be as frequent as the Pharisees prayed. “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast on many occasions, but not your disciples?” John’s disciples asked. Jesus did not answer the question directly. He raised instead the incongruity of fasting during a wedding celebration.
Since the kingdom of God was at hand it was not the time for fasting anymore. It was the time to rejoice.
Did Jesus abolish the practice of fasting? Jesus said: “Time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, then they will fast.” There was a futuristic dimension to this answer because it looked forward to the time when Jesus would no longer be with them historically, such as in the time of Matthew’s church. Fasting was not abolished. It will always have its proper time and place because it has a purpose that transcends time.
Fasting was practiced in the Church from early times with variety of regulations. At first it meant no food or drink until sunset. Today, mandatory fasting is limited to twice a year (on Ash Wednesday and on Good Friday) and it is no longer as rigid as in the past. It already permits one full meal plus small food intakes the rest of the day. The “why” of fasting is important if we want to practice it meritoriously.
The fasting we practice is penitential in nature. A Christian cannot do away with it during the Lenten season where the whole Christian community under the guidance of the Catholic Church spends forty days fasting, praying and doing corporal works of mercy as expressions of repentance. To be in step with the whole Christendom, we observe the rule on fasting as we look forward to the joy of Easter when we shall be united with Christ as we rise from our tombs of sinfulness into the resurrection of New Life in the Spirit. This anticipation of resurrection vests our fasting with the same joy characterizing the proclamation of the kingdom.– (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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