The question about fasting

Friday, Feb 28, 2020
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)
The abstinence and fasting we did last Ash Wednesday were not for sheer love of asceticism. These were spiritual exercises truly beneficial to the soul. Abstention from meat may no longer be the appropriate form of self-deprivation today. In the first place, diet patterns have shifted to sea foods. Secondly, our pork industry is threatened by African Swine Fever. But until Canon Law is revised, we can still derive merits from abstaining from pork as from of abstention from meat if we do this as a way of uniting ourselves with the whole of Christendom in our annual Lenten observance. Unity in sacrifice makes a pleasing worship to the united Triune God. There is nothing more beneficial to the soul than that!
To be truly beneficial, however, these practices must be backed up with our personal exercise of mercy. From Scriptures we read: “It is mercy I desire and not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6). In the context of our Lenten observance, mercy moves a person to see Christ in the person to whom mercy is extended. Believing that extending mercy to that neighbor takes the giver to the presence of Christ, such giver distinguishes himself from other givers by his brand of giving that involves his whole being. He is no longer contented with giving what he has but goes to the extent of giving what he is. This is charity at its best – one capable of giving one’s life for others.
When fasting and abstinence takes one to this level of mercy he may already do away with fasting and abstinence. Our basis is Jesus’ answer when asked why his disciples didn’t fast. He said: “How can wedding guests fast for as long as the groom is with them?” (Mark 2:19). For Jesus, fasting is not an end in itself but a means to get to the presence of God. Once in his presence, there is no more use for fasting.
Our practice of reducing food intake to one full meal on Ash Wednesdays and Good Fridays should make us feel for the poor who are forced by circumstances to fast throughout the year. Similarly, abstaining from meat should lead to gratitude for the luxuries God has allowed us to enjoy and so become more mindful of others. Only then will our Lenten practices take us to the presence of God. Anything less is sheer love for asceticism. –(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., JD, DM.