Reason for Fasting

Today’s Gospel Text: Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" 15 And Jesus said to 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. Matt 9:14-15

Reflection: Is fasting a pre-requisite for salvation? Do we as Christian really need to fast in order to enter into eternal life?

By itself mere fasting or the fasting of purification cannot lead us to heaven or eternity. But there is a fasting that seeks to unite ourselves in Christ and grow in the love and grace of Jesus and such a fasting is necessary for us to enter into heaven.  

Hence mere fasting and for that matter any other good works we may accomplish in this life are not a pre-requiste for us to enter into eternal life.  Hence there is no room for boasting for practicing gospel values and claiming the right to enter into eternal life.

How can the proud and arrogant enter into eternal life with all their charities and good works and works of justice and mercy, if they do not have the stamp of approval from God or put on the image of God's true character as revealed in Christ Jesus, who humbled himself unto death. 

The fact that the disciples did not fast when they were with Jesus and the fact that Jesus did not insist that they fast were indication enough that we need not fast merely in order to seek an entrance into heaven.

Jesus their heaven was in their midst and hence the dedicated disciples did not really have to fast when Jesus was in their midst.

How important and necessary it is for Christians to fast not out of mere obligation but out of a genuine love of God and in order to seek his face, as if desiring just one thing in life: to dwell in the house of the Lord, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his temple.  (cfr. 27:4) and to put on his image and likeness. 

Prayer:  Lord, help me to adopt the discipline of fasting and may I seek thee and thy face through this discipline.

DD = Dedicated Discipleship:  Come grow in the Lord with us

Saving Grace

Today’s Gospel Text:  Now when the Pharisees gathered together to him, with some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the elders; 4 and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they purify themselves; and there are many other traditions which they observe, the washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?" 6 And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'  8 You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men." 9 And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition! 10 For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die'; 11 but you say, 'If a man tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is Corban' (that is, given to God) -  12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on. And many such things you do." Mark 7:1-13

Reflection: At the time of Jesus religion was no science nor was there any talk of science and yet the Pharisees and all the Jews would not eat unless they first washed their hands. (vs. 3)

The Pharisees and Scribes even considered it an offence to not to eat with clean hands. In this they purely went  by the demands of the law. 

There was definitely no science in their minds when they were insistent on the need for clean hands but there was definitely a religious reason for it.

If they had known the modern scientific reason, what would happen? Perhaps it would have made them more fanatics at admonishing Jesus and boasting about their religion being scientific too. 

How about seriously looking at the situation from a pure scientific point of view?

Jesus would have again stood condemned; for the evidence of science too, which is our modern religion in which everyone is well schooled in, would condemn Jesus.

Who in our age, educated in our modern scientific culture, doesn't know that if we do not eat with clean hand we are ingesting all kinds of bacteria's and germs?

Yet the dog on the street who knows no science and the animal in the stable survive the onslaughts of all kind of bacteria’s, whereas we as human’s tend to fall sick at the slightest hint of it.

What is more, the disciples of Jesus too seem to fit in with the category of the animals, when it came to bacteria's and germs. They had their meal without the washing of their hands in sharp contrast to the normal Jewish way of life.

To follow Jesus means to go contrary to the laws of science in many matters. It means to rise above the gravitational or earthly pulls of life. It shows us the power of his message to save and lift us up from the earthly things that bind us and hold us to bondage and slavery, into the freedom that comes through his saving action.

The greatest freedom that Jesus gives us is not freedom from disease but the freedom to face the onslaught of it without fear or trepidation because he is above the earthly laws, that hold us in bondage, and he will lead us to eternity.

Prayer: Lord, help me to trust in your salvation; your saving grace!

DD = Dedicated Discipleship:  Come grow in the Lord with us

The Presentation of the Lord (Feast)

Today’s Gospel:  And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord") 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons."  Luke 2:22-24

Reflection:  There are times when rules, regulations and laws are applied uniformly even though not all fit in the bracket. Some become beneficiaries and some become losers in the process.  A law for receiving first Holy Communion or the sacrament of confirmation can be uniformly applied as per the age of the person. The beneficiaries are individuals who may not meet the other important criteria of reason and maturity.  Hence the many never live up to the expectations or the demands of such an important sacrament.

In the Gospel we find that the law for offering the first born should not have applied to Jesus; for he has come to make of himself a total offering to the Lord. But if we look closely at the law and its practice, there must have been many first born in Israel who have been presented to the Lord and how many among them have really lived up to the demands of the law?

Christ Jesus came to make of himself a total offering. He was to set the trend which St. Paul later exhorts the Christians to imitate; “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”  Rom 12:1

The first step towards this act is to grow in worshipping the Lord, through the process of purification and cleansing in his presence. The act of perfect worship is accomplished through much purification, it is also an act of total surrender to God and his holy will.

Prayer:  Accept my offerings of praise, O Lord, and teach me thy ordinances. I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget thy law. Ps 119:108-109

DD = Dedicated Discipleship:  Come grow in the Lord with us