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. 16 And
no one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears
away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. 17 Neither is new wine put into
old wineskins; if it is, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the
skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are
preserved." Matt 9:14-17
Reflection: O the beauty of fasting and how wonderful
it can be, to fast!
But could the message of Jesus, on the subject of fasting be
a warning on indiscriminate fasting?
Shouldn’t fasting have a reason and a motive behind it, if
not then it could be like puttimg up a patch of new cloth on a old cloth or it could
be like putting new wine in old wine skins?
There are plenty of people in this world who fast for
different reasons and for varieties of motives:
Some fast because they want to slim down and some fast on
account of health and there are some who fast because they want some of the
their wishes to be granted or their intention to be fulfilled, some fast
because it is a routine on account of religion or health.
In all this, Jesus’ voice still speaks aloud to all those
who have ears to listen: what use is it to fast, even the Pharisees did it
diligently, making it a point to keep it to the utmost but they failed to stand
before the almighty God as justified creatures.
Even in our days people fast for various reasons and some
even on days of obligation and yet their hearts may be like old cloth or old
wine skins. We are old in our ways of thinking, ancient in our habits,
primitive in the way we keep up to the obligation of fasting.
In the midst of oldness we seek the Lord and the infilling
of the promised Holy Spirit and we burst the skin of our souls and invite death
and decay.
In this, many start their walk with the Lord in all earnestness but
when the trials of life invade and the persecutions and troubles of daily life invade then we are lost in the maze.
Fasting as such, should have as its primary motive to
strengthen our resolve to keep at it, in our walk with the Lord. It should help
us to solidify our resolve to follow the Lord even in the midst of the daily
hunger pangs of temptations.
Then we shall be a strong cloth or durable wineskin to
receive what the Lord has in store for those who persevere in his kingdom.
Prayer: Strengthen me to fast O Lord and
enable me to walk in the path which you chosen for me, with joy.
DD = Dedicated
Discipleship: Come grow in the Lord with us
