FRIDAY OF THE TWENTY- SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR ( A)
R1:- 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
PS:- 37:3-4.5.6.27-28.39-40(R.39a)
Accl:- John 8:12
Gosp:- Luke 5:33-39
THEME: KNOWING WHEN FASTING MAKES SENSE*
When we become too ritualistic, we begin to do things for no cogent reasons. Over the years, we have found ourselves in some traditional routines, the history of which we don’t know.
We fast for specific results and not just for fasting sake or a mere religious observance. Fasting is a deprivation gears towards a greater good. Fasting without prayer is starvation. Fasting and prayer that do not make us a new person is just an exercise of one-time request.
In today’s gospel, Jesus did not play down the exercise of fasting. He rather laid a great emphasis on the security we enjoy in his real presence. ” Why must they fast when the bridegroom is with them?” In his presence, there is fullness of joy. The church do not fast on Sunday, being a special day dedicated to the Lord.
Moreover, the Lord wanted his disciples to learn the best way to fast. They must learn from him first. This will help them to put fasting into its rightful perspective. They must know when to fast and how to fast. They must know how not to fast. They mustn’t fast because others are fasting.
“New wine must be put into fresh wineskins” We need a renewed mind to put our religious duties into their rightful place. We cannot be fasting while we are filled with filthy practices as the hypocrites do. Fasting connects us to God’s presence. Nothing unclean can stand before him.
However, now that the Lord is no longer with us physically, fasting becomes a special tool with which we connect to him. ” _The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from then, and then they will fast in those days.”_
Let us approach the Lord’s throne of grace accompanied with the art of fasting, so that we obtain mercy through which we obtain our daily needs.
Dear ones, I pray that our religious observances will open us to God’s beautiful presence. May the sacrifices we make daily lead us into banquet of God’s joy. May our longings be satisfied with the new wine of the sacraments of God’s grace. Amen.
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