Gospel: Matthew 9:14-15
The disciples of
John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but
your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered 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.”
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Reflection:
What does fasting do
to us? It cleanses our bodies, when we fast we dictate on our bodies rather
than our bodies dictating on us. For example when we see a delicious food, our
bodies would normally dictate upon us to eat that delicious food. This is always
the scenario: Our bodies dictate upon us and we succumb to it.
However, when we
fast, it’s the other way around we don’t succumb to this dictate we contradict
it, for what reason? For the observance of certain customs and tradition in
this case we can cite our fasting during Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
In our gospel, Jesus
was questioned by the Pharisees why His disciples were not fasting. Jesus
answered them this: They are not fasting for the reason that the bridegroom
(Referring to Himself) is still with them. Therefore their tricky question was
properly answered by Jesus.
Literal fasting when
done for a good reason is valid but when it’s done for people to see or to get
praise from people. It becomes invalid or useless it’s much better not to fast when
we do it for show.
But there’s a much
meaningful and permanent fasting that God wants us to do. We permanently fast
from oppressing others, we permanent fast from our arrogance and high sense of
ourselves and we permanently fast from our greed and indifference.
Are we capable of
doing this kind of fasting? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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