Gospel: Mark 2:18-22
The disciples of John and of the
Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to Jesus and objected, “Why do
the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your
disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests fast while
the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they
cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from
them, and then they will fast on that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunken
cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the
old, and the tear gets worse. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old
wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the
skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
+ + + + + +
Reflection:
A renewed catholic has said that his
life was never the same since he had a personal relationship with Jesus. He
said that since he met Jesus he was always joyful. And even if there were
problems he always ensures that it would never ruin his day. His reason for his
newfound joyfulness and happiness is his reenergized faith in Jesus.
Fasting in the context of our gospel
reading for today is connected with self-sacrifice or self-denial. Which is
actually not bad because it strengthens a person’s faith and dependence on God.
But there is something that is very much supreme than fasting and it’s no other
than Jesus! If Jesus is in our life we have to rejoice.
For the reason that Jesus will teach us
to fast without anyone else knowing it and this is the more important form of
fasting: fasting that is not for show and fasting that is not seen and known by
anyone except Jesus.
The disciples of John and the Pharisees
in our gospel were after the exterior fasting. Fasting that could be seen by
our naked eyes and Jesus surely hates this kind of superficiality. If we are
already with Jesus we would not be concerned anymore about superficial fasting.
For the simple reason that we will fast without broadcasting it for the world
to hear and see.
Nobody will know about this kind of
fasting except you and Jesus. And this would surely happen the moment you learn
how to surrender yourself to the Love, Mercy and Compassion of Jesus. – Marino
J. Dasmarinas
No comments:
Post a Comment