1Reflection for Friday February 28, Friday after Ash Wednesday: Matthew 9:14-15

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:

Do you practice fasting? 

The church teaches us that we have to observe fasting during Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Does it have any basis in the Bible? Yes just to name a few: Jonah 3:7, Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.

Matthew 4:2: “He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry.”

Matthew 6:16: When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting.

To practice fasting is an edifying experience for we would discover that we can still be productive even if we are fasting. For as long as we focus our attention to Jesus who observed fasting for forty days in the desert. And in the process was tempted in vain by the devil (Matthew 4:1-11).   

But more than the voluntary denial of food it also requires us to fast from doing anything that would offend God and our fellowmen. From doing anything that would defile us physically and spiritually. For example we fast from committing sin, we fast from judging our neighbor and so forth.  

In the gospel Jesus was asked by the Pharisees and John’s disciples why His followers were not fasting. Jesus answered them that there’s no reason yet for them to fast for the reason that He is with them (Matthew 9:15).

When are we going therefore to be with Jesus so that we will not anymore practice fasting? It’s when we die and eventually ascend to heaven, there we will be with Jesus and we will not be fasting anymore.

But for the mean time that we are still in this world we have to observe fasting not only with food but with anything that makes us sin. – Marino J. Dasmarinas