From: Matthew 9:14-15
The Call of Matthew (Continuation)
[14] Then the disciples of John (the Baptist) came to Him (Jesus),
saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not
fast?" [15] And Jesus said 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."
Commentary:
14-17. This passage is interesting, not so much because it tells us
about the sort of fasting practised by the Jews of the
time--particularly the Pharisees and John the Baptist's disciples--but
because of the reason Jesus gives for not requiring His disciples to
fast in that way. His reply is both instructive and prophetic.
Christianity is not a mere mending or adjusting of the old suit of
Judaism. The redemption wrought by Jesus involves a total
regeneration. Its spirit is too new and too vital to be suited to old
forms of penance, which will no longer apply.
We know that in our Lord's time Jewish theology schools were in the
grip of a highly complicated casuistry to do with fasting,
purifications, etc., which smothered the simplicity of genuine piety.
Jesus' words point to that simplicity of heart with which His disciples
might practise prayer, fasting and almsgiving (cf. Matthew 6:1-18 and
notes to same). From apostolic times onwards it is for the Church,
using the authority given it by our Lord to set out the different forms
fasting should take in different periods and situations.
15. "The wedding guests": literally, "the sons of the house where the
wedding is being celebrated"--an expression meaning the bridegroom's
closest friends. This is an example of how St. Matthew uses typical
Semitic turns of phrase, presenting Jesus' manner of speech.
This "house" to which Jesus refers has a deeper meaning; set beside the
parable of the guests at the wedding (Matthew 22:1 ff), it symbolizes
the Church as the house of God and the body of Christ: "Moses was
faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that
were to be spoken later, but Christ was faithful over God's house as a
son. And we are His house if we hold fast our confidence and pride in
our hope" (Hebrews 3:5-6).
The second part of the verse refers to the violent death Jesus would
meet.
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.