Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - The Right Fasting

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 03.04.22 | Aux. Bishop R. Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Friends, in today’s Gospel, people ask Jesus why he and his disciples do not fast when John and his disciples do. Jesus’ answer is wonderful:
“Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” Could you imagine people fasting at a wedding banquet?
It would be ridiculous!

Jesus later says, “People do not put new wine into old wineskins.” The new wine is the Gospel.
The receptacle for this wine must be conformed to it, not the other way around.

To take in the Good News, we can’t be living in the cramped space of our sinful souls.
We can’t have an “expect the worst” attitude. Instead we repent, or change the minds that we have.
Another way to get at this is to say that like is known by like.
If God is love, then only a soul that is on fire with love will properly take him in.

[MurphsLaw]

1st Reading : Isaiah

Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits,
and drive all your laborers.
Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting,
striking with wicked claw.
Would that today you might fast
so as to make your voice heard on high!
Is this the manner of fasting I wish,
of keeping a day of penance:
That a man bow his head like a reed
and lie in sackcloth and ashes?

Do you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?
This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed
breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
Your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,
you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!


+++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.”

[MurphsLaw]

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