FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDN. Matthew 9:14-15
It is lent we all know that in the Roman Catholic Church, there are only two obligatory days of fasting. One is on Ash Wednesday, which was just two days ago, and the other is on Good Friday. Yet the Church encourages the faithful to embrace this spiritual discipline of fasting especially during this season of Lent, and especially on Fridays. And this spiritual discipline of fasting is not just a religious or pious act but rather one that expresses a deep longing for conversion and repentance and for the healing grace of the Lord.
It is because we see how detestable our sins and transgression are that pray and fasting are indeed. Also when we see sin and evil happening around us, like oppression of the poor and violence on the weak, injustice and deceit, then all the more we must pray and fast. For the sin and the evil in the world, and even in the Church, lent is a time to take seriously our prayer and the discipline of fasting.In this line, this passage is interesting not because of the sort of fasting practised by the Jews and 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.
It is because we see how detestable our sins and transgression are that pray and fasting are indeed. Also when we see sin and evil happening around us, like oppression of the poor and violence on the weak, injustice and deceit, then all the more we must pray and fast. For the sin and the evil in the world, and even in the Church, lent is a time to take seriously our prayer and the discipline of fasting.In this line, this passage is interesting not because of the sort of fasting practised by the Jews and 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.
Instructive and prophetic because it shows that Christianity is not a mere adjustment of the old suit of Judaism; the redemption brought by Jesus involves a total regeneration, not superficial practices. 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 about a highly complicated practices 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 practice prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
The message that this passage is trying to teach us is a very important one. In Christ, we live today under the blessings of a new and marvelous spiritual situation; situation where external and superficial practices are inappropriate.
We are called to ask ourselves: Why do I pray and why do I fast? Is it because it is prescribed that I do it? Let us pray during this Eucharist that the Good Lord may inspire us with liberative ways of praying, liberative ways of fasting and liberative ways of giving.
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