WHY IS IT THAT YOUR DISCIPLES DON'T FAST?

Mt 9:14-17

It appears to me a little bit strange or a little bit funny to see John’s disciples coming to question Jesus about the law. Why is it that your disciples don’t fast? How can they be Jews yet they do not follow the Jewish customs and traditions? That was the question; perhaps John’s disciples think themselves as better than Jesus and His disciples. Or perhaps they do not understand why they fast.

To satisfy their inquiry Jesus gives a simple explanation that there’s a time for fasting and a time for feasting. He does not condemn their fasting, but rather He makes it clear that the center of attention must be the Lord, the bridegroom and not the legality of the law. Christ must be the center of our lives; of our Christian practices. He is the one for whom we fast. He is the one for who we live.

Jesus is underlining a deeper aspect of our Christian life: “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” He wants to clarify that fasting or Christian practices are not mere legal demands; instead they are and should be the way of becoming closer to God. In many aspects of our lives, our Christian life can bring us closer to God or it can become a form of fruitless piety; our Christian life can unite us in sharing the hunger of our brothers and sisters or it can divide us when we think “we are holier than…” or when we think we earn our salvation by showing off what we can do.

Today we are called to ask ourselves: Why do I pray, why do I fast or why do I follow all these Christian values? Is it because it is prescribed that I should do it as a Christian? 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 living our Christian values.