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Gospel Reading for January 20, 2025 – Mark 2: 18-22
DEEPEN THEIR RELATIONSHIP
The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to Jesus and objected, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
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Pretty soon or on March 5 (Ash Wednesday), we will be entering the Lenten Season and Catholics aged 18 to 59 will be required to do fasting on this day and on April 18, which is Good Friday. In addition to fasting, ages 14 and above are required to abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all Fridays of Lent. Some of us eat all we can up to 12:00 a.m. of Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and some give all the excuses not to fast even when they are healthy and have not yet reached the age of 60, as if we will die if we fast. We are not asked to go without food the whole day. We can eat one full meal and two smaller meals that do not equal a full meal. Most probably, those of us who do this do not really appreciate or understand the purpose of fasting and abstinence.
Fasting and abstinence, although beneficial for our health to do every once in a while, is more of a way to make sacrifice – depriving ourselves of something we want, and instead, share what we have with those in need. It is also a way of disciplining ourselves for the spiritual life. As a matter of fact, there were many saints who were ASCETICS. It was their way to DEEPEN THEIR RELATIONSHIP with God.
Perhaps, we should not see fasting and abstinence as an obligation, but more of a personal decision to more or less, share in the sacrifice of Jesus, purifying our inner selves in the process. We need not fast only during the Lenten Season. We have the whole year to deepen our relationship with God!
Lord Jesus, may everything we do, be always an act of love for you!
