FASTING TO REFIND THE BRIDEGROOM


FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY  

Isa 58:1-9; Ps 51:3-6k18-19; Mt 9:14-15

A Fast that is Pleasing to God

With the understanding that our spiritual journey during this Lenten season is initiated, directed, and sustained by God, our attention must be on him in order not to miss the way. This consideration is even more serious when we know that the journey is not physical, but spiritual. As Christian people, we know that God, in Jesus Christ, is reconciling us to himself through the grace of repentance we have received in abundance in Christ. We need the light of Christ to understand the beginning of the journey, the means or way we are to proceed, and the end for which we make the journey. The beginning of our Lenten journey is the knowledge of ourselves as we are in the eyes of God. None can have this knowledge unless the light of the word of God shines upon us; so, we need the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to know how sinful we are before God and our need of God’s mercy and deliverance. Without this prerequisite knowledge of our sinful self, we cannot know our need for God, who is our end. Without the knowledge of the end, our choice of a means or way to proceed would be inordinate and misinformed. God’s revelation of his Son, Jesus Christ, is also the revelation of our sinful selves to us.

Because this revelation was lacking in the Old Testament, we read the complaint God made about the fasting of the Jewish people and why their fast is misdirected and misses the mark. “Look, you do business on your fast-days, you oppress all your workmen; look, you quarrel and squabble when you fast and strike the poor man with your fist. Fasting like yours today will never make your voice heard on high. Is that the sort of fast that pleases me, a truly penitential day for men?” Since the purpose of the fast is to help us see our need for God by putting aside our amusements and delights, we must do it according to his prescription and not the way we like. We fast to help us come before God in a deep spirit of repentance for our evil deeds. Our self-denial must be wholesome, from food and drink, and most importantly from inordinate and unmerciful acts. It is to retain the essential part or quality of fasting that the Lord urged us to make it an interior and not an exterior act. We are to fast in secret for our heavenly Father, who sees and rewards all that is done in secret.

A fast or mortification that is secret is usually directed from our secret place; and what is from our secret place is inspired by the Holy Spirit and brings us nearer to Jesus Christ, our Saviour. However, what is external is externally directed and serves an external end. As we noted, the desire to fast, which comes from our interior, is usually inspired by the Holy Spirit, intending to make us more present to Jesus Christ or acquainted with the will of the Father, which is what Jesus Christ represents for us. Our Lord confirms this during his interaction with the disciples of John the Baptist on fasting. “John’s disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘Why is it that the Pharisees and we fast but your disciples do not?’ Jesus replied, ‘Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of mourning as long as the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then they will fast.’” As we have stated in previous reflections, the bridegroom is taken away from us when we lose focus on Jesus Christ. When the interest and desire of the bride is taken away from the bridegroom, she ceases to be a bride, because what makes a bride is her desire for her groom. We cease to be with Jesus Christ when we cease to desire and cherish his company. The Spirit calls us to fast, weep, and pray that he may be restored to us; for he is our salvation.

Let us pray: Show gracious favour, O Lord, we pray to the works of penance we have begun, that we may have strength to accomplish with sincerity the bodily observances we undertake. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.  

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