Reading
Mk 2:18-22
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”
19 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.
21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”
Meditation
John's disciples, like the Pharisees, probably observed the practice in use in Jesus' time of fasting twice a week (Lk 18:12); in reality the Levitical law provided for only one fast a year on the Day of Atonement (Lv 16,29.31).
The image of the wedding banquet - clearly in contrast with the practice of fasting - expresses a new relationship of love between God and his people in the person and earthly mission of Jesus. The wedding guests here are literally "the children of the thalamus", a semitism to indicate the friends who accompany and help the bridegroom in the preparations and in the ceremony of weeding.
In the Old Testament the image of God as bridegroom is present in the book of Isaiah (Is 1:21-23; 49:14-16), while in the patristic literature the allegorical interpretations of the Song of Songs consider it a dialogue between God and the Church, his bride.
The Greek verb apairomai, referring to the bridegroom who will be taken away from the wedding guests (v. 20), literally means "to snatch", and heralds the violent end of Jesus.
The presence of the Messiah is such a joyful event that it leaves no room for fasting; but in the time of the Church there will also be room for this. Jesus offers in the "Sermon on the Mount" (Mt 5-7) an explanation on how his disciples should fast: discreetly, without appearing disfigured in the face, perfuming their heads, so that they can be rewarded only by the Father who sees in secret (Mt 6:16-18).
Jesus does not disdain the invitations to the rich table of tax collectors and sinners; it is in fact for them that he came as a doctor (Mk 2:15-17); however, the episode of gleaning (Mk 2:23) and the way in which he sends his disciples to preach "without a bag" (Lk 10:4) demonstrate the assumption of a poor diet that is trust in divine providence.
Jesus also recommends fasting to drive out evil spirits more "resistant" to prayer and exorcisms: "This kind [of demon] can come out only by prayer and fasting" (Mk 9:29).
Fasting is now a "taboo" in Western churches, both in the Catholic and even more so in the Protestant ones. In the latter it is generally rejected for its - real - risk of being conceived as a self-justifying practice, contrary to the gospel of grace. However, there are exceptions: the Anglican Book of Common Prayer prescribes numerous days of fasting, while John Wesley, founder of Methodism, fasted every Wednesday and Friday of the year.
Beyond the prescriptions, the widespread practice of fasting has disappeared, but it could have an important pedagogical value for christians. We should rediscover his ability to make us understand that one cannot have everything immediately, educating us to the sacrifices that life, in different ways and many times, asks of us.
But true fasting is above all sharing bread with the poor, helping the orphan and the widow, making one's contribution so that justice is restored on earth.
Prayer
May your marriage be fulfilled, Lord, with the Church, your bride; so that we can rejoice in the celestial banquet, when there will be no more hunger and you yourself will be the source of life. Amen.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
