Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Lk 5:33-39
September 2, 2022 | Friday

Today’s Gospel

Some people asked him, “The disciples of John fast often and say long prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why is it, that your disciples eat and drink?” Then Jesus said to them, “You can’t make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them. But later, the bridegroom will be taken from them; and they will fast in those days.” Jesus also told them this parable: “No one tears a piece from a new coat to put it on an old one; otherwise the new coat will be torn, and the piece taken from the new coat will not match the old coat. No one puts new wine into old wine skins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed as well. But new wine must be put into fresh skins. Yet, no one who has tasted old wine is eager to drink new wine, but says, ‘The old is good.’”

Today’s Reflection:

Without sacrifices and a loving relationship with God, religious experience risks being empty and a mere facade. In today’s gospel, Jesus said, “The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them and then they will fast in those days.”

Why do we need to practice fasting? Aside from being a spiritual discipline, fasting reminds us Christians of what is essential and vital to our life. St. Augustine notes that fasting according to the customs of the Church is not superfluous or of less importance and that those who practice it do not think merely of themselves (cf. De Utilitate Ieiunii 3). Our Catechism likewise teaches that accompanied by prayer and almsgiving fasting expresses “conversion in relation to oneself, to God and others (CCC 1434).”

Fasting reminds us that in this world things perish and are fleeting. Food, drink, or entertainment could never satisfy our souls. For this reason, we are called to fast so that we may rightly orient our lives to God. /Vulnerasti, 2022