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?”
People saw what appeared to be a high standard of rigorous devotion among both the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees. They went above and beyond what was required of them by Judaism as a sign of their piety. And probably much of this fasting was actually a good thing for them at those times and places. Maybe there were some Pharisees who made a big show of it to let everyone know they were fasting. But probably even among the Pharisees there were some that were genuine. More so among John the Baptist and his followers. John had little patience with doing things for the sake of appearances. He wasn't interested in followers that came to him because it was what others were doing. Yet the fact that such fasting could be good did not mean it was always the right answer. Just because some was sometimes good did not mean that more was always and in all circumstances better.
Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
In a world still awaiting the Messiah spiritual hunger, sometimes signaled by fasting, was meant to be a dominant characteristic. Now that the Messiah had come it was time for the feast to begin. But it was hard to appreciate why this was so until people came to appreciate that Jesus was not only Messiah, but also the bridegroom of Israel. He was not simply a holy individual, come to stamp out all opposition to the will of God. He was in fact God himself, come to fulfill the promises he made in the Old Testament toward Israel, his bride.
For your Maker is your husband,
the Lord of hosts is his name;
and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,
the God of the whole earth he is called (see Isaiah 54:5).
And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more (see Hosea 2:16-17).
This wedding feast had already begun as a consequence of the incarnation when humanity was joined irrevocably to divinity. This was why Jesus was the one upon whom angels would ascend and descend as a ladder between earth and heaven like the one of which Jacob dreamed (see John 1:51). But at the same time we see that the fullness of the marriage was not consummated when, during the wedding feast at Cana, Jesus said, "My hour has not yet come" (see John 2:4). The hour of the wedding feast was most properly understood to be both the institution of the Eucharist and the hour of his Passion. These were, mysteriously, the same hour, the hour in which Jesus gave us the true wedding feast of his Body and Blood.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast on that day.
The dominant theme of Christianity is now the celebration of the resurrection. As Saint John Paul the Great said, "We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song!", apparently paraphrasing Saint Augustine. And yet, though our weekly feast recalls us to Easter and the resurrection, there is still something of anticipation and hunger that defines the Christian people. There is still cause for fasting, but not according to the intuitions of the Old Testament, as though we were still waiting on the fulfillment of the messianic hope. Rather, even our fasting is meant to be centered on the bridegroom himself, helping us to draw into ever deeper relationship with the Messiah who has in fact come, but for whom we long to come again in glory.
Let us learn by reading the lesson that Saul had to learn the hard way. We are not to take for the Lord what he himself has not asked of us. He doesn't regard sacrifices, including fasting, nearly as much as obedience. Still, it probably isn't the case that most of us face the temptation to excess fasting. But for most of us when we are in fact called to fast we tend to choose a programmatic and lifeless approach that doesn't really touch our hearts. The call for us as a New Covenant people is to bring every practice back to the bridegroom and ask him how he would use it to draw us ever closer to the consummation of the wedding feast.
To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
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