The bridegroom is, in one sense, with us always, even unto the end of the age (cf. Mat. 28:20). The wedding feast, the banquet of the lamb, is in progress. We do drink the new wine even now. We are clothed with the new baptismal robes of righteousness and salvation even now.
Yet we hear Jesus say, "the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day." He is talking about his days in the flesh when "he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence."
Simply a historical reality, then? Something we no longer need to bother about? Yet fasting is practiced in the Acts of the Apostles, after the cries and tears of Jesus cease. He reigns enthroned in heaven and is with us always by his Spirit within us. Yet fasting continues. In fact, the reality of the cross, the reality of the bridegroom being taken from us, is not entirely in the past.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes (cf 1 Cor. 11:26).
We are not yet perfect. We still need to enter into his suffering. He learns obedience from what he suffers so that he can teach it to us in our suffering.
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;
and when he was made perfect,
he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
And to be honest, there is no shortage of suffering. This is not yet heaven. When it reveals this to us we should not close our eyes and pretend. When we find that we are still old wine skins in one way or another we shouldn't insist that we are other than what we are. Since this isn't heaven we find that we can't be filled with only new wine. We find clothing still patched and tattered. Fortunately, there is still much this suffering can do both to make us perfect and to let us become sources of the salvation of Jesus for others.
Even though Jesus is not sinful like us he still endures all that we endure. He teaches us by his example to suffer together with a world that suffers. This is the literal meaning of the word compassion.
This is our shared priesthood with Jesus, the priesthood of all believers.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is your true and proper worship (cf. Rom. 12:1).
This is how we share in the sufferings of Jesus for the sake of the Church.
Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church (cf. Col 1:24).
We enter into this suffering at every mass. This is why we also fast, however briefly, beforehand. It isn't masochist. It is an exulted anointing to enter into suffering for the sake of the Church and the world. We do not create new suffering, but we do join our own suffering with that of Jesus as an offering. We do not create new suffering, but we do join the suffering of others by using fasting to remove distractions. This is how suffering is transformed into love and the enemies of sin and death are made our footstool. There is cause for rejoicing here, even in our sufferings.
The LORD said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand
till I make your enemies your footstool."
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