and then they will fast.
Wait. The bridegroom will be taken from us? But won't he be with us always, even unto the end of the age (cf. Mat. 28:20)? Yes, he promises to remain with us. But we do spend certain times entering more purposefully into his suffering and death.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes (1 Cor. 11:26).
We suffer ourselves and in these times as well we unite ourselves to the suffering Christ.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church (cf. Col. 1:24)
The world can't understand why we fast when we fast and why we celebrate when we celebrate. The old paradigms of the world, and even the paradigms of the Old Testament, can't explain it. They are old wineskins and old cloaks and we have new cloth and new wineskins. The world does not understand this because the world does not understand the cross. It sees in the cross only defeat. It does not see something into which one would enter willing. It cannot see the value in being united to the cross. But we see through the cross to the resurrection. We understand that the bridegroom is taken from us only to be given back to us in a new and more profound way. And then, after fasting, we celebrate with a new a deeper joy.
This is the inheritance which our Father longs to give us through the meal of the Eucharist. We don't need to pretend to be someone else anymore. We need not trick him into it. There is now enough blessing for both brothers. There is blessing enough for the entire world.
Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good;
sing praise to his name, which we love;
For the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself,
Israel for his own possession
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