4 September 2015 - the fasting track

But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
then they will fast in those days.

Fasting isn't imposed on us as an external 'religious' practice. Well, if you look at canon law, I guess it sort of is. But that is a secondary sense. It is supposed to well up from within us. Our longing for the presence of the bridegroom is why we fast. We shouldn't be like the children in the marketplace:

We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn (cf. Mat. 11:17).

That sort of disconnect doesn't serve us. Yet, if we're honest, it does describe us much of the time. We mourn because Jesus is not as present to us as we desire. It is Jesus himself who turns our mourning into dancing (cf. Psa. 30:11). We dance because of the king. "Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!" (cf. Psa. 150:4).

We are called to clothe ourselves with Christ and make no provision for the flesh (cf. Rom. 13:14). We are called to keep whole and unstained the baptismal robe of grace (cf. Gal. 3:27). Jesus has to be the center of any sort of fasting we do for it to have meaning. Otherwise we're tearing the robe he gives us with old cloth. We are using old wineskins which are now in danger of failing. Fasting does not originate from our strength. It is not an imposition or a strengthening of our will. It stems from sorrow that we aren't as close to Jesus as we can be. It arises from empathy for a world which is so far from him. The soul refrains from legitimate pleasures because it cannot find any joy in those pleasures comparable to the joy it knows it should have from the king.

Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.

We know this. But we know that we don't know this as we should. We don't know it in fullness. It may be a fact but it isn't really a reality for us.

For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell,
and through him to reconcile all things for him,
making peace by the Blood of his cross
through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven.

We know that Jesus bears the cross for us. He bears it for you and for me. He would bear it for a single person if she was the only one alive. He loves us with that kind of totality. Yet we are not as grateful as we should be. He is the firstborn of all creation. He is before all things and in him they all hold together. He is the head of the Body, the Church. He is meant to be preeminent in all things. We fast to express our desire that he be preeminent in our hearts. It isn't that we can cause it. But our desire calls out to him. It invites him. And he will surely come.

For he is good,
the LORD, whose kindness endures forever,
and his faithfulness, to all generations.