Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn
as long as the bridegroom is with them?
As Christians we live with an orientation toward the fulfillment of all promises that is both already and not yet. Jesus promised to be with us always, unto the end of the age. He told us that where two or more where gathered he would be in the midst of them. He gave us the Sacrament of his Body and Blood to be his Real Presence in our midst. These are all aspects of the already. But there is also the not yet, for we do not yet see him as he is as we one day hope to say him. At present we only see through a mirror, darkly. The gift of his grace is still at work transforming us into people with pure hearts who are able to see him clearly. We are still a bridegroom who is not yet without spot or wrinkle, not fully ready for the consummation of the heavenly wedding feast. Part of our response to the not yet of the Christian life is one of fasting. That is, we respond with the practice whereby we intentionally accept no substitutes for the presence of Jesus for which we long.
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast.
Our fasting is a preparation for a wedding feast. When the bridegrooms knows that we are hungry for him, and sees us eschewing other ways of sating that hunger, it calls out to him. It draws him to be present to us in new ways, with a new depth of the reality of his presence, a new solidity on which we can rely as strength and as shield.
This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
Our fasting not only calls Jesus to us as a response to our subjective experience of his absence. It also calls him to move toward the consummation of history. It cries out "Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!" It is for this reason that it is so closely related to prayer and almsgiving. In all three we practice making the will of God and the needs of others of primary importance. This is not to say that we go out and seek to feel miserable and pathetic out of some misplaced expression of sympathy with the world, bowing our heads like reeds and lying in sackcloth and ashes. It is rather that we become like the bridegroom for whom we long, acting as he did, setting captives free. We enter more deeply into being the bride we are meant to be by growing in likeness to Jesus, and making the world more like a bridal chamber, ready to welcome the bridegroom, even if it only happens little by little.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
Your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,
you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!
When we begin this campaign of Christian service it is often hard to imagine that the effects will be much beyond making us a little uncomfortable, and perhaps therefore a little tougher, a little more virtuous. But this is only because we underestimate what is possible, what God himself desires to accomplish through us, what he will in fact accomplish through us if we only learn get out of his way. Our world is torn by war and disease, poverty and discrimination. We must address these challenges by prudent interventions. But if we really want the Lord to make our light break forth like the dawn upon them we should set our minds to enter fully into the spirit of Lent whereby we cry out until the bridegroom comes, "Maranatha!"
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
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