Which comes first, fasting or feasting? The disciples of
John the Baptist were upset with Jesus' disciples because they did not fast.
Fasting was one of the three most important religious duties, along with prayer
and almsgiving. Jesus gave a simple explanation. There's a time for fasting and
a time for feasting (or celebrating). To walk as a disciple with Jesus is to
experience a whole new joy of relationship akin to the joy of the wedding party
in celebrating with the groom and bride their wedding bliss. But there also
comes a time when the Lord's disciples must bear the cross of affliction and purification.
For the disciple there is both a time for rejoicing in the Lord's presence and
celebrating his goodness and a time for seeking the Lord with humility and
fasting and for mourning over sin. Jesus goes on to warn his disciples about
the problem of the "closed mind" that refuses to learn new things.
Jesus used an image familiar to his audience – new and old wineskins. In Jesus'
times, wine was stored in wineskins, not bottles. New wine poured into skins
was still fermenting. The gases exerted gave pressure. New wine skins were
elastic enough to take the pressure, but old wine skins easily burst because
they were hard. What did Jesus mean by this comparison? Are we to reject the
old in place of the new? Just as there is a right place and a right time for
fasting and for feasting, so there is a right place for the old as well as the
new. Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out
of his treasure what is new and what is old (Matthew 13:52). How
impoverished we would be if we only had the Old Testament or the New Testament,
rather than both. The Lord gives us wisdom so we can make the best use of both
the old and the new. He doesn't want us to hold rigidly to the past and to be
resistant to the new work of his Holy Spirit in our lives. He wants our minds
and hearts to be like new wine skins – open and ready to receive the new wine
of the Holy Spirit.
I
hope you will all have a great week.
Fr. Phil
