A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
Jesus responds to the disciples of John and to the Pharisees by comparing himself to the bridegroom. When the bridegroom is taken away, then the fasting will follow. Because Christ is the bridegroom, the Church is is bride. And when the Church fasts, she fasts in mourning because Christ has been taken away. The kind of fasting Christ calls us to the LORD makes known in the first reading from Isaiah: “This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.”
God, help me understand the goodness that comes from a contrite, humbled heart. As the psalmist says, “My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.” In avoiding evil and doing good, I live so that you many be with me. Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.