Tag: feasting

A physician for the sick. | Saturday after Ash Wednesday

From the responsorial psalm: “Incline your ear, O LORD; answer me, for I am afflicted and poor. Keep my life, for I am devoted to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (5:27-32, today’s readings)

The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

While Matthew is at work at the customs post, Jesus sees him and calls him. He simply says, “Follow me.” Leaving everything behind, Matthew gets up and follows him. The suddenness of his following is contrasted with the reaction of the Pharisees, who attend a banquet Matthew gives for Jesus in his house. Their hesitancy in following Jesus takes the form of accusation: “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Rather than follow immediately as Matthew does, the Pharisees hold back as they rely on preconceived ideas of justice and mercy. Out of love, Jesus says to them that because we are sinners, we need to hear the call of the divine physician, who calls us each by name. Bearing the oppression of sin and the ruin it leaves in our path, we follow Jesus when we bring a contrite heart to him, who is “good and forgiving, abounding in kindness” to all who call upon him. To you, O Lord, we lift up our souls.

God, keep me in your truth today as you take me under your wing and guard my soul. Help me say yes to you and make clear to me the love of Jesus Christ your Son in his call to repentance. To say yes to you is to walk in your truth and participate in the mystery of your presence. Teach me to see how your love and mercy are alive in the Eucharist, the scriptures, the community of believers, the sacraments, prayer, and in the marginalized. Give me the grace to hear and respond to the call of Jesus to come to him, trusting only in him. As Saint John of God said, “We must not trust in ourselves, because we shall fall into sin a thousand times a day, but trust only in Jesus Christ.” Saint John of God, pray for us!

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.

” . . . and then they will fast.” | Friday after Ash Wednesday

From the responsorial psalm: “Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (9:14-15, today’s readings)

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.”

The disciples of John see something among the disciples of Jesus that they have been seeking. They ask Jesus, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” He answers their question with love, as a bridegroom might at a wedding feast: Why is there reason to mourn here with me at the feast? John’s disciples do not yet recognize Jesus as the Messiah and miss seeing that God made man stands before them. By inviting them to feast with the bridegroom, Jesus gives them the way to make a sacrifice acceptable to the Lord, the one who frees them: a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.

God, help me understand today’s Gospel in relation to Lent, a time for the disciples to experience the joy of being with Jesus but also a time to prepare for his passion and death. Lord, you are present with me always through baptism and through the sacraments. With praise and thanksgiving, teach me how to make suffering redemptive, a cause for joy even amid trials. As Saint Paul says, we are “always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.” Help me know and be a means, Lord, of your justice and mercy. Saints Perpetua and Felicity, pray for us!

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.

“Then they will fast in those days.” | Friday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

From the responsorial psalm: “The salvation of the just is from the LORD; he is their refuge in time of distress. And the LORD helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (5:33-39)

The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.” Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus addresses a question about why his disciples do not fast like the Pharisees and like the disciples of John the Baptist. Using the comparison of a wedding feast, Jesus tells the scribes and Pharisees that just as wedding guests do not fast while the bridegroom is with them, neither do his disciples. He goes on to tell them the parable of new wine poured into old wineskins. Poured into old wineskins, the new wine will burst the skins. New wine, he tells them, must be put into new wineskins. Jesus is the new wine, the new covenant, and his presence as he does his Father’s will brings new life to his followers.

God of mercy, let me consider the feast and the fast. Christ is present always. In recognizing the gift of his presence, there is the joy of counting myself as one of the wedding guests. At times of fasting, whether from within or without, I long for Christ to return so that I can, as the psalmist says, “dwell in the land and be fed in security.” Your mercy, Lord, doubly provides for those you love. In joy, I have Christ truly present in the sacraments, and in fasting I wait for the one who puts to rest all the restlessness of longing for the peace of his presence. “I am the light of the world, says the Lord,” I hear in the Gospel acclamation, “whoever follows me will have the light of life.” Give me the grace to receive the new wine, whether feasting or fasting, with a spirit of gratitude.

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.