Friday, September 6, 2002
22nd Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: 1 Cor 4:1-5
Gospel: Lk 5:33-39
The scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus, "The disciples of John fast
often and say long prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees.
Why is it that your disciples eat and drink?" Then Jesus said to
them, "You can't make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is
with them. But later the bridegroom will be taken from them and they will
fast in those days."
Jesus also told them this parable, "No one tears a piece from a new
coat to put it on an old one; otherwise the new will be torn and the piece
taken from the new will not match the old. No one puts new wine into old
wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and be spilled,
and the skins will be destroyed as well. But new wine must be put into
fresh skins. Yet no one who has tasted old wine is eager to get new wine,
but says: The old is good."
Commentary
The Lord had been preaching that the messianic times were already inaugurated in him. He taught and did all things well and with authority. Fasting and praying were two of the three pillars of Jewish piety which people did in the belief that they would help usher in the messianic times. If in Jesus such times are already here, a new way of being and relating is thus possible. In fact, right before this passage, Luke narrates the call of Levi to discipleship, drawing him out from his old life of marginalization to the very circle of a new reality. If we need to fast and pray, it is when we revert back to our old life devoid of meaning not only for ourselves but also for others.