Breaking the Word

Friday after Ash Wednesday – 04^th March 2022 — Mt 9,14-15

Appropriate Fasting

Jesus’ meal with his disciples in the tax collector’s house raises question about fasting. To the disciples of John, Jesus responds with three parable-like analogies from everyday life. They pull together unlikely elements: weddings, mourning and fasting. In the context of the disciples’ question, mourning refers to fasting, though ‘to mourn’ is not an appropriate response for fasting. Fasting is inappropriate for two reasons. Firstly, it accompanies solemn and distressing circumstances of repentance and confession (1 Kgs 21,27-29; Neh 1,4; Dan 9,30). Secondly, it seeks forgiveness and atonement for sin (Dan 9,3). Jesus has evinced forgiveness, healing and exorcism in his ministry through personal fast. However the time appropriate for fasting will be when Jesus will be taken away. It is the time between his resurrection and Parousia or return in triumph (Mt 24,3). We are in this “in-between” time, in which fasting is indeed necessary. As a spiritual discipline, fasting sustains disciples (Mt 6,16-18) in an appropriate way of life. Nevertheless, God’s chosen fast is to loose the bonds of injustice, to break every yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the naked (Isa 58,6-14; Mt 5,3-12; 25,31-46).

Thursday after Ash Wednesday – 03^rd March 2022 — Lk 9,22-25

Call for a Conscious Choice

People in Jesus’ day knew what it means to “take up” a cross. They saw scores of criminals bear the cross to the place where they were to be executed. They witnessed scores of crucifixions, on the side of the roads that lead in and out of the cities. The cross is always an instrument of death, not just an object to carry or bear. To “take up his cross” means the disciple is to die mentally and actively. He is to deny himself daily by discipline and control and by loving and caring, sacrificing and giving, helping and ministering. He is to have the mind of Christ, the mind of humbling himself to the point of death, being in him and fill his thoughts every day. It is a conscious choice that a follower makes knowing the consequences that are involved.