MARCH 11, 2011
By Lorenzo S. Centino, Jr.
MATTHEW 9: 14 - 15
14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"
15 And Jesus said to 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.
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS:
A BLESSED FRIDAY TO ALL!
“Eating together” (salo-salo) is something that will never be missing in every Filipino celebration. We, Filipinos, love to dine together as a sign of FRIENDSHIP and COMMUNION. This kind of togetherness, however, does not intend to solely manifest our love for food but more so our love to celebrate and deepen personal bonding and ties. In fact, Filipino hospitality is often shown by inviting someone, even a stranger who happens to be present at home, to dine with the family. We, those of us who can afford, eat more than the three major meals in a day. We consume food, anything that the mouth can accommodate, in between meals. During this Lenten season, however, moderation from food consumption through fasting and abstinence are traditional practices of Catholic piety. Why do we need to fast, many would ask, when many Filipinos are almost fasting everyday for having nothing to eat? This “nothing” is part of the daily menu of the poor.
In the Gospel, there are people who came to Jesus to inquire, which actually is a subtle critique and protest, about the non-compliance of his disciples to fast. This inquiry manifests the strict obedience of the Pharisees and John the Baptist’s disciples to the Jewish rituals of piety. Probably, these people could be proud of their faithfulness that they raise a point of comparison. They were somehow judging Jesus and his disciples to be breakers of tradition while claiming that they are the faithful ones. Is Jesus’ non-compliance can be used as a reason to belittle, or a basis to renounce, the religious significance of fasting? Should we consider fasting now a dead, if not optional, religious practice, especially that a big portion of the world’s population is dying due to hunger? The Gospel today would, however, indicate that fasting remains to have its DEEP SPIRITUAL FORCE. In fact, in the Gospel yesterday, Jesus reminds emphatically his listeners to give alms, to pray, and to FAST.
Fasting, aside from being one of the procedures for detoxification and weight loss, is one of the oldest rituals of religious piety. Fasting in its most common meaning, and as an indispensable part of spiritual discipline, is abstinence from food for a given period of time. Food is a human basic necessity. Moreover, food is also God’s blessing. If food is God’s blessing why should we fast?
Fasting is a spiritual discipline of ABSTAINING from taking FOOD for the BODY with the purpose of making a person realizes that he needs to FEED his SPIRIT. During Lent, fasting has its full meaning and significance when understood and done as part of the process of repentance and self-renewal. Apart from these, fasting becomes an empty ritual. Fasting is to withhold from taking food so that the spirit of generosity can be evoked. Fasting, therefore, is not meant to make us get focused on OUR EMPTY STOMACH, which is caused DELIBERATELY, but to focus on the UNWANTED empty stomach of the POOR who were made hungry by poverty and deprivation. Fasting then is a spiritual exercise that should make us become OTHER-CENTERED than being too absorbed with ourselves. Fasting then is part of the Lord’s invitation for us to learn the art of self-emptying. Prophet Isaiah eloquently drives this point, “6Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? 7Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him? (Isaiah 58:6-7)” Jesus himself evocatively declares the same when talked about the Last Judgment, “35For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in, 36naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me” (Matthew 25:35-36).
Jesus and his disciples were not fasting because they were in the spirit of celebration. When he was asked why, Jesus used the imagery of a wedding wherein his disciples are the bridegroom’s guests. In the Gospel today, Jesus is foreshadowing the FEASTING that we will share with God in His Kingdom. When Jesus asked us to fast it was meant, for one, to make us REACH OUT to the NEEDY and so that in doing so a FEAST of FRIENDSHIP and COMMUNION will await us in heaven.
No comments:
Post a Comment