“RATHER, NEW WINE IS POURED INTO FRESH WINESKINS.” (Mk. 2:22) (DAILY BREAD FOR WK 2, MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 2015) Fasting! What has it got to do with wine? In this case, everything! In Jesus is realized the marriage between God and man. This is not an ordinary marriage. It is a new beginning. It is the New Creation that redeems the old. He is the New Skin containing the New Wine. The body of Jesus is filled with the New Wine of the Holy Spirit. Joined to him through baptism, our bodies are extensions of his body, and the New Wine of the Holy Spirit flows into us. This helps us to understand who we are as the New People of God, the Church. We are the Body of Christ in whom the Spirit lives. What has this to do with fasting? Jesus says that the guests do not fast when the bridegroom is around. When is he around? He is always around. But more concretely, he was around with the Disciples when he was physically on earth. Is that all? No! He is also really around in the Eucharist. During Mass, Christ is around with us the same way he was with the Disciples, but now sacramentally. There was no fasting then, there is no fasting now, during the Mass. We eat and drink him, the Bridegroom, because that is the consummation of the marriage between him and his bride, the Church. When then do we fast? As soon as we come out from the wedding hall, the Mass, we can now fast. We have now fed on the real food and can now fast from the appetizers. Unlike the Old Testament style, Christian fasting is not meant to be a punishment to the body. The body does not deserve punishment; it deserves glory because it is God’s house. What then is fasting supposed to do for the body? Three things: 1. Fasting tells the body that the food and drink it enjoys everyday are mere figures of the real food and drink we need, God himself, given to us through the Word and the Eucharist and on whom we also feed at prayer. 2. Fasting helps us to treat our body properly for what it is, God’s house. Our body is not for pleasure, especially immoral one. It is God’s temple, an extension of the Body of Christ, because of our baptism. It is holy and must be revered for the sake of the One living in it. 3. Fasting disposes the body for its proper purpose, sacrifice. Our body is meant to be offered up to God in sacrifice. As the extension of the Body of Christ it is to be given up for the salvation of the Church and the world (Col. 1:24). Just as the earthly body of Christ was swallowed up by death in order to release the New Life at Resurrection, the same way our earthly bodies must be swallowed up by suffering and death in order to blossom the New Life of Christ growing within us. This message is made clear to us at Mass in the Sacred Species of the Body and Blood of Christ. These two Species are not only the Risen Body of Christ but also his slain concrete body and blood ready to be buried in us and to rise in our lives. The Mass is Calvary made present to us. That is why our Mystery of Faith proclaims his Death and Resurrection until he comes again. Just as the slain Body and Blood of Christ, the Lamb, are swallowed up by the communicant at Mass in order to release in him the Spiritual Risen Body of Christ, so is our body meant to be swallowed up in God’s larger temple and altar, the world, through love and service in order to release the New Life hidden in us. To carry the body daily is a sacrifice, but it must be made a fruitful one by union with the Body of Christ, the Church.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 06:27:22 +0000
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