GOD'S NEW WAYS
This old form of
religion had to go and needed to be replaced with the worship of God that comes
from the heart.
Weddings are
wonderful occasions because, at their best, they embody joy and delight. They
point to the lavish giver and the goodness and love of our heavenly Father. The
prophets of old used the examples of grooms and brides as they talked about the
relationship between God and His People. "...as a bridegroom rejoices in
his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you" (Is 62:5b), Isaiah says, as
he looks to the day when God would renew the Covenant with His People. The
people who heard Jesus Christ speak of the presence of the bridegroom would
have remembered Isaiah and the other prophets. They would have understood Who
Jesus was. He is the promised Bridegroom, the One Who will renew God's Covenant
with His People.
In today's Gospel
of Mark, Jesus spoke out against a form of fasting that had become nothing more
than an external act devoid of any real devotion to God. Jesus insisted that
this old form of religion had to go and needed to be replaced with the worship
of God that comes from the heart. This is confirmed later in the Gospel when
Jesus said, "No one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine
will burst the skins... Rather, new wine is poured into fresh
wineskins"
In the Gospel
Acclamation we pray, "The Word of God is living and effective, able to
discern reflections and thoughts of the heart" (Heb 4:12). God's new ways
are as incompatible with the old as the new cloth is to the old. Past failures
and old habits are replaced with new life in Jesus Christ Who restores us!
"Can you make
the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them"?