FRIDAY 19th FEBRUARY 2021
Matthew 9, 14-15:
“Can the wedding guests mourn while the bridegroom is with them?”.
Jesus does not want a merely ritualistic fast. He does not want a sad fast or a fast for the sake of fasting. He does not want a fast that can even puff up our religious ego.
The fast that Jesus wants is the fast that benefits others and that brings me closer to the Father.
It may be all very well to deprive ourselves of food. But that deprivation must be in order to be more in solidarity with our brothers and sisters and to draw closer to them.
It is more difficult, but also more effective, to fast from attitudes and situations that block or make it impossible for us to relate to others and to relate to God: envy, intolerance, selfish hoarding, misunderstandings, resentment and so many other things that distance us from our brothers and sisters and from the Father.
May your deprivation of food this Lent be the sign and reminder that you are fasting from other things as well.
Good day.
Antonio Sanjuán Marín, cmf
