6 September 2013
Friday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees in today’s gospel is at once comforting and frightening. It is comforting because we see Him defending His disciples and what they are doing against naysayers. It is frightening because the reason He gives as our defense is something that will change: “can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come […] when the bridegroom is taken away from them.” The work we do now is not what God will ask of us later. The way we show our love and devotion to God will be altogether improper later. At present, we may have peace, but in the future, that will change.
This idea of constancy and change is one that we have seen throughout this week. Day after day, the gospels passages are circling around this central idea: who do you follow? When the battle is not going your way, where is your rally point? Jesus’ presentation of His disciples behavior has one constant: their focus on the presence of the Bridegroom. What they do may change, where the Bridegroom is and is asking them to be may change, but the disciples of Jesus keep their focus on the Bridegroom. All other things are secondary, and liable to change.