28 February 2020
Friday after Ash Wednesday
Why do we fast? With regards to the matter, St. Peter Chrysologus says, “If you want God to know that you are hungry, know that another is hungry.” One of the reasons that we fast is to unite ourselves with the suffering and hungry of the world.
The disciples of John cannot understand why Jesus’ disciples are not fasting. Christ’s response? “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” Jesus’ disciples have such a unique privilege of being with their Lord, God incarnate. They know not hunger, be it physical or spiritual. They are living a sumptuous wedding feast: heaven and earth wed through our Lord Jesus Christ.
But we know that in order for this wedding to be consummated, Christ must undergo the darkness and loneliness of the Cross. In his words, the bridegroom will be taken away. Yet even then, Christ provides. He does not enter the way of the Cross without first giving his disciples nourishment: his own body and blood in the Last Supper.
While we fast and unite ourselves to the hungry of the world, may we be strengthened by the truest of foods, the holy Eucharist.