Friday in the Twenty-Second Week of Ordinary Time

There’s a time for fasting and a time for feasting. I’ve done both but I like feasting better! Jesus said, “When the bridegroom is taken away, then they will fast.” And St. Benedict writes that at all times our lives should have the character of a Lenten observance. Now that Jesus has left us by his Ascension are we to put on gloomy faces and throw out the beer and pizza?

Jesus also said, “Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?”  Yes, Jesus ascended into heaven but he is still with us in the Eucharist. He is even closer to us now everywhere on earth in the sacramental life of the Church than he was with his apostles in the towns and villages of Palestine. Since we have Jesus so close to us it is a reason to rejoice. Bring back the cake and ice cream!

How can we resolve this tension between fasting and feasting, of cries for mercy and shouts of alleluia, of penitential asceticism and lives of jubilant grace?

In St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, he writes that we have been saved (Rom 8:24), but in another place he writes that we will be saved (Rom 5:9-10). We are already saved because we have been baptized, we have passed from sin to grace. But we still need to be saved because we have not yet passed from grace to glory (Rom 5:21). Grace is still struggling with sin in our lives.

Fasting and feasting are not contradictory, but complimentary, like needing two legs and feet to be able to walk. We need both fasting and feasting to run in the way of life.