Mk emphasises the meaninglessness of fasting while the Bridegroom Jesus is still with his own and it is feast time!
When the Bridegroom is taken away then they will fast.
Moreover, one does not put new wine in old wineskins, says the Lord, otherwise one loses both.
Let us look in the Sources.
Although Francis was a creature who practised countless fasts, he knew well how and when it was appropriate to do so.
He was clear about fasting not as an end in itself but functional to the value of the person before God.
Not fidelity to the law per se, but to the Gospel.
In this context we can well understand the episodes offered by the Sources.
We read:
"Much had he laboured in the vineyard of the Lord, solicitous and fervent in prayers, fasts, vigils, preaching and gospel wanderings, in care and compassion for his neighbour, in contempt for himself: and this from the beginning of his conversion until the day he migrated to Christ.
He had loved Jesus with all his heart, constantly keeping his memory in mind, always praising him with his words and glorifying him with his fruitful works' (FF 1482).
Again:
"He showed great compassion for the sick and tender solicitude for their needs.
If at times the goodness of the seculars sent him some corroborant for his health, he gave it to the other sick, when he needed it most of all.
He made their sufferings his own and consoled them with words of compassion when he could not bring them relief.
She even ate on fasting days, so that the sick would not feel flushed, and she was not ashamed in the public places of the city to beg meat for a sick brother" (FF 761).
Clare made fasting the place for the manifestation of joy for the love of her Spouse, an exercise of great solicitude.
The Sources inform us:
"And while it usually happens that bitter physical mortification produces depression of spirit as a consequence, quite different was the effect that shone out in Clare: in all her mortifications she maintained a joyful and serene aspect, so that she seemed not to feel or laugh at the anxieties of the body.
From this we can clearly see that she overflowed outwardly with the holy joy with which her inner self abounded because the love of the heart took away all harshness from the scourges of the body" (FF 3196).
Francis and Clare bore witness to true fasting; what it means in daily life to live the Word 'new wine in new wineskins' (Mk 2:22).
Monday, 2nd wk. in O.T. (Mk 2:18-22)
