(Lk 5:33-39)

The old customs cannot always be combined with the Newness brought by the Lord; indeed, it is not infrequently necessary to know how to separate things.

Lk confronts the opinion of the few messianics in his communities, who wanted to take the Master's proposal back to the common Jewish roots from which they themselves came.

While appreciating the ancient custom, rich in attractive and even enchanting forms, he rather comforts his church members from paganism.

With his catechesis, the evangelist wants to prevent that in the small fraternities then in their infancy, the return of the seduction emanating from the old religious certainties could prevail over the full manifestation of the power of life inaugurated - in the authentic call of God.

Fasting has travelled through all religious and mystical traditions, because it is intended to bring women and men closer to their own profound essence - to listening to themselves, to the codes of the sacred, to the inner cosmos, to their own vocation, to the sacred pages - in the expectation of transformation.

One entrusts oneself to a different wisdom - less noisy - that can activate processes of metamorphosis, precisely by making a void from the intrusions of homologated thought, from external habits or conformisms that tend to overwhelm the personality.

By detaching, the torments will vanish, replaced by other interests and lucid dreams; aroused by the new breakthrough to our eternal side, and by that reliance on the core of being that is still creating us.

Psycho-physical and supernatural unity is a prodigious organism, which can clear away the fog and enhance its capacities with various forms of suspension and cleansing, even mental cleansing - which will take us where we need to go.

But in the specifics of the children of God, all this is aimed at sharpening the gaze in the sense of knowledge, discovery, surprise of unsuspected singular and missionary capacities and qualities. Those that flow from the discovery of the eminent Self, from one's own founding Relationship - to become uniqueness of exceptional relationship with others, in the Exodus that corresponds to us.

Fasting is a principle of regeneration that has a unique healing power, both detoxifying and essential. It activates the energies of one's humanity and at the same time one's diversity.

This silent practice addresses the deep layers, the inner dimension, which become the guide (and we risk ignoring).

But here, understanding dissimilarities remains indispensable. For us, it is a gesture of openness!

Other kinds of diets or athleticism are not infrequently deviant: their very nonsense brings sadness and even depression.

Fasting remains a sign of waiting for the fulfilment, but now the sadness is meaningless.

In the time of the Church that makes the Risen One present, the renunciation of gorging is not a form of penitence but of hope (v.35).

And it serves to keep the heart of the Bridegroom's friends clear of vanities, with a form of identification with the poor.

But Jesus does not come to make himself a group of followers sitting on the chair of austerity, but to communicate that the relationship with God is a feast!

In short, fasting pleasing to the Father lies in the lucid experience of one's own unique eccentricity and calling, in freeing oneself from the selfishness of grabbing for oneself, and bringing relief to one's neighbour.

It creates life, not diminishes it.

Fasting was a sign of deep religiosity, so Jesus' disciples - who did not fast, indeed their lives had a festive character - were likened more or less to sinners.

Although there were no formal prescriptions, these were pious practices that became customary in observant circles (here seriousness was everything) linked to precisely marked days.

In Semitic beliefs, fasting was in particular expressive of the devout man's embarrassment and affliction in the quivering expectation of the messianic times, which were delayed.

This is why Jesus associates fasting with mourning - which no longer has any meaning in life as the wedding feast without qualms that He inaugurates.

Where precisely there is no need for additions, no need for checks or imprints, marks or distinguishing characteristics.

Nor is the New Covenant a modernisation of moral practices or pious prescriptions that provide an external religious pass.

Everything is in relation to the real presence of the Bridegroom, who does not punish life.

Of course, he who proceeds on the path of emancipation and is not satisfied with a partial Jesus the Bridegroom, already knows in himself what awaits him...

Then (v.35) in the strident confrontation with the religious leaders - clinging to prestige - there is sadness and humiliation to no end. So much for fasting from food.

However, those who have decided to continue on their path of vocational freedom know that they must relive the same events of blatant conflict that pitted the Master against the mentality and authorities of his time; and finally, in such a real encounter with Him, experience the total gift of life (v.35).It will only be the Christ-in-us (even if it is centred and not definitive) that will nourish soul and body in an uninterrupted and growing way.

This with the commitment to start again in the mission of finding ourselves and giving breath to the world.

In an atmosphere of quiet austerity; without artificial brakes.

In the communities of pagan extraction addressed by Luke, there was a strong desire to free the Risen One from fetters (disciplinary fixations, timetables, calendar).

The believers perceived Him to be alive - an accomplice to the new humanising character they were experiencing day by day.

The evangelist wants to orient his assemblies in the Ephesus area [perhaps in the mid-1980s] not to cling to false securities.

They had to take a completely alternative position and not end up like the groups around them, of sectarian extraction.

But even the Judaizers were trying to reduce pure Faith - foundation and enthusiastic participation - to rigid beliefs and any number of practices.

Vicious circles that ended up transmitting old feelings of guilt instead of unusual relational insights.

Indeed, most Jewish converts tended towards nostalgias that were a hindrance and hindrance.

It was precisely such veterans who struggled to embrace the new habitus of freedom, and the full froth of the Gospel, in an enthusiastic manner.

Even today, the Lord's Proposal stands apart from all exclusivist doctrines, full of prescriptions and fulfilments.

His Presence shines through in spirit. And his intimates do not pretend to prepare the Kingdom, but welcome it and listen (with trust in life).

This is what is happening in the time of the pandemic, which is disposing to a less outward, more global fast - considerable but wise.

A fast that can lead humanity to sensitive perception, to a sense of communion, to silence and embrace; to less egocentric and dirigiste impetus. To a deepening - and wholeness.

The Tao Tê Ching (v) writes: "The space between Heaven and Earth, how it resembles a bellows!".

Master Wang Pi comments: 'If the bellows had a will of its own in blowing, it could not implement the intent of the one who makes it blow'.

And Master Ho-shang Kung adds: "Many endeavours harm the spirit".

In short, Christ treasures natural wisdom and does not reduce us to the measure of just any religion: he does not confine believers in "negotiations" through petty procedures of athleticism and individual perfection.

He does not insist on heroic mortifications, extraordinary renunciations, punctilious observance of sterile - one-sided - laws, unless they are designed in order to find each other, to humanise, to share goods.

The Call of the Gospels remains at once balanced, concrete and strongly prophetic.

A call that arouses attention to people, to reality, to our joy - far more than unsolicited (stoic) aseptic polishing standards or other patches (v.36).

By neither overwhelming nor imposing artificial burdens on believers, the life of Faith brings self-determination into play.

Thus it makes it known to us - so that we become aware of it and take it on in order to be able to invest it as Grace, charge (not diminish): a resource of newness.

The ascetical mechanisms of individualist refinement are alien from the outset: the goal is to create family, not to carve out a circle of hard and pure (all external and proud of themselves) who distance themselves from weaker brothers and sisters.

Then, self-satisfied, they become disloyal, usurpers, schemers: a history of flaws, equivocal plots and pastoral delays, behind an impeccable façade of cerebral doctrines, disciplines (in their own way) and resounding commemorations over the body of the 'poor departed'.

This is why the Church has almost completely abolished the precept of outward fasting, while it intends to make a greater commitment to forms of restraint in favour of the sick, marginalised, humble and needy.

The choice wants to remain clear: freedom is priceless.

And there is no love if someone (be it even God) cuts or overpowers the other, imposing artificial yokes, too much the same as always; unbearable, freakish, unhealthy.

So the old containers are no longer to be matched with the new ferment. The practice of patching damages both custom and the Newness of God.

Certainly, old wine and cassocks have a fascinating attraction for the senses and the vintage epidermal imagination...

That is why they continue to appeal [v.39: "The old is excellent!"]. Not a few want to combine him with the Lord (Mk 2:22; Mt 9:17; Lk 5:37-38).

The Master was not per se an opponent of the spirit of the old man, but he fought against its rinds, which in fact prevented the manifestation of an unseen Face of God, of a more genuine idea of a successful man - the germ of an alternative, fraternal society.

Realities well separated from the intimist or self-referential ones typical of official or do-it-yourself cults. All innovations that had to manifest themselves.The taste and aftertaste of old wine cloak devotional rites and seasoned customs with artfulness, affectation and evocative charm, but they plant us there and do not scratch life; they remind us, but they do not memorialise - that is, they do not re-actualise for us.

In the practice of the many provincial cults, in its catechetical endeavours without pastoral nerve, we have noticed for decades a mechanical pre-conciliar regurgitation, which stops at the great icons.

Wonders and memories of Salvation History... that's it. It seemed easier to local leaders to go back to customs and abbreviated catechisms than to face the educational risk (which the Magisterium itself would impose).

The immediate result was deemed palatable and profitable, for the (underneath) fundamentalist and astute sector - willingly supplanting the unknown effervescence of the new wine.

In fact, on the part of those who know 'how to be in the world', one still has to suffer a whole superficiality of retreats and habitual accommodations, which redeem no one and bring no joy, because they do not enter into human affairs.

Settling for the fish menu on Fridays. Genuine superfluity.

But those who stop at the past of mortifications and papier-mâché can never understand the Reformation that the Spirit proposes to edify each soul in the (authentic) fulfilment that holds us better to one another.

Thus the old containers are no longer to be coupled with the new ferment.

The practice of patching can on the one hand damage the customs, because they have their own refined and pronounced taste (pertinent in itself) - on the other hand it distracts and attenuates life in the change, in the Newness of God.

In short, the Lord does not intend for us a practice of mending and enclosing boundaries: rather, He wants to break cages.

To internalise and live the message:

Do you fast? From what? And for what purpose? Does it break the cages? Is it or is it not in order to know each other, find each other, and listen, heal, share, embrace, hold each other better?

What inner conflicts do you experience around religious practices that you feel still bring suffering to people and are not a spousal expression or a reason for emancipation for women and men?

What image of God and believing humanity is subject to preconceptions and prohibitions? How do you demonstrate the primacy of Jesus in every area of life?