Matthew 9:14-17

Genesis 27:1-5, 15-29

Psalm 235:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6

Matthew 9:14-17

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said,

“Why do we and the Pharisees fast much,

but your disciples do not fast?”

Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn

as long as the bridegroom is with them?

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,

and then they will fast.

No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth,

for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.

People do not put new wine into old wineskins.

Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined.

Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, you have united me and espoused me to yourself through your Son and the gift of your Spirit. I am yours, and you are my God. Speak tenderly to me and guide me by the hand to your eternal embrace.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Fasting in the New Covenant: The question about fasting comes from the disciples of John the Baptist. John emphasized detachment from the things of this world and from sin. He fasted, didn’t drink alcohol, and lived an austere life in the wilderness. John was not the divine bridegroom. He was the bridegroom’s “best man.” He prepared the bride to meet her husband. Jesus is the bridegroom, and while he is with us, we should feast and rejoice. However, Jesus has also been taken away from us at the crucifixion. And so, in the time of the New Covenant, established at the Last Supper and on the Cross, there is both a cause for fasting and for feasting. We fast during Lent and are encouraged to make a sacrifice at meals, especially on Fridays, throughout the year (see Code of Canon Law, can. 1251). Fasting from good things helps us strengthen our will so that it can withstand the temptation to sin and vice.

2. Jacob and Esau: Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, gave birth to twins, Esau and Jacob. Their fraternal rivalry began at birth. Esau was the firstborn, but Jacob came out of the womb holding on to Esau’s foot, “a sign of things to come since ‘to grasp the heel,’ from which Jacob receives his name, is a Hebrew idiom that can mean ‘to deceive’ or ‘supplant.’ As the brothers grow up, Isaac favors Esau while Rebekah loves Jacob best. When Isaac is old and close to death, he calls his firstborn son, Esau, to him and tells him to hunt game and make a meal, after which Isaac will pass on to Esau the blessing” (Gray and Cavins, Walking with God, 52). 

3. Jacob’s Desire for the Blessing of the Covenant: God had already indicated at their birth that Jacob would receive the blessing (Genesis 25:23). And the reader of the story of Jacob in Genesis knows that Esau had already sold the blessing of the firstborn son for a bowl of lentils (Genesis 25:29-34). The latter story shows that Esau was somewhat indifferent to the blessing. Esau, while not wholly bad, is indifferent to his covenant status as the firstborn and preferred the earthly good of a meal to the spiritual blessing won from him by his younger brother. Jacob, by contrast, is notable for his desire to be heir of the covenant. He greatly desires God’s blessing. “Although the sacred author does not with the people of God to emulate everything about Jacob …, his passionate desire to claim the covenant and receive the blessing are held up as models for the national character [of Israel]” (Bergsma and Pitre, A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament, 145).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you are my bridegroom. You have given me the gift of new wineskins – the New Covenant – and filled them with the new wine of salvation. Help me to appreciate each day these gifts that you have given to your Bride, the Church. Wash me clean in the water of the Spirit and in your Blood.

Living the Word of God: Do I struggle to see Jesus as my bridegroom? What good qualities should characterize my nuptial relationship with God? How can I be a better bride?