"When
asked why his disciples do not fast, the Lord Jesus responds, "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." (Mt 9:15) The days will come, and are now finally here! Lent
begins. Throughout the liturgical year we are afforded the benefit of
experiencing the entire life of Christ our Bridegroom. Our Lenten
journey is thus a sacramental entrance into the mystery of the Lord's
suffering and death. We must enter into the sorrow, bitterness, pain and
loss of the Lord's death; for there can be no Easter Sunday without
Good Friday. As we journey into this reality, we too suffer as our
beloved, our divine spouse, our everything and all, is being taken away
from us. We find ourselves again abandoned and afraid.
[...]
The
fast is our preparation for the feast. It is an interior preparation, a
circumcision of the heart, through which we take up our cross and walk
daily with our Beloved. He endured what he did to heal us of our sins.
No doubt then, when we fast we share his cross so as to be purified and
healed of any lesser loves that get in the way of our one true Love. We
literally become emptied so as to be filled with the new wine of divine grace. The
Bridegroom is being taken away, but he will return. Then, we will share
in the victory feast, the nuptial feast, when our Beloved has conquered
all threats and divisions, and brought us to the newness of life!"
