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8th Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)Jesus calls to a new mentality 1. Opening prayer 2. The text
3. Reading A look at the context will give us a better understanding of the reading of our passage. We are still at the beginning of the public mission of Jesus, in Galilee: he is already giving expression to his teaching, summarised in 1:15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel”, and, after he calls the first disciples, his work is characterized by a series of healings. This characteristic is the work of the Messiah that Jesus carries out. When he calls Levi (2:14) we have a development: another disciple called and another healing, but this time with a difference: through Levi, a sinner, Jesus opens the way to a new type of sick to be healed, the “publicans and sinners”, and he sits at table with them. The connection with the preceding healing activities of Jesus is made by himself: “It is not the healthy that need the doctor, but the sick...” (2:17). Now there is a more serious sickness: sin, injustice, the break in fraternity. Jesus came to heal all these. It is here that we see the first sign of a break with the Jewish establishment, represented by the Scribes who belong to the pharisaic school, a school open and dynamic, yet, as the etymology of the name implies, tending to be “separate” from the rest of the people. Our text comes after this affirmation of Jesus, and then follow other episodes that show an increasing antagonism, this time because of the plucked corn and another healing, both carried out on a Sabbath. At the end of this brief narrative, there already appears the intention of the Pharisees and the Herodians to kill Jesus (3,6). The description in our passage is rather scarce: we are not given any background that indicates place or other circumstances. The whole emphasis is on persons and their words. “John’s disciples and the Pharisees”: these are the subject at the beginning of the episode. It is interesting to note the heterogeneity of these two groups: the first, more spontaneous and less organised, a sign of the endurance of the Baptist’s work, less tied to classical places of Judaism; the second, more refined and historically victorious, capable of surviving in those difficult times, standing out from other groups because of its adhesion to the Law both as codified in the sacred text and as interpretative tradition. Both ask a question of the disciples about the works of Jesus, a question that contains a not too subtle reprimand. When they speak to Jesus directly they seem to distance themselves from themselves, trying to seem less involved in their intervention. There is also a difference from what was said before: “the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees”: is this an oversight of the Evangelist, a polemic point (the Pharisees would proclaim the fast and then place the burden on their disciples) or is it something else? In fact, this has the mark of a “low-key” meeting; it is not John the Baptist nor is it the Pharisees who are putting the question to Jesus, it is their disciples. A disciple is someone who holds on to the doctrine of the master in an enthusiastic manner, but who does not have the experience of knowing how to apply it with discernment. And yet Jesus does not spurn the meeting with these young and Pharisaic “trainees”. Indeed, the questioning of the way of acting of the disciples calls into doubt the master, but Jesus does not withdraw. Jesus’ reply is like a brief discourse made up of four elements: In Jesus’ rhetorical question and answer we find two elements from the nuptial lexicon repeated several times: the wedding guests (literally the children of the nuptial hall), the bridegroom. The prophetic proclamation is introduced in a classical manner: “The time will come...”; the word of Jesus, and so the reply given to those who asked the question, invites people not to remain on the level of the present; such a proclamation clearly goes beyond the present episode. Also it is isolated from what follows immediately. The proverb (the mashal, in Hebrew) refers back to the rhetorical question asked by Jesus and here we have a reference to daily domestic life that stresses human labour (the verbs to sew, to pour) in relation to a dimension of subsistence such as wearing clothes and drinking. We find elements in pairs: unshrunken cloth (or new) – old cloak, new wine – old wineskins. Everything seems to be on the verge of failure through human action: the sewing provokes the tear, the imprudent pouring provokes the bursting and loss. It is after the second pair of elements that the parable becomes explicitly positive and full of hope: “new wine in new wineskins”. The text ends thus, without giving an answer to those who put the question to Jesus; this gives greater emphasis to the authority of his words. 4. Meditation We must first ask ourselves what was the function of fasting in Hebrew religious sensitivity in Jesus’ times. Together with the two other classical aspects of prayer and almsgiving, fasting was one of the distinctive traits of Judaism, a fundamental point for the preservation of their identity, especially in a land of mixed beliefs such as Galilee and the Gentiles. Throughout the Old Testament we come across the practice of fasting, from Exodus to the Prophets, as well as in the New Testament as we read in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 13:2-3; 14:23). Fasting is presented as a practice of mortification and penance (Sir 34:26; Gl 2:12), as an expression of mourning (Est 4:3), of detachment, of humiliation, of pleading (Dn 9:3), but also as a preparation for the coming (Lv 23:14): it is a reminder that one is not self-sufficient, that one depends on God as a people (community fastings) and as an individual. For Israel, fasting is what defines roles: the person recognises that it is poor and in need and accepts God in his truth as merciful. and thus can become fully aware of the riches of God’s gifts. Together with prayer and almsgiving, fasting becomes an aid to the listening to the word, an aid to memory of the events of salvation (where often it is God who gave nourishment), a recovery of trust in a just and merciful God and an opening to solidarity. But like all human practices, fasting can be ambiguous: the episode in 1Kings 21 shows us how fasting is used to plot a deception and results in the killing of an innocent person. This is the reason for the denunciations of the prophets who saw that people tended towards a practice often unrelated to its deep meaning. Such is the text of Is 58:1-12: “Look, you seek your own pleasure on your fast days and you exploit all your workmen… to quarrel and squabble… Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me: to break unjust fetters… sharing your food with the hungry, and sheltering the homeless poor; if you see someone lacking clothes, to clothe him…?”. Jesus himself begins his mission by fasting for forty days (Lk 4:2) as a penitential gesture and to entrust to the Father his struggle against the Evil One. In line with the prophets he suggests that this practice be purified from the hypocrisy of appearances (Mt 6:16-18). Jesus does not diminish the importance of fasting: his words take for granted the intrinsic value of fasting. But they invite us to recognise one further point that has escaped the notice of these postulants: the newness, the originality, the extraordinariness that his disciples are living. Without neglecting the restraint of his gradual revelation, Jesus speaks of the logical impossibility of doing penance, mourning, waiting while the bridegroom is with them. There is an unedited present when customs and practices, even those of the inspired and inspiring texts, take second place. This is the source of the nuptial metaphor, which does not seem to limit itself to the rhetorical question and the unforthcoming answer. Even in the proverb-parable in 2:21-22, in the image of the cloak and the wine, we may read a reference to nuptials: the nuptial clothes and the wine for the feast. Jesus’ disciples would then be the invited guests at the nuptial feast, the witnesses of that which is about to happen, but they would also have an active role in these events. Jesus is the bridegroom who will be taken away from them when he dies on the cross. He foretells the end of his life as well as a new attitude in his disciples, referred to in the humiliation, mourning and waiting. In this it is possible for us to read a reference to the waiting at the dawn of Easter as well as the waiting for the definitive return of Jesus Christ, the time of the Church as a time of penance, fasting and proclamation. Jesus, the eschatological prophet, invites us to look at the future, with all its implications, with the certainty of the eyes of God who has established his plan. The anticipation of Easter is thus presented delicately, authoritatively and far-sightedly. Jesus’ mashal suggests, through ordinary common sense, the necessity for a change in mentality as a practical application of the invitation to conversion; this is possible because the kingdom of God has come in the person of Jesus. The theme of newness is present in the teaching of Jesus as seen by the authors of the New Testament (Mk 1:27; Mt 19:28; 2Cor 5:17; Ef 2:15). Thus we see taking shape the drama of antagonism against Jesus on the part of the religious elite of his time. It is paradoxical that here the topic is precisely fasting, that is, humility, listening, creating space. The disciples of John and of the Pharisees, while observing their fasts, have a heavy heart and mind so that they cannot accept the newness of God that is confronting their lives. Their incomprehension leads them to judge and thus to a closed and prejudiced mind. It is interesting to compare this episode in Mark, Matthew and Luke so as to see some aspects of the living environment of the communities for whom they were writing their Gospels. In Mark we hear the echo of coexistence, not without tensions yet fruitful, between the Christians of Jewish origin and those coming from paganism. All, without exception, must enter their journey of conversion towards Christ and all are called to the double attitude of joy and watchfulness. 5. Some reflections From this passage we may take an awareness that may help us in our prayer: 6. Contemplation A reading of reality: from judgement to mercy. 7. Closing prayer Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for the gift of your presence, for your gentleness as Bridegroom as you bend over our miseries, over our formalisms, to help us understand that only the love that you showed us by your example is acceptable to your Father. Praise be to you, Lord, because anyone who trusts in you will experience the certainty of your grace and the uncertainty that makes us humble yet sufficient unto ourselves. Grant that in listening to your Word we may learn to concern ourselves with your Kingdom and enjoy even now what you have prepared for us. Help us to become brothers and sisters and to proclaim to all that your are the Saviour, the Bridegroom of humanity called to enter into the feast of your life with the Father and the Spirit. Who live and reign forever and ever. Amen. |
18 John's disciples and the Pharisees were keeping a fast, when some people came to him and said to him, 'Why is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?' 19 Jesus replied, 'Surely the bridegroom's attendants cannot fast while the bridegroom is still with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then, on that day, they will fast. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. 22 And nobody puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins too. No! New wine into fresh skins!'
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