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

FRIDAY 28 FEBRUARY (Mt 9,14-15)

The Bridegroom who will be taken away is Christ Jesus. Thus John speaks to his disciples: “Now a dispute arose between the disciples of John and a Jew about ceremonial washings. So they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing and everyone is coming to him.” John answered and said, “No one can receive anything except what has been given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said (that) I am not the Messiah, but that I was sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease” (Jn 3,25-30). Bringing every soul to Christ Jesus is our true apostolate and our true mission. The pastoral care is useless if it does not prepare brides worthy of Christ the Lord. This is why it is urgent to abandon all immanence of sin and bring everything back into transcendence.

Saint Paul reveals what Christ Jesus did for his bride: “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body. As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So (also) husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “For this reason a man shall leave (his) father and (his) mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church. In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband” (Eph 5,21-33). If Christ washed me in his blood, I must give my blood to him, which is blood of his body, so that he can wash every other man. This is the fast that Jesus asks his disciples: depriving themselves not of food, but of their whole life to make it a gift to Him. He needs it to redeem, save and purify the souls all called to become his mystical spouses, chaste, faithful brides, who offer life to him for the salvation of the world.

With the brides that remain faithful to their gift of love, that is, to the gift of their body sanctified by virtues, Jesus will celebrate the eternal wedding in the Heavenly Jerusalem: “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let the hearer say, “Come.” Let the one who thirsts come forward, and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water. I warn everyone who hears the prophetic words in this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words in this prophetic book, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city described in this book. The one who gives this testimony says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all (Cf. Rev 22,1-21). Here is the true meaning of Christian fasting: depriving oneself of his life to make a gift of it to Christ.

Then the disciples of John approached him 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.

If the Christian wants to give his body to Christ for the redemption of his brothers, he must be entirely governed by every virtue. For this reason he will also have to deprive himself, free himself of every vice, every sin and every transgression of the Word of the Lord. This abstention from evil must be daily. He must not fast for forty days, but for all the days of his life. If he is faithful to this fast, the gift is perfect.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, help us to free ourselves from evil to be a gift for Christ.