Then they will fast in those days

5 SEPTEMBER (Lk 5,33-39)

Jesus teaches a new doctrine with authority. He leads a life in accordance with the truth he teaches. The religious world in which he lives is incarcerated in a religiosity of many outward acts that take the breath away from the soul, the mind and the heart. There is no room in it for the motions of the heart. Everything is graded, sorted, described and prescribed. Everything is strictly imposed from above by an authority unable to distinguish the essential from the accidental, the true from the false, the useful from the useless, the necessary from the unpredictable, what is precious and what is vile, base and without value.

The mind free to just walk in the will of the Father one day would have necessarily crashed with the captive, oppressed mind, shackled in the multitude of obligations, duties that tradition dictated. This day is not long in coming. What is the true religion, that of Jesus or the other of the Pharisees and partly also of the disciples of John? A religion classified in every smallest detail cannot be declared vain, useless before that of Christ Jesus founded on obedience to the Word of the Father. It is urgent that this issue be resolved and they start right from the question of fasting. You do not fast. We fast. The disciples of John fast. The Pharisees and scribes fast. Why do not you fast? Whey do you place yourself out of our tradition? Why do you celebrate life in so different a way from ours?

It is clear that Jesus cannot answer directly. The hearts are not yet ready to accept this new teaching. When the mind of the other is not yet ready, rather than creating confusion in the consciences with obligations, decrees, new statutes, regulations of various kinds, it is necessary to have recourse to the supreme intelligence of the Holy Spirit. But what good is this supreme intelligence and divine wisdom? Certainly not to destroy that world in which people live, but to justify our new way, so that it is not seen as a desire of abolition of the old way. You must obtain the right of citizenship to ours without abolishing theirs. Then it will be our new way to assert itself slowly, because all of its beauty will be disclosed.

Unfortunately, too many of these errors are still being made. At any rate, the new in a world that is old of mind, heart, customs, traditions, habits, uses: some of which date back to the dawn of time; wants to be imposed. Instead it would be much wiser, much more intelligent to justify our new path and walk for a stretch of road together. Then the new will replace the old one. This methodology of Jesus must always be applied. It is a truly divine strategy, the result of the power of the Holy Spirit that always inspires and leads Jesus.

And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.” Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.” And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins. (And) no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.'”

Faith will always walk between old and new, between yesterday and today. It will always feel this strong tension on its inside. History knows modernists with no truth and traditionalists with outdated truths. It knows progressists without any faith and people who live a faith of yesterday, but nonetheless it is faith. Sure, it is not yet updated, but it is able to give hope of eternal life to those who practice it. This faith must not be destroyed. It must be purified, refreshed, improved and brought to the today of the Holy Spirit, but its structures cannot be destroyed instantly.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints give us the wisdom of the Spirit.