Friday after Ash Wednesday ‘b’

Mt 9:14-15

We are invited to fast, especially during Lent. Fasting is important, but at the same time it has a very specific purpose - it should help us free ourselves from unhealthy desires and also to practice our self-control. Fasting should help us gain spiritual strength and resist various temptations. If we simply fast because we want to lose some weight, or we do it because this is the tradition, then we lose that important spiritual reason of fasting. Today we read that the disciples of John approached Jesus and asked Him, “why do we and the Pharisees fast much,but your disciples do not fast?” The Pharisees were fasting often, but they missed the real reason of it. They fasted because they scrupulously followed their law. There was no real meaning of fasting for them. Jesus teaches us that there is time when we should fast. However, we must do it to gain spiritual strength, not for any other selfish reasons.