Navarre Bible Commentary:Monday, 2nd Week in Ordinary Time

Mark 2:18–22

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; if he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but new wine is for fresh skins.”     

Catholic Exegesis:

The Second Vatican Council teaches  that if we are to derive the true meaning from the sacred texts,  attention must be devoted “not only to their content but to the unity of the whole of Scripture, the living tradition of the entire Church, and the analogy of faith. […] Everything to do with the interpretation of Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgment of the Church, which exercises the divinely conferred communion and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God” (Dei Verbum, 12).

St. John Paul II, when he promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church,  explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium."  He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum).

Cited in the Catechism:

Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism, paragraph 796.

Commentary:

A discussion on fasting

2:18–22. Using a particular case, Christ’s reply tells us about the connexion between the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament the bridegroom has not yet arrived; in the New Testament he is present, in the person of Christ. With him began the messianic times, a new era distinct from the previous one. The Jewish fasts, therefore, together with their system of religious observances, must be seen as a way of preparing the people for the coming of the Messiah. Christ shows the difference between the spirit he has brought and that of the Judaism of his time. This new spirit will not be something extra, added on to the old; it will bring to life the perennial teachings contained in the older Revelation. The newness of the Gospel—just like new wine—cannot fit within the moulds of the Old Law.

But this passage says more: to receive Christ’s new teaching people must inwardly renew themselves and throw off the strait-jacket of old routines. Cf. the note on Mt 9:14–17.

2:19–20. Jesus describes himself as the bridegroom (cf. also Lk 12:35–36; Mt 25:1–13; Jn 3:29), thereby fulfilling what the prophets had said about the relationship between God and his people (cf. Hos 2:18–22; Is 54:5ff). The apostles are the guests at the wedding, invited to share in the wedding feast with the bridegroom, in the joy of the Kingdom of heaven (cf. Mt 22:1–14).

In v. 20 Jesus announces that the bridegroom will be taken away from them: this is the first reference he makes to his passion and death (cf. Mk 8:31; Jn 2:19; 3:14). The vision of joy and sorrow we see here epitomizes our human condition during our sojourn on earth.

Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome  

Navarre Bible Commentary:Friday, 22nd Week in Ordinary Time

Via Terrace Palms

Luke 5:33–39

33 And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” 36 He told them a parable also: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it upon an old garment; if he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new; for he says, ‘The old is good.’”

Catholic Exegesis:

The Second Vatican Council teaches  that if we are to derive the true meaning from the sacred texts,  attention must be devoted “not only to their content but to the unity of the whole of Scripture, the living tradition of the entire Church, and the analogy of faith. […] Everything to do with the interpretation of Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgment of the Church, which exercises the divinely conferred communion and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God” (Dei Verbum, 12).

St. John Paul II, when he promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church,  explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium."  He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum).

Cited in the Catechism:

Passages from this Gospel reading are not cited in the Catechism.

Commentary:

A discussion on fasting

5:33–35. In the Old Testament God established certain days as days of fasting—the main one being the “day of atonement” (Num 29:7; Acts 27:9). Fasting implied total or partial abstinence from food or drink. Moses and Elijah fasted (Ex 34:28; 1 Kings 19:8) and our Lord himself fasted in the desert for forty days before beginning his public ministry. In the present passage Jesus gives a deeper meaning to the word “fasting”—the deprivation of his physical presence which his apostles would experience after his death. All through his public life Jesus is trying to prepare his disciples for the final parting. At first the apostles were not very robust and Christ’s physical presence did them more good than the practice of fasting.

Christians should sometimes abstain from food. “Fast and abstain from flesh meat when Holy Mother Church so ordains” (St Pius X, Catechism, 495). That is the purpose of the fourth commandment of the Church, but it has a deeper meaning, as St Leo the Great tells us: “The merit of our fasts does not consist only in abstinence from food; there is no use in depriving the body of nourishment if the soul does not cut itself off from iniquity and if the tongue does not cease to speak evil” (Sermo IV in Quadragesima).

Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome  

Navarre Bible Commentary:Monday, 2nd Week of Ordinary Time

Wine Skin by Nelly Bube

Mark 2:18-22

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)

The Question about Fasting

18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; if he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but new wine is for fresh skins.”[a]

Footnotes:

1. Mark 2:22 Other ancient authorities omit but new wine is for fresh skins

[Notes from Bible Gateway]

Cited in the Catechism:  In promulgating the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Blessed John Paul II explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium."  He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum). Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism, paragraph 796.

Commentary

A discussion on fasting

2:18–22. Using a particular case, Christ’s reply tells us about the connexion between the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament the bridegroom has not yet arrived; in the New Testament he is present, in the person of Christ. With him began the messianic times, a new era distinct from the previous one. The Jewish fasts, therefore, together with their system of religious observances, must be seen as a way of preparing the people for the coming of the Messiah. Christ shows the difference between the spirit he has brought and that of the Judaism of his time. This new spirit will not be something extra, added on to the old; it will bring to life the perennial teachings contained in the older Revelation. The newness of the Gospel—just like new wine—cannot fit within the moulds of the Old Law.

But this passage says more: to receive Christ’s new teaching people must inwardly renew themselves and throw off the strait-jacket of old routines.

Cf. the note on Mt 9:14–17.

[This passage is interesting, not so much because it tells us about the sort of fasting practised by the Jews of the time—particularly the Pharisees and John the Baptist’s disciples—but because of the reason Jesus gives for not requiring his disciples to fast in that way. His reply is both instructive and prophetic. Christianity is not a mere mending or adjusting of the old suit of Judaism. The redemption wrought by Jesus involves a total regeneration. Its spirit is too new and too vital to be suited to old forms of penance, which will no longer apply.

We know that in our Lord’s time Jewish theology schools were in the grip of a highly complicated casuistry to do with fasting, purifications etc, which smothered the simplicity of genuine piety. Jesus’ words point to that simplicity of heart with which his disciples might practise prayer, fasting and almsgiving (cf. Mt 6:1–18 and notes to same). From apostolic times onwards it is for the Church, using the authority given it by our Lord, to set out the different forms fasting should take in different periods and situations.]

2:19–20. Jesus describes himself as the bridegroom (cf. also Lk 12:35–36; Mt 25:1–13; Jn 3:29), thereby fulfilling what the prophets had said about the relationship between God and his people (cf. Hos 2:18–22; Is 54:5ff). The apostles are the guests at the wedding, invited to share in the wedding feast with the bridegroom, in the joy of the Kingdom of heaven (cf. Mt 22:1–14).

In v. 20 Jesus announces that the bridegroom will be taken away from them: this is the first reference he makes to his passion and death (cf. Mk 8:31; Jn 2:19; 3:14). The vision of joy and sorrow we see here epitomizes our human condition during our sojourn on earth.

Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome