Thứ Hai 18-1

Bài đọc
1 Samuel 15:16-23
TV 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21, 23
Maccô 2:18-22

St. Thomas Aquinas, in considering the sin of drunkenness, writes that it would be a sin to abstain from wine in a way that grieved nature grievously. Or, to put it another way, there's a time and place for everything. One does not go to a wedding feast to fast, and one who offended host and guests by refusing to participate in the festivities, even if he thought he was making a sacrifice for God, would in fact be acting badly.

So what Jesus says in today's Gospel is rather commonsense: "Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast." But this is more than a good life lesson. For Jesus himself is the bridegroom. It is he who provides the feast. And the bridegroom wants his guests to share abundantly in the feast. He is happy to see his guests enjoying what he has placed before them. And the wedding banquet that Jesus gives is the Eucharist, the food and drink that he places before us his own body and blood. While there are good and serious reasons that we might have to abstain from the Eucharist on some occasions, Jesus wants us to enjoy and profit much from this rich feast he invites us to eat from every day. Such a generous invitation, in fact, carries with it something of an obligation: to refuse would be to offend the one making such a generous offer. "Do this in memory of me," is Jesus' command and his sincere desire as the bridegroom who wants to treat his wedding guests well. Let us honor Jesus by accepting.

By Fr. Matthew Monnig, S.J.