DAILY HOMILIES #fasting

New wine is good. Old wine is also good. The problem is using old wineskins to store new wine or vice versa. This parable points to the importance of timing. Your plans may be perfect, but if it isn’t the right time, you will pour new wine into an old wineskin. For instance, Amos’ prophecy of a time of restoration for Israel came hundreds of years later in Jesus Christ. That was the right time, neither earlier nor later.

Elijah told Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said: “I pray you, let me inherit a double share of your spirit.” (2 Kings 2:9). Elisha, like Solomon, was given a blank cheque to ask for anything. He could have asked for riches, long life or the death of his enemies, but he asked for a double share of Elijah’s spirit. When I pray, what do I ask for? Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Luke 11:9). With God, all things are possible. If you do not seek, you will not find.

If we desire to hear from the Holy Spirit, we must devote time to prayer and fasting. Without prayer, we are powerless against our enemies. When we fast, we involve our whole body in prayer. Fasting deepens our hunger and thirst for God. Fasting helps us control the desires of the flesh. If you want to hear from the Holy Spirit, there should be no contradiction between what you externally profess and what you do.

Jesus was about to begin his public ministry, to pull souls from the devil’s captivity; it was too much of a threat to the devil, and so he had to try his best to make Jesus change his mind. The devil was basically trying to make Jesus achieve glory by a shortcut; to jump from baptism straight to ascension, without having to go through the process of preaching, touching the lives of people, and especially the arrest, the trial, and the cross. (The devil knew that he would be finally defeated on that cross, and he tried to make Jesus jump over it). This is why, when Peter suggested to Jesus that the cross would never happen, Jesus didn’t waste time using the same words he used during the temptation: “Get behind me, Satan.”

Remove from you the “pointing of the finger and speaking of evil.” Refrain from behaving as the devil described in Revelation as “the accuser of our brethren” (Rev. 12:10). Unlike the Pharisees, who murmured, Levi knew he needed a physician. Later on, Jesus would say: “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.” (Matthew 21:31-32). Rather than exerting your energy on pointing fingers at others, become the change you want to see in others.

Why must we make efforts during this Lent to repent? Joel says, “He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in mercy and repents of evil.” Look around you; there is already enough evil and suffering in the world. Your decision to repent today goes a long way toward making the world a much better place. More still, you may also be averting punishment for your sins.

“When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.” (Jonah 3:10). Repentance moves God. Just as God changed His mind towards the Ninevites, repentance from sin saves us from the calamities our sins attract.

Just as new wine can only be stored in new wineskins, we can only call ourselves Christians when we are born again. To be a Christian is to live a new life. As St. Paul says, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation, everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). You cannot be new wine in an old wineskin. You cannot continue the practices and lifestyle of persons who do not believe in God’s existence while claiming to be a Christian. You cannot serve both God and mammon. If you assume you can pretend, one day your “skin” will burst, and the whole world will know the truth. Be a genuine Christian, a new wine in a new wineskin.

Jonah did not work miracles. Like the crowd in our Gospel passage, many Christians today have reduced their worship of God to a quest for miracles. Jesus referred to such persons as an “evil generation.” Those looking for miracles are only interested in “using” God. Should they get the miracles they seek, it never translates to repentance.

Just as every sin begins with a temptation, the struggle against sin starts with knowing how to deal with temptations. Hence, on this first Sunday of Lent, our Gospel passage narrates how Jesus overcame temptations in the wilderness. In the three temptations of Jesus Christ, we find the three categories of sins which are: “…the lust of the flesh (turning stones to bread), the lust of the eyes (bowing to Satan to gain the riches of the world) and the pride of life (jumping from the pinnacle of the temple to gain the praise and admiration of all)” (1 John 2:16).

Beyond refraining from pointing accusing fingers at others, the season of Lent offers us ample opportunity to pray for the conversion of sinners. Let us become like Jesus to the Levi’s in our world today. Don’t stop condemning evil, but go beyond pointing fingers; show love to sinners, reach out to them, and lead them out of darkness to God’s marvellous light. This is the fasting that God desires.

Today, we learn that if we must fast, *our fasting must be necessary and purposeful.* Avoid following the crowd. Your fasting should be between you and God. Am I fasting because it is fasting season (or because I see others fasting)? What exactly do I hope to achieve by my fasting? Don’t fast if you have no prayer intention (purpose). Fast for an end to kidnapping in our country, inflation, injustice, corruption, etc.