Blessed Virgin Mary /St. Maria Goretti, virgin & martyr 

＊＊＊1st Reading＊＊＊   Gen 27:1–5, 15–29

  (…..)Jacob went to his father and said, “Father!” He answered, “Yes, my son, who is it?” and Jacob said to his father, “It is Esau, your firstborn; I have done what you told me to do. Come, sit up and eat my game so that you may give me your blessing.”

Isaac said, “How quick you have been my son! Jacob said, “Yahweh, your God, guided me.” Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near and let me feel you, my son, and know that it is you, Esau my son, or not.”

When Jacob drew near to Isaac, his father felt him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob but the hands are the hands of Esau.” He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like the hands of Esau his brother and so he blessed him. He asked, “Are you really my son Esau?” and Jacob answered, “ I am said, “Bring me some of your game, my son, so that I may eat and give you my blessing.” So Jacob brought it to him and he ate. And he brought him wine and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” So Jacob came near and kissed him.(……)

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

      Mt 9:14–17

 Then The disciples of John came to him with the question, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast on many occasions, but not your disciples?” Jesus answered them,  “How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?

Time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. “No one patches an old coat with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for the patch will shrink and tear an even bigger hole in the coat.

in the same way, you don’t put new wine into old wine skins. If you do, the wine skins will burst and the wine be spilt. No, you put new wine in fresh skins;     then both are preserved.”

 

Reflection gospel：

“PUT NEW WINE INTO FRESH SKINS TO PRESERVE BOTH.”

At play in this gospel passage is the tension between to fast and not to fast. However, the main point here is the identity of Jesus. The disciples of John advanced the surface issue of fasting, but Jesus redirected their focus to a deeper concern, that is, His identity as the “bridegroom,” as the Messiah.

As the one who calls for repentance and grants forgiveness of sin, Jesus celebrates when one is reconciled back to God, as In the case of Matthew, the other tax collectors and sinners who gathered in his house. Having repented and having been forgiven and reconciled to God are a definitive reason for Jesus to celebrate.

In this way, the inauguration of the kingdom of God in Jesus public ministry has brought a radically new dimension to the religious practices of John’s disciples and the other Jewish groups at that time. Fasting needs to be maintained, together with the celebration of God’s mercy that Jesus brought while awaiting his return (Brendan Byrne). By introducing this, Jesus transformed an understanding of fasting or mourning that is now able to accommodate the celebration of God’s mercy.