Gospel: Matthew 9: 14-17
You have waited a long time to meet your beloved and get married. The day finally arrives when you meet that person and have the ceremony. What is that day like? Will your life be the same as it was before? Wedding days are days of joy and celebration that inaugurates an entirely new way of living that replaces the life you lived previously.
Jesus came to announce that the kingdom of heaven is here now. The king has come to live with a people who have long awaited this arrival. Are we to live our lives as we had in the past? Is fasting the right response? With the coming of the king comes ransom from all past crimes and liberty to the land. It is our new task to announce this great gift to the world: it is not fasting and asceticism that brings ransom; it is the king's gift and our sharing it with others that releases the chains.
This is the great gift of the kingdom; this is the wedding banquet of the lamb. Our new life now is to live a life of mercy for others, not to live self-interested lives that cannot save us or anyone else. We set aside our bachelor days of self-interest in order to live for others in this new life of union with God. This is the Good News Jesus brings to the world.
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