Fasting Is Not Always Fitting

Since we have set out these points on the conditions of fasting first, it seems good to add the authority of Holy Scripture, by which it will be proved more clearly that fasting neither can nor should be kept at all times. In the gospel, when the Pharisees were fasting together with the disciples of John the Baptist, the apostles, as friends and companions of the heavenly Bridegroom, were not yet keeping the practice of fasting. So the disciples of John complained to the Lord and said: “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” They thought they gained perfect righteousness by their fasts, since they were followers of that great preacher of repentance, who gave all the people a pattern by his own example. For he not only refused the various kinds of food supplied for human use, but went entirely without even the bread that is common to all. In his reply the Lord showed plainly that fasting is not fitting or necessary at all times, when a festival season or an occasion for love comes and allows an indulgence in food. He said: “Can the bridegroom’s attendants mourn while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.” Although these words were spoken before the resurrection of his body, they point especially to the Easter season, in which, after his resurrection, he ate with his disciples for forty days, and their joy in his daily presence did not let them fast. [a]