Luke 5:33

" At all events, in the Gospel they think that those days were definitely appointed for fasts in which "the Bridegroom was taken away; " and that these are now the only legitimate days for Christian fasts, the legal and prophetical antiquities having been abolished: for wherever it suits their wishes, they recognise what is the meaning of" the Law and the prophets until John.

At the same time also is shown the difference between those who are zealous for the law and those who are for grace, that they who follow the law shall suffer eternal hunger of soul, while they who have received the word into the inmost soul, refreshed with abundance of heavenly meat and drink, can neither hunger nor thirst. And so they who fasted in soul murmured.

Or, That fast is not given up whereby the flesh is mortified, and the desires of the body chastened. (For this fast commends us to God.) But we cannot fast who have Christ, and banquet on the flesh and blood of Christ.

(de Con. Ev. l. ii. c. 27.) Now Luke evidently relates that this was spoken not by men of themselves, but by others concerning them. How then does Matthew say, Then came unto him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast; unless that they themselves also came, and were all eager, as far as they were able, to put the question to Him?

As soon as they have received the first answer from Christ, they proceed from one thing to another, with the intent to show that the holy disciples, and Jesus Himself with them, cared very little for the law. Hence it follows, Why do the disciples of John fast, but thine eat, &c. (Lev. 15, prævaricationis.) As if they said, Ye eat with publicans and sinners, whereas the law forbids to have any fellowship with the unclean, but compassion comes in as an excuse for your transgression; why then do ye not fast, as they are wont to do who wish to live according to the law? But holy men indeed fast, that by the mortification of their body they may quell its passions. Christ needed not fasting for the perfecting of virtue, since as God He was free from every yoke of passion. Nor again did His companions need fasting, but being made partakers of His grace without fasting they were strengthened in all holy and godly living. For when Christ fasted for forty days, it was not to mortify His passions, but to manifest to carnal men the rule of abstinence.

For the showing forth of our Saviour in this world was nothing else but a great festival, (πανήγυρις) spiritually uniting our nature to Him as His bride, that she who was formerly barren might become fruitful. The children of the Bridegroom then are found to be those who have been called by Him through a new and evangelical discipline, but not the Scribes and Pharisees, who observe only the shadow of the law.

But they said to him, "Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make supplications, likewise also the Pharisees; but yours eat and drink?" Matthew reports that the disciples of John themselves said this to the Savior, whence it is clear that both groups combined to question him with this. Here, the disciples of John are especially to be reproved, not only for the boastfulness of their fasting but also because they malign what they knew to be taught by their master, and they joined with the Pharisees who they knew were condemned by him. Spiritually, however, the disciples of John and the Pharisees fast, but the disciples of Christ eat and drink, because whether one follows the works of the law or the traditions of men, or even receives the preaching of Christ with the ear of the body alone, abstaining from spiritual goods, they waste away with a fasting heart. But he who faithfully incorporates with the members of Christ out of love cannot fast, because he feasts on his flesh and blood.

Alternatively: John drinks neither wine nor strong drink; the Lord eats and drinks with publicans and sinners, because he increases merit through abstinence, where there is no strength of nature. The Lord, however, to whom it naturally belonged to forgive sins, why would he avoid those whom he could make purer by the abstainers? But Christ also fasted, so that you might not avoid the commandment. He ate with sinners, so that you might see grace and recognize power.

But they said. After the calling of sinners has been described and the confutation of the proud, here is subjoined thirdly the consolation of the weak, in that heavy burdens and difficulties of fasting are not imposed upon the disciples themselves. Therefore the consolation serving as guidance for the disciples is introduced as discordant with the severity of legal observance, as consonant with the benignity of the divine presence, as expedient for the rudeness of human imperfection.

First, therefore, it is introduced as discordant with the severity of legal observance in the question of the Pharisees, when it is said: But they said to him: Why do the disciples of John fast frequently and make supplications? And likewise those of the Pharisees, etc. It is also said in Matthew nine that the disciples of John asked this; but, as Augustine says in the book On the Harmony of the Evangelists, there is no contradiction, because both groups asked. And both were asking, but the disciples of John wished to learn the truth, while the Pharisees wished to probe their freedom, like those of whom it is said in Galatians two: "Because of false brethren secretly brought in, who crept in to spy out our freedom." They were not asking this, however, because they approved of the disciples of John, but so that by comparison with them they might reproach the disciples of Christ.

Whence they also add: But yours eat and drink: and therefore the Lord complained about them in Matthew eleven: "John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say: He has a demon; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say: Behold, a gluttonous man and a wine-drinker, a friend of publicans and sinners." And therefore the Pharisees spurned them as discordant from legal and popular observance; but wrongly, because in Isaiah fifty-eight: "Do not fast as you have done until this day, so that your cry may be heard on high. Is such the fast that I have chosen? For this is the fast that I have chosen: Loose the bonds of wickedness," etc.; and in Romans fourteen: "Let not him who does not eat despise him who eats," because, as is added there, "the kingdom of God is not food and drink."