Gospel
At that time: John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to Jesus, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins — and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.’
In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents Himself as the Bridegroom. This image is not merely symbolic: it reveals the way God relates to us and, very concretely, it sheds light on our conjugal vocation. Where the Bridegroom is present, there is joy, communion, and shared life.
When Jesus is asked why His disciples do not fast, He replies from the logic of love: when spouses are together, love is not lived through absence or deprivation, but through presence and celebration. Fasting makes sense when there is distance; love flourishes when there is encounter. In married life, this reminds us that the relationship cannot be sustained solely by sacrifice or rules, but by a change of perspective—learning to look at one another as God looks at us, and to rediscover the beauty of our marriage.
Jesus also warns that the days will come when the Bridegroom is taken away. This speaks of moments of crisis, silence, wounds, or routine that may appear in marriage. In those times, love is purified and expressed as fidelity, waiting, and self-gift, rather than immediate emotion. Fasting then becomes learning to love even when the closeness of the other is not “felt”.
This Gospel invites spouses to ask themselves: Do we celebrate one another’s presence as a gift? Do we know how to pass through times of absence without ceasing to love? Are we willing to renew ourselves so that love may remain new wine?
Christ, the faithful Bridegroom, walks with married couples so that their love does not wear out, but is transformed each day into a deeper and more fruitful covenant.
Applied to Married Life
Luke: So it’s officially confirmed: when I’m at home, there’s no diet.
Alice: Don’t get too excited… Jesus was talking about something much deeper.
Luke: I know, I know… but let me enjoy the literal interpretation for five seconds.
Alice: It made me realise that marriage can’t be just sacrifice and effort. It’s also meant to be enjoyed.
Luke: Thank goodness. Because if this were only about penance, we’d have grown wings by now from all the suffering.
Alice: But then He says that the day will come when the bridegroom is taken away.
Luke: Does that count when you’re cross with me and don’t speak to me all afternoon?
Alice: Exactly. That’s when you fast… from conversation.
Luke: And I do penance in silence, waiting for reconciliation.
Alice: The bit about patching new cloth onto an old garment really struck me. You can’t fix everything with “we’ve always done it this way”.
Luke: Of course. Trying to solve today’s problems with arguments from twenty years ago is like putting new wine into a plastic bottle.
Alice: Or pretending we can function with the same energy we had before children and bills.
Luke: Exactly—and remembering to keep a sense of humour.
Alice: Amen to that. Because without humour, even new wine won’t last.
Luke: And without love, not even the best wineskin will do.
Mother,