Goodness is the mother of virtues, malice the origin of vices; glory accompanies the virtues, while a kindred confusion clings to vices; and just as vices are cloaked by deceits, so are virtues made resplendent by their openness. Hence it is that Christ, the light of the virtues, acted freely, spoke purely, bestowed as God, suffered as a parent, and rebuked as a lord. But the Jews, that viperous brood, brought death upon their mother and murder upon their begetter, for while they slew Christ they tore open the very womb of their mother the Synagogue. Truly, as it is written: 'Brood of vipers' (Matt. III), they lowered their heads, they flattered with the tongue, they inflicted wounds by deceit, and poured out venom in blasphemies.
And as though contempt did not suffice for hatred, nor scorn for injury, they thus persecuted Christ with ambushes, tempted Him with deceits, assailed Him with questioning, attacked Him with insults, and hemmed Him in on every side with eager pretense. They cast up before Him the healing done on the Sabbath, so that, if He had not healed, contempt might arise from His seeming powerlessness, and if He had healed, calumny might flow from the Law. They asked by what authority He wrought His mighty works at His own command (Luke XX), so that if He said 'by that of the Godhead,' they might stir up envy, and if He kept silent, they might charge Him with the crime of the magic art. For they said, 'He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons' (Matt. XII).
And, as was read today, they contrived among the disciples a slander against their Master concerning the banquet of publicans. Before the Master they accused the disciples of being strangers to fasting and given over to gluttony; but they hurled grounds of hatred and, out of envy, the seeds of discord between the disciples concerning the Master, and the Master concerning the disciples. 'The disciples of John came,' it says, 'saying: Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?' (Matt. IX). And what fellowship had the disciples of John with the Pharisees, save that envy had joined those whom discipline had set apart? Here zeal loses its own rightful place, joining what it was wont to sunder. The Jews could not bear that Moses be set below the Lord, and John's disciples were unwilling that Christ be in any way preferred to John.
Thus both alike raged against Christ, though from a common cause. 'Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?' Why? Because with you fasting is of the Law, not of the will; and fasting regards not the one who fasts unwillingly, but the one who does so gladly. And what fruit of fasting is yours, who fast a fast against your will? Fasting is the singular plough of holiness: it tills the heart, roots out sins, plucks up offenses, undermines vices, sows charity, nourishes abundance, and prepares the harvest of innocence.
The disciples of Christ, therefore, set amid the whole crop of holiness, gathering the sheaves of virtues, and already having bread of the new fruit, cannot fast the old fastings, which are boasted of in words, put forward with pallor, hawked about with a wasted look, and please human eyes, not the divine. 'Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?' The Lord answered: 'Can the children of the bridegroom fast, so long as the bridegroom is with them?' What is this? When John was asked, he thus testified that Christ was the bridegroom: 'He that has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the voice of the bridegroom' (John III).
Fittingly, then, John answered his disciples with his Master's own words, that at least they might believe and not compel the glad seasons of the bridegroom to enter into sorrowful fasting; for he who seeks a bride sets fasts aside, forsakes austerities, gives himself wholly to joys, indulges in feasting, goes about all charming, all lovable, all festive, and does all that the tender affection of the bride requires.
Christ therefore, who was then betrothing the Church to Himself, indulged Himself at table, did not refuse Himself to those who feasted, and in loving charity made Himself human, affable, and gentle, until He should join human things to divine and make of an earthly fellowship a heavenly consortium. The Lord added, saying: 'No one puts a piece of new cloth upon an old garment, for it takes away its fullness from the garment, and a worse rent is made.' By the furniture of the old Law He means what had been worn out by Jewish pursuits, corrupted in its senses, torn by sects, made obsolete by impure deeds; and by 'new cloth' He names the garment of the Gospel.
But hear: the cloth is not the part of a rent, but the beginning of a weaving. For then first was the fabric of a royal garment being woven from the fleece of Christ, from the fleece which the Lamb gave — 'the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world' (John I). And the royal garment was being woven, which the blood of the Passion would dye into a purple splendor. Rightly then did Christ forbid this new cloth to be put upon the Jewish oldness, lest a worse rent be made, if Christian newness were to tear the Jewish oldness. And He doubles the example, saying: 'Neither do they put new wine into old skins, else the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins perish; but they put new wine into new skins, and both are preserved.' By old skins He calls the Jews;
the new skins He names Christians: for just as leather skins are cleansed of all filth and anointed with fragrant spices, that they may keep the flavor of the wine unspoiled, so by fastings human bodies are cleansed of all the filth of carnal offenses and become skins fit for the divine winepresses, that from the press of the Cross they may receive the new wine and preserve an incorrupt newness. But as the Christians receive this, so the Jews, unless they become Christians, will not have it; for they, corrupted by vices and grown old in evils, so receive the new wine — which is the word of the Gospel — that they burst and pour it forth.
It must be understood, therefore, that by these examples Christ did not will that His disciples should not fast, but did not will that a true fast be mingled with a fraudulent fast.