Vatican City, Feb 26, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Reflecting Sunday on the upcoming liturgical season of Lent, Pope Benedict XVI challenged faithful to approach the period with a new spirit; not one that is heavy and burdened, but one that sees Jesus, and his Life, offered through the cross.
He spoke particularly on Sunday’s Gospel of St. Mark which, he said, "offers a catechumenal itinerary guiding the disciple to recognize in Jesus the Son of God.
"By a happy coincidence," he said, "today's Gospel text touches on the subject of fasting.” He explained that “As Jesus was sitting at table in the house of Levi the publican, the Pharisees and the followers of John the Baptist asked Him why His disciples were not fasting like them.”
In the familiar account, “Jesus replied that the wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them; when the bridegroom is taken from them, then they will fast.”