In the Gospel today, Jesus focuses on the question of fasting. He speaks of the unsuitability of putting new things with the old one. In this way, He was actually telling the disciples of John to look at the aspect of fasting in a new and different manner.

Jesus came as a fulfillment of the Law, not to abolish it, but to show to the people that the spirit of the law was more important than the letter of the law - in this case the prescribed law of fasting.

In our own daily lives, we practice all kinds of "laws" - fasting during Lent, abstaining from meat on Fridays and so on. Do we do all this because it is the law, or is it because we do it from our heart? We have to ask ourselves whether we are performing this mechanically or we do it because of our love for God.

Fasting becomes meaningless if we do it just to fulfill some external requirements. It is only when we do it wholeheartedly with God as our focus that we can attain the graces that come from this action.