Rules and rubrics of religious rubbish

     I have an old friend who grew up in a very conservative Catholic home in a time when rules and rubrics were everything. As a young man supporting his growing family he worked long hours. Returning home after 11pm his wife had dinner waiting which he promptly devoured until the stroke of midnight lest he commit a Mortal sin, he had to fast for communion the next morning. Midnight was the magic cut off.  Such was life then.

    
 Another example of strictness in how we approached fasting is the no meat in Fridays rule. Of course things have changed except for Lent. Fasting on Fridays in Lent is still the rule. 

       I noticed the calendar this year had St. Pat's day falling on a Friday in Lent. What will become of the Corned Beef ? As has happened before, there will likely be a dispensation. Heaven forbid you might go to hell simply by having one's corned beef & cabbage.

       This might be the long way to cover a conversation my father-in-law and I have quite often about what he calls, and I embrace, "happy horse shit" in reference to religious practises. It's all about accommodation he'd add. He Jewish, me raised Roman Catholic, we are well accustomed to ridiculous man made religious rules, no matter how well intentioned.

       Jesus runs across a similar issue in today's Gospel passage though I am sure he'd never utter the phrase "happy horse shit". 

       What is the intent and reason for fasting? What is real fasting and not the bastardized version so many adhere to these days. When I explained what the rules are today for Catholics to my husband he rightfully just rolled his eyes and shakes his head.

        I poke fun at all the rules and rubrics rubbish of religion but not as some anarchist or anti-Christ. Why do we do the things we do?

       Perhaps it's time we find out lest we become like some pharisee who thinks they are justified and saved by puppeting some odd religious practises. Shouldn't our praise, honour and worship of God, now more than ever, be filled with knowledge, sincerity and meaning?

Mark 2:18-22

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? 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 on that day.

‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.