And Jesus said to them: Can the children of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast.

“Figuratively; This His answer, that while the Bridegroom was present with them, His disciples needed not to fast, teaches us the joy of His presence, and the sacrament of the holy food, which none shall lack, while He is present, that is, while one keeps Christ in the eye of the mind. He says, they shall fast when He is taken away from them, because all who do not believe that Christ is risen, shall not have the food of life. For in the faith of the resurrection the sacrament of the heavenly bread is received.”

“Or; Luke relates that the Pharisees, but Matthew that the disciples of John, said thus, because the Pharisees had taken them with them to ask the question, as they afterwards did the Herodians. Observe how when strangers, as before the Publicans, were to be defended, He accuses heavily those that blamed them; but when they brought a charge against His disciples, He makes answer with mildness. And Jesus saith unto them, Can the children of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? Before He had styled Himself Physician, now Bridegroom, calling to mind the words of John which he had said, He that hath the bride is the bridegroom. (John 3:29.)”

“Christ is the Bridegroom and the Church the Bride. Of this spiritual union the Apostles were born; they cannot mourn so long as they see the Bridegroom in the chamber with the Bride. But when the nuptials are past, and the time of passion and resurrection is come, then shall the children of the Bridegroom fast. The days shall come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.”

“(Serm. 210. 3.) Otherwise; Every one who rightly fasts, either humbles his soul in the groaning of prayer, and bodily chastisement, or suspends the motion of carnal desire by the joys of spiritual meditation. And the Lord here makes answer respecting both kinds of fasting; concerning the first, which is in humiliation of soul, He says, The children of the bridegroom cannot mourn. Of the other which has a feast of the Spirit, He next speaks, where He says, No man putteth a patch of undressed cloth. Then we must mourn because the Bridegroom is taken away from us. And we rightly mourn if we burn with desire of Him. Blessed they to whom it was granted before His passion to have Him present with them, to enquire of Him what they would, to hear what they ought to hear. Those days the fathers before His coming sought to see, and saw them not, because they were placed in another dispensation, one in which He was proclaimed as coming, not one in which He was heard as present. For in us was fulfilled that He speaks of, The days shall come when ye shall desire to see one of these days, and shall not be able. (Luke 17:22.) Who then will not mourn this? Who will not say, My tears have been my meat day and night, while they daily say unto me, Where is now thy God? (Ps. 42:3.) With reason then did the Apostle seek to die and to be with Christ.”

“Here the question about the feast is set forth, and the answer follows, where it says "And Jesus said to them." But here there is a literal question: why do Mark 2:18 and Luke 5:29 seem to show that the question was put by others — where it is said in Mark 2:18: "Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" Therefore the disciples themselves did not ask it. Augustine resolves this. It was thus: the Pharisees were laying snares for Christ, and so at one time they brought the Herodians with them, but at another they took up the disciples of John. Hence the question could have been put both by others and by the disciples. But whence came it that they fasted? The answer given here is: from their own traditions, or from the Law, as it is recorded that on the Day of Atonement they were bound to fast. And Zechariah 8:19: "The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and great solemnities." Likewise the disciples of John fasted after the example of their master, who was of great austerity; but the disciples of Christ did not fast. "And Jesus said to them." Here Jesus answers, and subtly. First he assigns the reason on his own part, then on the part of the disciples. Concerning the first he does two things: first he determines the time for feasting; second, the time for fasting, where it says, "But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast." He says, therefore: "Can the children of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?" Where this Evangelist says "mourn," another says "fast"; for although fasting has a certain spiritual joy, nevertheless, as is said in Hebrews 12:11, "all discipline for the present indeed seems not to be a matter of joy, but of sorrow." Hence there is a fasting of spiritual joy, as is said in Daniel 9:3: "I set my face to the Lord my God, to pray and to make supplication, in fasting, sackcloth, and ashes." There is likewise a fasting of mourning and affliction, as when it is undertaken on account of sorrows. The Lord answers concerning both. For Christ is the bridegroom: whoever has a bride is a bridegroom. For he himself is the bridegroom of the whole Church, and its beginning. The old Law had one beginning, and the new Law another; for the old Law had its beginning in fear, the new Law in love; hence Romans 8:15: "For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of the sons of God." And Hebrews 12:22: "You have come to Mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, Jerusalem." Since, therefore, the beginning of the new Law was in love, he had to nourish his disciples in a certain love; therefore he calls himself the bridegroom, and the disciples sons, because these are names of love. Hence it is good that I should preserve them; and therefore I do not wish to impose anything heavy upon them, lest they be repelled and so fall back. And therefore those who are new in the religious life are not to be burdened. Hence Ambrose, in the Book of Similitudes, rebukes those who burden novices heavily. And this is what Christ says: "Can the children of the bridegroom mourn?" etc., as if to say: it is not fitting that they should fast, but rather that they should live in a certain sweetness and love; so that thus they may receive my law in love, as is said in Romans 6:4: "As Christ rose from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life." Hence from Easter until Pentecost no fasts are observed, because then the Church calls to mind the newness of the Law. "But the days will come," etc. And this is to be taken literally. "The days will come," namely when, through your contriving, the bridegroom shall be taken away from them; and then they shall fast. And he foretold this to them, saying in John 16:20: "You shall weep, but the world shall rejoice." For those who lived before Christ desired the presence of Christ, as Abraham, and Isaiah, and the other prophets. Likewise after his death he was desired by the apostles: hence Peter was as it were in continuous grief on account of the absence of Christ; and Paul said, "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ." Hence that was the time for fasting. Another reason why they were not bound to fast in his presence is that fasting is to be chosen insofar as it chastises the flesh, lest it grow too strong against the spirit; but while he was present, he kept them from excess; therefore it was not necessary for them to fast; hence in John 17:12: "Father, while I was with them, I kept them." But John the Baptist did not have this power, and therefore his disciples had to fast. But when Christ was taken away, they had to fast. Hence Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:27: "I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection," etc. "But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth upon an old garment." Here he sets forth another reason on the part of the disciples, and he gives two examples: one according to Augustine, the other according to Jerome. According to Augustine, then, he means to say: it has been said that in the presence of Christ the disciples ought not to fast, nor indeed by reason of their own condition, because heavy things ought not to be imposed on the imperfect. Since, therefore, these men are imperfect, fasting ought not to be imposed on them. To signify this, then, he touches on it under the metaphor of cloth and wine. Because righteousness consists in exterior works and in a newness of affection, he therefore gives two examples. He says, then, "no one puts," etc., as if to say: if one wished to join on new cloth, he would not put a patch — that is, a piece — of unshrunk cloth, that is, new cloth, upon an old garment, because it would take away its beauty; so likewise, if some imperfect person has a certain custom in his manner of life, if you wish to impose upon him a different yoke, he draws back from what he had been accustomed to, and the tear becomes worse, as is said below. "Neither do they put new wine into old wineskins." Here he gives another example, from wine, as if to say: my disciples are like old wineskins. The new wine is the new Law, by reason of its newness: hence, when they had received the Holy Spirit, they were said to be full of new wine, Acts 2:13. Hence "neither do they put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst." Hence if you impose a new manner of living upon an old man, who for some time has had a certain custom, his heart is burst through intolerance. Likewise "the wine is spilled out," that is, it is not kept safe, "and the wineskins are lost": because they trampled upon the commandments of God, and therefore they perish. "But they put new wine into new wineskins," renewing spiritual teaching through the affections, as the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians 2:13: "comparing spiritual things with spiritual." Proverbs 2:10: "If wisdom shall enter into your heart, and knowledge shall please your soul, counsel shall keep you, and prudence shall preserve you, that you may be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that speaks perverse things," etc. Jerome expounds it otherwise: for he calls the institution of the Pharisees the old garment, and calls the evangelical teaching the new; as if to say, it is not good that they should keep to your precepts, because in that way they would make the old tears worse, and thus they would not be able to receive the new teaching, just as we see that one who is not imbued with a contrary teaching more easily receives his own teaching than one who is already imbued with it. And therefore it is not good that your disciples be imbued with your teaching.”

“No man putteth a piece of new cloth,.... These words are, by Luk 5:36 called a "parable", as are those in the following verse; and both are commonly interpreted of the unreasonableness and danger of putting young disciples upon severe exercises of religion, as fasting, &c: and it is true, that young converts are to be tenderly dealt with, as they are by Father, Son, and Spirit, as the disciples were by Christ, and the first Christians were by the apostles: and some things in these parables may seem to agree; as that these austerities should be represented as "new", and as burdensome and troublesome, and the disciples as weak, and easily staggered: but then there are others that will not bear; as that the disciples should be compared to "old garments, and old bottles"; when they were "young" converts, and men "renewed" by the Spirit and grace of God, and had on the beautiful robe of Christ's righteousness; and that such severe exercises, under the notion of religion, should be signified by "new wine", which generally designs something pleasant and agreeable: nor were the disciples unable to bear such severities, who very probably had been trained up in them, and been used to them before their conversion; and could now as well have bore them as John's disciples, or the Pharisees, had they been proper and necessary; but the true reason why they were not required of them, was not their weakness, or danger of falling off, and perishing, of which there were none; but because it was unsuitable to their present situation, the bridegroom being with them. But our Lord, in this parable of putting "a piece of new", or "undressed cloth", such as has never passed through the fuller's hands, and so unfit to mend with, unto an old garment, refers not only to the fastings of the Pharisees, but to their other traditions of the elders, which they held; as such that respected their eating, drinking, and conversing with other persons mentioned in the context, and which observances they joined with their moral performances; on account of which, they looked upon themselves as very righteous persons, and all others as sinners: and to expose their folly, Christ delivers this parable. Wherefore, by "the old garment", I apprehend, is meant their moral and legal righteousness, or their obedience to the moral and ceremonial laws, which was very imperfect, as well as impure, and might be rightly called "filthy rags"; or be compared to an old worn out garment, filthy and loathsome, torn, and full of holes, which cannot keep a person warm, nor screen him from the weather, and so old that it cannot be mended. And by the "piece of new cloth", or "garment", put unto it, or sewed upon it, are intended the traditions of the elders, these men were so fond of, concerning eating, and drinking, and fasting, and hundreds of other things, very idle and trifling, and which were new and upstart notions. Now, by putting, or sewing the new cloth to their old garment, is designed, their joining their observance of these traditions to their other duties of religion, to make up a justifying righteousness before God; but in vain, and to no purpose. Their old garment of their own works, in obedience to the laws of God, moral and ceremonial, was full bad enough of itself; but became abundantly worse, by joining this new piece of men's own devising to it; for that which is put in to fill it up, taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse: their new obedience to the traditions of men, making void the law of God, instead of mending, marred their righteousness, and left them in a worse condition than it found them: and besides, as it is in Luke, "the piece that was taken out of the new, agreeth not with the old"; there being no more likeness between the observance of the commandments of men, and obedience to the laws of God, than there is between a piece of new undressed cloth, that has never been washed and worn, and an old worn out garment. Much such a foolish part do those men under the Gospel dispensation act, who join the righteousness of Christ, or a part of it, with their own, in order to make up a justifying righteousness before God; for Christ's righteousness is the only justifying righteousness; it is whole and perfect, and needs nothing to be added to it, nor can it be parted, any more than his seamless coat was; nor a piece taken out of it: nor is there any justification by works, either in whole or in part; the old garment of man's righteousness must be thrown away, in point of justification; it cannot be mended in such a manner; and if any attempts are made in this way, the rent becomes worse: such persons, instead of being justified, are in a worse condition; for they not only set up, and exalt their own righteousness, which is criminal, but disparage the righteousness of Christ as imperfect, by joining it to their's; and whilst they fancy themselves in a good state, are in a most miserable one; harlots and publicans being nearer the kingdom of heaven than these, and enter into it before them; self-righteous persons are more hardly, and with greater difficulty convinced, than such sinners. Moreover, nothing is more disagreeable than such a patch work; Christ's righteousness and a man's own bear no likeness to one another; and such a patched garment must ill become the character and dignity of a saint, a child of God, an heir of heaven.”