Dry January?

The other day I was in a coffee shop working a homily.  I couldn't help but overhear the people next to me as they were discussing how their "Dry January" was going.  Dry January is the trend of fasting from Alcohol, TV, sugar, and other things for the month of January.  The idea behind this is that people consume too much during the months of November and December.  There is a similar trend, "Meatless Mondays". The concept here is that eating as much red meat as we do as a society is unsustainable. It seems to me that the reading from this past Monday sheds light on these practices.

Mark 2:18-22

The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.
People came to Jesus and objected,
“Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them,
“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
But 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 unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.
If he does, its fullness pulls away,
the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,
and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

Here the followers of the Pharisees and John the Baptist ask Jesus why it is that His followers do not fast while they, themselves, do.  Jesus response is that there is no fasting to be don while the Bridegroom is still present.

It seems to me that the concepts of Dry January and Meatless Monday are praiseworthy in concept, but misguided in practice. It is good for a person to practice things of self mastery and self denial such as fasting and Abstinence.  Yet, it is more powerful when practiced for a sound reason. Fasting from alcohol after overconsumption, while good is not ideal.  Abstaining from meat for the sake of creation is good, but not ideal.  Catholic have had practices like this for millennia.  The difference is that we fast and abstain, not for the sake of creation, rather for the sake of the creator.  Now is the season of Epiphany (Mardi Gras). We do not fast while celebrating the making known of Christ, we fast in the desert, Lent begins March 2 this year. Fridays we abstain from meat, not just for the good of creation, but out of reverence for the Blood of Christ.  We live, not for ourselves, but for Christ.