Jesus teaches us today that fasting needs to be done. He points out that there is no need of fasting when the bridegroom is around, i.e., Himself. But there comes a time when the bridegroom is taken away and then there will be the need to fast. This refers to the Passion and Death of Christ. We cannot expect not to fast because Our Lord himself undergoes his Passion and suffering for our salvation. We fast in union with Him. We fast in order to feast with Him when we resurrects.

We continue reading from St. Mark's account of Our Lord's life. After spending so much time with those physically sick, he pivots around the account about the paralytic. With this last case, he first forgives his sins and seeing his faith. Notice, these are invisible and spiritual realities that the Lord is dealing with now. His claim to be able to forgive his sins startled the Jews who know that only God can forgive sins. But Our Lord rose to the challenge. He clarified that he could forgive sins and proved it by curing the sick man of his paralysis. In today's Gospel, Our Lord spends time with sick people again, but this time with spiritual ailing people like sinners and tax collectors. The other objected but our Lord brushed them aside since he was still concerned about the health of the people, albeit in the spiritual realm.

He came to banish evil. Hence, he cured Simon's mother-in-law of the fever she had. Later in the day, many came with all kinds of diseases and ailments that he cured. He banished demons from peoples' bodies. He also prayed and He gave this example to the people and to all of us reading this Gospel and throughout His life.

When Jesus Christ comes again to judge the living the dead he would be looking for solid deeds of faith, hope and love in each of us. Our life as Christians as the Lord said in the Gospel today is that we listen to his words and live according to them. This part of acting on the Lord's words is crucial. Without this, we would be theoretical Christians and not real sure followers of the Blessed Lord. Our lives should be built on practicing the Lord's teachings. We will be judged on this and not on mere sentiments or thoughts about the Lord and his words.

The Gospel today provides us the features of Christ the King, the Solemnity we look forward to this coming Sunday. He walked on water, He enabled St. Peter to walk on the water, He saved Peter from sinking and He calmed the winds that terrified His Apostles in the boat. Thing is that Our Lord prayed before all this display happened. He teaches us that if we pray we can access this tremendous power of kingship.

The Parable of the Talents is an allegory of our lives. God seen in the master of those servants who leaves each of them an amount of money with the instruction that they do business with it to make more money. To the ones who increase their money he rewards them with more responsibilities. The last one who did not do anything with the money he was entrusted with is punished. And so we shall also be when the Lord comes to judge the living and the dead.

Our Lord invited himself to Zacchaeus' house. This senior tax collector was overjoyed and not only that he repented of this shady practices by promising to do restitution to the ones he defrauded. We all need our Lord to be saved.

Our Lord insists with us that we should not falter in praying. This is not only about petitions to him but also the praying praising him, thanking him and asking pardon from him for our sins and the sins of the others we know of. This persistence is a manifestation of faith in God. Such faith is a relationship with him which is the underlying reason for our praying to him. Either getting our wishes to come true or not is not the most important thing in praying. Our foundational intention is to maintain and nourish a life of relationship with Him.

We all wonder what and where the Kingdom of God will be. Jesus announced it. St. John the Baptist announced it. All our direction is towards it. But to get there we need to repent as Jesus said to the people. Interestingly, Jesus claims that the Kingdom of God is among you. It is among us. It is here and we are in its midst. We don't see it or feel it yet. And our lives is all about getting to enjoy it. We know that Jesus is the Head. And we are members of his Body. Since each of the baptized is a Christian, a follower of Christ, or more accurately, alter Christus, ipse Christus, then in each of us is that Kingdom. To make it there we need a program of constant conversion. That means frequenting the sacraments, prayer and ascetical struggle.

Our Lord cured ten lepers who asked him for help. He asked them to report to the priest. They got cured while in transit to see the cleric. Only one, a samaritan, returned to Our Lord to thank him. He wondered where the other nine were. Are we one of them?