Fasting is a sacrifice for us which we offer to God, and is also good in helping us discipline our bodies, which crave new excitements and pleasures daily, and are tempted by gluttony. The Western world excels in using advertising to mold us to want more and more food, want bigger portions of food, want richer and fattier food. Obesity is on the rise. So fasting from food can be good for both our souls and our bodies.
Fasting also can mean giving something up during Lent. Some people give up chocolate. Others give up a favorite T.V. program. Some give up, or lessen their time on Facebook. The question is - If you give something up, what do you take on?
Have you taken on some spiritual reading? My husband is currently reading New York Times best seller "Jesus: A Pilgrimage" by Fr. James Martin, S.J. (Harper Collins and available on Kindle.) Others add specific prayer times.
Just remember Jesus' words regarding fasting: "When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites....When you fast, ...wash your face so that you may not appear to others to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you." (Matt. 6: 16-18.) We all have a tendency to tell others what we're doing that's good, maybe even brag a little. Jesus is telling us to keep our ego out of it.
But there's another, ancient meaning for fasting, found in the writing of the prophet Isaiah, who speaks here in the Voice of God: "This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly....setting free the oppressed....sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless, clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn and your wound shall be quickly healed." (Isaiah 59:6-8.)
While Jesus gives solid advice on how to behave when we fast from food, he also repeats Isaiah's calls for social justice in the Beatitudes and in his riveting account of the Final Judgment when we shall be judged by how we have concretely loved others.
Jesus' call for repentance is a call for us to change: to change our minds, our attitudes. Fr. Richard Rohr suggests how we can do this:
"Most of the people who have lived on this planet have been oppressed and poor. But their history was seldom written except in the Bible. Only in modern times and wealthy countries do we find the strange phenomenon of the masses of the people having an establishment mentality! This relatively new thing, called 'the middle class,' gives many of us just enough comfort not to have to feel the pinch or worry about injustice for ourselves. Only by solidarity with other people's suffering can comfortable people be converted.....In the New Testament we clearly see that it's mostly the lame, the poor, the blind, the prostitutes, the drunkards, the tax collectors, the sinners - those on the bottom and the outside - that really hear Jesus' teaching and get the point and respond to him."
Can we change how we think this Lent?
- Can we understand that 'releasing those bound unjustly' can refer to those who work to use DNA evidence to free unjustly convicted prisoners? That this is a true work of mercy?
- Can we understand that not everyone can pull themselves up by their boot straps? That if you are handicapped in any way or don't have family or friend support, you can lose everything?
- Can we understand that there are many who use food pantries who are the working poor, who have to use food money to pay utility bills?
- Can we understand that those who are addicted are not lesser persons than we are? That they are deserving of respect?
- Can we see the places in our lives where we have turned our back on our own? Do we need to make peace with a family member or friend? Help a struggling relative or neighbor?
-Can we find concrete ways in our lives to concretely help and support those who are struggling to make ends meet, rather than judge them as being unworthy?
Fast during Lent, then, by giving things up to discipline your body and by taking things on to feed your soul. Find the ways you need to reconnect with the cross of Jesus. As Isaiah says, these are the ways that we find joy, break out in light like the dawn, and heal our wounds. We certainly heal our wounds of sin by doing these things. But we can also heal the wounds of our own physical and emotional suffering by forgetting ourselves and reaching out to help others.