Last week, on Ash Wednesday we heard the gospel telling us how Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving are at the heart of our Lenten disciplines, and I wrote about Prayer. This week we will look at the Second Discipline, fasting. It appears that fasting has become very popular in today’s culture for health reasons. HEALTHLINE says that fasting does many things to help the body. It promotes blood sugar control, fights inflammation, enhances heart health, boosts brain function, aids weight loss, increases hormone secretion, extends longevity and can even be an aid to cancer prevention. That all sounds, and is very good. However fasting can also help us in our Spritual Life.
Throughout history, many different religions have promoted fasting. Besides Christianity, it is used in Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, Judaism and Taoism. For the Catholic it is mandated for adults on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and is recommended for all of the Fridays of Lent. Note: abstaining from meat is also mandated for the Fridays of Lent. In Catholicism, fasting usually means reducing the amount of food that you take in, so that the whole day is not beyond one meals worth. In contrast, in Islam, fasting usually means staying away from all food, drink, and sexual relations from sunrise to sunset for the days where it is required. They also devote one month, their month of Ramadan, to 30 days of fasting.
As Catholics, we fast in order to build our self-mastery, to embrace God more fully in our lives. During Lent, fasting (along with prayer and almsgiving) helps us to better prepare for the JOY OF EASTER! We even “fast” from singing ALLELUIA during Lent so that our EASTER ALLELUIA means more to us. We “fast” from singing the GLORIA and ringing the bells during mass. Our altars “fast” from having beautiful flowers on them. This is all to help us truly celebrate the heart of the Christian message which is the EASTER ALLELUIA, THE LORD IS RISEN.
Fasting should make our prayers more meaningful, more serious. It should show us how denying ourselves something physical can strengthen us in our spiritual life. It should teach us more about making a commitment to something, namely God and His mission for us. Fasting should also help us in detachment, namely giving up something that we may have become too attached to. When we have too many attachments, our life gets too cluttered and there is little room for God. Fasting helps us get back to what really matters in our life, our spirituality, our relationship to God.
The scriptures are filled with verses about fasting, both in the Old Testament (the Hebrew scriptures) and in the New Testament (the Christian scriptures). Our roots are in the Hebrew Scriptures so I would first like to include some to help inspire us in the need for fasting.
Joel 1: 12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
Ezra 8:23 So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.
Exodus 34: 28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
Nehemiah 1: 4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
2 Samuel !: 12 They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the LORD and for the nation of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
Esther 4: 16 “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”
The New Testament also has many verses on fasting.
Matthew 6: 16-18 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Acts 13:2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Acts 14: 23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
Luke 2: 37 and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.
Luke 18: 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
Luke 4: 2-4 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
Fasting is good for our bodies and for our spirituality. It can also be good for others. We will talk about that next week when we look at the third Lenten discipline, Almsgiving.