One of the spiritual exercises that we do in Lent is fasting. While most of the time it has to do with fasting food, it doesn’t always have to be food. Yet fasting, whatever is chosen, means we choose to go without something. Why? In the church’s history, fasting was an exercise that related to penance for sins, as well as recognition of our need for reconciliation with God.
Yet fasting is not a spiritual exercise that is necessarily
holy if it is done for the wrong reasons.
For example, in the Gospels, the disciples of John the Baptist come to
Jesus to ask him why they and the Pharisees fast often, but Jesus’ disciples do
not fast. Remember?
Matthew 9:14-17
“Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, "Why do we and the
Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?"
And Jesus said to them, "The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as
the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom
is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of
unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a
worse tear is made.
Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst,
and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into
fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved".
Fasting the bible has a long history of both practicing it,
as well as doing it wrong. Just read
Isaiah 58 if you want to see a divine perspective on fasting the wrong
way. We need to ask why we should fast,
and how we should fast if we’re going to gain the spiritual benefit of
fasting.
First, fasting helps us become aware of who we are, and to
whom we belong. We are children of God,
made in his image, and we belong to God by faith in Jesus Christ. That is crucial since we live in a world that
wants to define us by material things, or stereotypes of gender, work,
marriage, single, and even the shape of our bodies. Since we are driven by the physical and
material things around us, it takes discipline to realize that fasting may have
many benefits in helping me to live out a God-toward identity.
Secondly, fasting helps me see the difference between the reality
of life that is seen from the spiritual reality of what is unseen. Gaining mastery of self is not to deprive me
of what is human, but to know that what is most important is what is happening
to my soul.
In the end, fasting can not only help me to “know” myself—a
function of reason—but, because of God’s mercy and grace, to lead myself—a
function of will. The sequence of desire – reason – will, can help me to rule
over self, and not allow my appetites to rule over me.
Peace
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