Why We Fast
Feb. 16: Friday after Ash Wednesday
Bishop Barron’s homily this week1 is about our bodies and souls. We’re not just spirit or matter, but both. Which is why we’re not supposed to just fast during Lent; we’re also supposed to pray and give alms.
Prayer is a spiritual activity, while giving alms deals almost exclusively with physical needs. But we can tie these together with fasting. A lot of us give up something for Lent that costs money, like alcohol or chocolate. Instead of just pocketing the money and congratulating ourselves on our thinning waistline, we can can redirect those funds towards the poor and needy. And with a simple prayer, we can sanctify that donation just as we can sanctify our regular workday.
Of course, fasting for its own sake, even if we don’t save any money, can do spiritual as well as bodily good. It helps practice self-control and self-denial. We’re not supposed to fast from bad things;2 we should fast from good things, in order to remind ourselves that, while coffee and chocolate and TV shows can be and often are good, they’re not they highest good, which is God.
Speaking of Bishop Barron, he also has a great speech on the topic of disciplining our desires—
Reading 1
Is 58:1-9a
Thus says the Lord GOD: Cry out full-throated and unsparingly, lift up your voice like a trumpet blast; Tell my people their wickedness, and the house of Jacob their sins. They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways, Like a nation that has done what is just and not abandoned the law of their God; They ask me to declare what is due them, pleased to gain access to God. ""Why do we fast, and you do not see it? afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?""
Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers. Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high! Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: That a man bow his head like a reed and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; 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 quickly be healed; Your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!
There’s fasting, and then there’s fasting. Going without meat or snacks or fast food for Lent are all fine, as far as they go. But God isn’t looking for you to go on a diet.
What matter is the intent behind it. Are we giving up Starbucks to save a few bucks, or do we plan on donating to the poor? Are we giving up social media only to spend more time watching Netflix, or on prayer?
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
For I acknowledge my offense,
and my sin is before me always:
"Against you only have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight."
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
“For you are not pleased with sacrifices” is a phrase that should worry most Catholics. Together with the priest, we make a sacrificial offering every week3 in the Mass. Is God not going to accept it?
Of course He is! “My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit.” Also together, we say the Penitential Act. It shouldn’t be a rote drone, but a sincere and genuine reflection on the sins we’ve committed4 over the last week. God forgives if your heart is contrite and humbled.
Verse Before the Gospel
See Am 5:14
Seek good and not evil so that you may live,
and the Lord will be with you.
Notice Amos doesn’t say, “Seek to follow the letter of the law, while ignoring the spirit.”
Gospel
Mt 9:14-15
The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast."
Obviously, you shouldn’t be fasting at a wedding. It’s a party!
Jesus is predicting his crucifixion (“when the bridegroom is taken away”), but he doesn’t mention the resurrection at this time. It’s pretty clear he knows that there will be an Age of the Church long after the Ascension. Although Jesus is with us in spirit and in the Eucharist, He’s not visibly present all the time. And so, we fast.
Which isn’t out on YouTube yet, but they release them as podcasts early.
We shouldn’t be doing bad things anyway!
Or even every day, if you can!
Hopefully venial sins. We must go to confession before accepting communion if we’ve committed mortal sins.