The right way to fast

On my Facebook page the last couple of days, there’s been a lot of discussion about ‘fasting’ during Lent.  Traditionally, fasting during Lent means giving up something we enjoy or are attached to.  Some of the ‘stuff’ people give up are sodas, candy, social media, and other addictions.  Others take on practices they usually don’t do, like attending daily Mass, reading the Bible, praying more.  Our pastor told us during his homily on Ash Wednesday that at one time, he gave up scratching any itches that bothered him, while thinking of Jesus’ suffering on the cross as he (the pastor) endured the inconvenience.  These are all OK, in my book.

But according to the Prophet Isaiah, there’s a right way and a wrong way to fast.  As Isaiah puts it, the right way to fast is really a way to be genuinely religious and, for the Christian, adequately to imitate Christ [Isaiah 58:1-9].

First, he explains how NOT to fast—that would be to be so focused on ourselves that we can’t really see beyond ourselves.  Isaiah’s words excoriate those who (allegedly) fast and yet “drive all your laborers,” and let their fasting end in “quarreling and fighting, striking with a wicked claw.”

Well, then—we might ask—how DO we fast?  The kind of fasting that God wants (according to Isaiah) is pretty much the opposite of the above.  The right way to fast is to be persons who look outside of ourselves to those in need around us.  Feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, clothing the naked—that’s what fasting is all about.

Hearing these qualities of fasting I’m reminded of what Jesus says in Matthew’s gospel [Matthew 25:31-46] in describing why some are saved and others are not.  “Whenever you did it to one of the least of my brothers or sisters, you did it for me,” Jesus says to those who fed the hungry, visited prisoners, clothed the naked, or performed other actions in service of others.

Christ rewards simple, ordinary actions that we may even tend to take for granted.  Lent gives us the needed opportunity to look at ourselves from the perspective of this kind of fasting.  Can I be open to the poor and the needy around me?  Do I need to be more attentive to others or is the focus in my life squarely on myself?

We need to give these and similar questions a chance to surface and to be answered.  Lent gives us all a chance to see and to reflect on what is of ultimate importance to us.  Let’s pray for the openness to accept the challenges these questions offer us.