Why do we need to fast?

Jesus is now the determinant when is the appropriate time to fast. (Dianzon) He is the event and the person, the messiah and the messianic age, the eschaton and the eschatos, the beginning and the end, the beginning and the fulfillment.

Fasting is necessary because at the time, Jesus have just inaugurated the reign of God. He was still with them. The need to fast is called for when he finally is gone so that the time of fulfillment would come.

But why do we need to fast today?

1. Spiritual Detox

Fasting and Abstinence is necessary to achieve a self-inflicted hunger. It may be what we call the Catholic detox. People today are lured into the habit of limiting food intake for a couple of days or so just to cut loose the unnecessary toxins inside the body, toxins which came from unhealthy diet. Oil, sugar, cholesterol, uric and fatty acids. For a certain period of prescribed time, detoxing people discern which is essential and which is toxic. I would not call it deprivation of several counter prescribed food because detox is not about depriving themselves of it, instead it is about discerning.

Fasting and abstinence is so much like detoxification of the human body. Our goal is to get rid of our Ego as emboldened and nourished by the little powers, fames and pleasures we have put into it for a period of time. Abstinence is the deliberate discernment of which things have lead to pump our Ego and so avoid them for a day or so. To abstain from meat, from delicious food, from sex, from unnecessary leisure, from unnecessary conversation, and unnecessary activity is to create an atmosphere of reflection and intense prayer.

2. Spiritual Refocusing

It may be vital that we identify the things that has owned us for the longest time and examine if they have in anyway contributed to our spiritual well being or they simply added up to the bloated ego we already have. Hunger is necessary for us to crave for the right things. Hunger for God is the deepest and most fundamental of all hungers because in him do we live and move and have our own being. (Acts 17:28) We need to face this hunger and it could only be achieved by sifting through other hungers until we arrive to the hunger for God.

According to Thomas Merton, our desire for food and drink are like the persistence of a child who would like to dominate just to get whatever he or she wanted. Unless and until we are disciplined, we set aside the functions of the soul according to our own intentions. (Barron) Fasting, abstinence and almsgiving are three of the elements of the discipline of Lent. They seek to ensure self-denial and Christian Charity at the same time.

3. Spiritual Reception of Grace

Fasting, almsgiving and abstinence are actions that please God. It was God himself who told the Prophet Hosea “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” Fasting and abstinence are indeed forms of Sacrifices by the self, but they are also sacrifices to achieve something for someone else. The principle of mediation is also applied. They are sacrifices by the person for the attainment of grace for someone he or she would like to offer the sacrifice for. This principle is in consonance with Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. In a way, he fasted and abstained and was stripped off with all he has even his own life for the salvation of the human race.

Almsgiving is an element of the lenten discipline which is directly other-oriented and evocative of Christian Charity. We cannot in any way, separate these 3 from one another if we should like to have a wholistic view of our Christian Life and the celebration of a meaningful lenten season no less. The first reading assures us: “Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high!… . Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!” Fasting are God’s way of preparing his people to receive his graces; that his graces be not fall into wrong unprepared hearts.

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READINGS

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FIRST READING

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!

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

Ps 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19

R. (19b) 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)

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)

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)

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.”