Why do we fast?

In the book of the prophet Isaiah 58:3 we read these words: “Why do we fast, and you do not see it? Afflict ourselves, and you take no notice of it?” This was God’s way of replying to the children of Israel who wondered why God was paying a deaf ear to their supplication. Don’t we feel like this most of the time? We sometimes wonder why we go to Church at all if our prayers seem to go unanswered. So as we begin this season of Lent it would be good to look at the pillars of Lent: Prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We are told by Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that we should pray more, fast a lot and give to those in need more than we have ever done before during Lent. But note: he said that all these should be done in secret since the one to reward us is God himself. Please read for yourself these sacred words that come out of the mouth of the teacher himself as recorded by the Gospel of Matthew 6:1-8,16-18. Notice that Christ started by sounding a note of warning: “…Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father."

God, in the passage from Isaiah quoted above, went on to state why the fasting and the prayer of the children of Israel do not go up to Him. “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” Is. 58:3-8.

From the aforementioned, there is a strong correlation between fasting and justice. God links the fasting that pleases him to doing justice. The reason why this is so emphasized during Lent, I think, is that Lent should bring out the best in all of us. Since during Lent, we must necessarily think of the welfare of our brothers and sisters as well as doing all that we can to avoid sins and all that lead to sins. In his message for Lent this year, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict calls “us to be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works. He stated that, “Christians can also express their membership in the one body which is the Church through concrete concern for the poorest of the poor. Concern for one another likewise means acknowledging the good that the Lord is doing in others and giving thanks for the wonders of grace that Almighty God in his goodness continuously accomplishes in his children.”

In his Lenten letter the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal reminds us that we fast during Lent so that we may “adapt our lives with determination to the will of God, freeing ourselves from any egoism, lust for power, or avarice, by opening our hearts to the love of Christ and neighbor, especially the poor and indigent. Lent, as the Holy Father reminds us, is a providential time for us to recognize our frailty and welcome reconciliation, in order to orient ourselves to Christ.” So we fast for various reasons, but most of all we fast so as to imitate Christ, according to Patriarch Twal, “to be conscious of those who hunger and thirst. As proclaimed by the fourth Preface for Lent: “For through bodily fasting you restrain our faults, raise up our minds, and bestow both virtue and its rewards, through Christ our Lord.”

This then is the type of fasting that pleases God. Listen to Him, “If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; then the Lord will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails” Is. 58:10-12. What else can I tell you?