Friday, February 12, 2016

Homily: Friday after Ash Wednesday 2016 - Joyful fasting



So…Why DID John’s disciples and the Pharisees fast so much, while Jesus’ disciples fasted so little?
In his somewhat enigmatic statement about the Bridegroom, Jesus tried to teach one of the most fundamental attitudes for a Christian: joy. When God is with us we are to rejoice. When God is with us and we are with God it should be much more like Easter Sunday than Good Friday.

The prevailing attitude of Jesus’ day was simply: the more you fast the holier you must be. The Pharisees derived their religious authority from how holy people thought they were. So they fasted, they wore wide phylacteries, they prided themselves on external precepts.  But Jesus, over and over exposed their hypocrisy.  Holiness isn’t just about fasting and the clothes you wear. Holiness isn’t about play-acting.  Holiness is from the inside-out. “Rend your hearts, not your garments” we heard on Ash Wednesday.

Jesus isn’t saying here that fasting is bad.  But, this Gospel today really helps us to understand the purpose of our Lenten fasting, and the proper motivation for it.

Why do we fast? After all, didn’t Jesus say at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, that he is with us always until the end of time? Isn’t Jesus truly present in all the tabernacles of the world? Isn’t he going to become present to us at this Holy Mass? So present, that we will touch his very flesh and blood?
 The reality of Lent is that even though Jesus is always with us, we are not always with Him.  We fast, not because Jesus is absent, but because foolishly withdraw from Him through our sins. Fasting is one of those means by which we begin to hunger for Him, to desire to be with Him always.  We fast in order to “rend our hearts”: to rekindle our longing to be with God, to live by his wisdom, and to abhor sin by which we withdraw from Him.

Through fasting we show that the pleasures of this world are not what make us whole and truly fulfilled. It is not cookies and snacking and desserts and television and internet and whiskey and wine in which we find our joy.  True Lenten fasting should open us to new vistas of joy.

This is why during Lent we also increase our prayer.  For it is through prayer that God feeds us. He feeds us through his Word, and so we spend more time reflecting on Scriptures, we make extra effort to attend weekday Mass, we meditate on how much he loved us when we attend the stations of the cross, we spend more time in quiet simply listening for his voice.

We fast in order to deepen our hunger for him, and we pray in order to be fed by him.  May our Lenten practices truly help us to rend our hearts, to turn away from Sin, and find our joy in Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls.


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