Friday after Ash Wednesday 2022 - The days are coming when my disciples will fast

 

“The days are coming when my disciples will fast”, well, here they are. Before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the entire season of Lent was a time of rigorous fasting for all adult Catholics: no eating between meals, and two smaller meals not adding up to the main meal of the day.   And throughout the whole year, Catholics were to abstain from eating meat on Fridays.  

After Vatican II, these disciplines changed.  The abstaining from meat on Fridays throughout the year may now be substituted with some other penitential practice, though Fridays during Lent are still days of abstinence from meat.  And we have only two mandated fast days to observe: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

The practice of fasting goes far back into our biblical roots.  The Old Testament shows people fasting as a sign of repentance and desire for conversion. The Jews even had days of fasting: “Blow the trumpet in Zion! proclaim a fast” we heard from the prophet Joel on Ash Wednesday.

The New Testament also recommends the practice. “Some demons are driven out only by prayer and fasting” the Lord tells his disciples. And on Ash Wednesday, we heard the Lord say, “when you fast” you shouldn’t do so for outward appearances, but for interior renewal. When St. Paul was strike blind, he fasted for three days. The Lord Himself, as we’ll hear this Sunday, fasted for forty days.

Fasting for Christians isn’t just a sort of religious weight loss program.  We don’t fast simply for the purpose of reducing our waist size, though that is always a pleasant result of this spiritual practice.

Fasting is a spiritual self-discipline that makes us conscious of our dependence on God.  We voluntarily experience physical hunger in order to become aware of our true spiritual hunger.  That the deepest hunger of the human soul comes for the peace and joy and life that can only be satisfied by communion with God.

Another reason we fast is to subdue our passions and self-will; to discipline our unruly appetites. If we cannot control our stomach, how can we control our urges for pleasure, money, and power?  

Fasting opens our heart to charity.  Listen again to the Prophet Isaiah this morning: “This, rather, is the fasting, that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the throngs 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.”

May we take seriously the call to fasting this Lent, that our minds and hearts may be conformed ever more deeply to Christ, and be made ready for the feast of Eternal Easter, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the whole Christian people, that in this sacred Lenten season, they may be more abundantly nourished by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

For the whole world, that in lasting tranquility and peace our days may truly become the acceptable time of grace and salvation.

For sinners and those who neglect right religion, that in this time of reconciliation they may return wholeheartedly to Christ.

For ourselves, that God may at last stir up in our hearts aversion for our sins and conviction for the Gospel.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy.