Fasting: Why is Food So Important to God?

We are creatures who eat to survive, so of course food is important to us. But why is it so much on God's mind?

From the beginning, man's relationship to God and righteousness has been structured around food and its consumption. What man could and could not eat was central to his residence in Eden. The Passover Feast required the careful preparation and communal consumption of certain foods as part of a rite to be spared the death plague. Our Lord instituted the Sacrament of Holy Communion at the Passover Feast with the Last Supper. Righteousness, purity, sacrifice, and obedience are addressed throughout the Scriptures in terms of the preparation, use, and consumption of food. When Jesus considered the hunger of the 4000 and then the 5000, he could have miraculously suspended or met their nutritional needs without feeding them. But he chose instead to give them food. A deliberate choice. There must be a reason, even if we do not understand it. In any case, you will find hundreds of examples highlighting the centrality of food to the practice of our faith. Interwoven in all of the references to food is, of course, fasting.

The prophets fasted before they prophesied. Jesus fasted 40 days before the start of his ministry on earth. Fasting is prescribed as a religious practice for both Jews and Christians. Fasting is central to spiritual preparation and is most often combined with prayer and meditation as part of a complete program of spiritual readiness. But what is fasting?

First of all, what is it not? Fasting is not simply giving up your favorite thing. It is not simply an exercise in self-denial. It is not, strictly speaking, an act of depriving yourself. It is replacing one form of sustenance with another for spiritual health. Spiritual fitness and agility. Spiritual readiness for combat. The exercise of a spiritual training camp! This leads to why we should fast, especially during Lent. But, again, let us first examine what is not why we should fast...

Should we fast so that we may obtain a sense of accomplishment ("man, that was difficult, but I did it!")? No. Should we fast to achieve a better self ("now that I've fasted, I am on a higher spiritual plain.")? No. Should we fast to exalt ourselves over others who do not fast so well or at all ("look at those slackers over there eating jelly beans during Lent!")? No.

So, then, why should we fast? It is simply this: Fasting sharpens the spiritual wit!

By the phrase spiritual training camp, again, we do not mean a period of austerity or denial - for which, unfortunately, the human mind is more often than not apt to either harbor resentment, or proudly take credit ... or both. Instead, for us it is a time to take advantage of the gifts of the Ordo and the Church to shift how we fill our time, mind, and body; to take in that which restores health, builds spiritual strength, and sharpens our focus and spiritual wit.

Peoples from ancient times, have learned that, even without any connection to religion and faith, a period of reduced food intake and greater study sharpens the mind and the spirit; the thoughts and the skills. Thus it is not surprising that, as God has designed all of us (even those who do not believe in Him), we are wired to improve by fasting, study, prayer, and even restful contemplation. There are simple and arduous methods of fasting. Some use a rigorous rule or regimen as a help to stay focused and on track.

Perhaps this is a bit lenient in comparison, but we urge a simple approach to start. Simply eat less food, fewer meals, prepared more simply. De-emphasize the event but not the thankfulness to God for the sustenance. Replace some of that sustenance with additional Bible study - even a few verses read silently or aloud, between bookends of prayer; or with more time in family discussion or in charitable works. Replace a modest amount of time and energy normally devoted to entertainment or labor with spiritual reading, worship, or simply, quiet time, wherein one reclines at the feet of our Lord, leaning against his robe, and feeling the comfort of his goodness and strength.

So, you see, this is not really denial. True, it takes discipline and the Holy Spirit's help, but it is certainly not deprivation. It is better food of another sort. We are urged to try, and if and when we stumble and fall, to arise and try again. Ya gotta be a little tough though. It is our spiritual training camp, after all.

First Sunday in Lent: Our Time in the Wilderness

EPISTLE: "We then, as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain; for He saith,

I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: [Isaiah 49:8]

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We give no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: but in all things approve ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live;

as chastened, and not killed; [Psalm 118:18]

as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things."

-2 Corinthians 6:1-10

An apt description of Apostleship! The authentic Apostle (that we must aspire to emulate). The life that demonstrates the paradox of God's strength working in human weakness; the life that exists always in the present moment on the threshold of Christ's triumphant return ("now is the day of salvation"); a life of sincere love, not of love pretended in hypocrisy for selfish purposes; a life of renouncing the world in order to master it; a life lived in the wisdom that to hold true Joy, we must also hold onto our sorrow (contrary to the banal nostrums of modern psychology) that it may be transformed in Christ.

That we may be transformed in Christ.

GOSPEL: "Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written,

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. [Deuteronomy 8:3]

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written,

He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone [Psalm 91:11].

Jesus said unto him, It is written again,

Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. [Deuteronomy 6:16]

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written,

Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. [Deuteronomy 6:13, 10:20; Joshua 24:14]

Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. "

- Matthew 4:1-11

Jesus was not tempted because he fasted. He fasted and prayed to overcome temptation. The Spirit controlling the Flesh. In Him, then, is our perfection of that control. By the Holy Spirit He sends us, the Helper, we are able to apply holy wisdom and resist temptation, and be not daunted when we fall short, but instead call on the Spirit again and again, and put the Scriptures in our hearts and minds for the Spirit's ready use (knowing that Christ replied to Satan with Scripture, and that the Holy Spirit will give us utterance of the Word in so far as we are prepared).

Before Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, he fasted 40 days. There are 40 days in Lent. The Israelites wandered 40 years in the wilderness. In God's Word, 4 reflects the fullness of creation, 10 the quality of finiteness, of being countable. 40 conveys a finite period of time of preparation in the created realm. It is a pattern, a guide, a blueprint. Our lives on earth are a time in the wilderness; a prolonged single moment of either accepting or rejecting Christ; of preparing for either an eternity of joyful unity with Christ or an eternity of utter and desolate separation from God. In this moment on the threshold of eternity, then, periods of fasting and praying strengthen us spiritually. At certain times, such as Lent, or as dangers and needs arise, we fast and pray even more.

Fasting with prayer is a tool with the power to protect. We neglect its use at our peril. So, we should fast as much as we are able, studying the Scriptures and praying – especially now in Lent, for our benefit and that of the Church, which is to say, the Bride of Christ. Amen

Second Sunday in Lent - "O Woman, Great Is Thy Faith."

Epistle: "We beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit." - 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;” in this exhortation to the Thessalonians, Paul is reminding us that holiness and sanctification (through the Holy Spirit, and for our salvation) do include sexual purity and self restraint even if we can otherwise present an impressive resumé of creditable good works.  Paul recognizes the potential for us to be corrupted even by our success in doing good.  That is why, just three verses after today’s Epistle reading, in 1 Thessalonians 4:11, he gives this advice, as a bedrock of practicality in Christian living: “...aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.”

Gospel: "JESUS went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour." - Matthew 15:21-28

Jesus accepts us all as we are.  But this does not mean God suddenly, one day, changed from being hard to being soft on the crime of our sin.  Even so, we tend to think that way.  Hence we tend to feel more than a little discomfort when Jesus employs the metaphor of children to the Chosen People of Israel and dogs to all other people.  It goes against the grain of our post-modern concept of fairness.  But Jesus meant what he said, and what he said was true.  And the woman agreed to that, showing her wisdom, even as she showed her faith.  This scripture tells us that the standards, which separated the Chosen People from the rest of humanity, have not changed, but, rather, have been met by Christ, and can only be achieved for our salvation through Christ and in Christ.  We did not go from a condition where most of humanity was excluded to one of where all humanity was included as a step of moral evolution in supernatural tolerance through which everything suddenly became OK.  True, it is not up to us to apply these metaphors Jesus used to our fellow miserable creatures, or to worry about separating the wheat from the tares, the good from the evil, for God will do that.  Rather, ours is to love as Christ loves, which, as Paul tells us, covers a multitude of sins.  Ours is to know how awful is the difference between our state and that which is truly holy, and to comprehend how impossibly high the standard of righteousness is.  Not that we give up, but that we give in to the Holy Spirit and put ourselves in Christ, aspiring to the faith of the Canaanite woman, whose example we find in the words of our Lord, “O woman, great is thy faith.  Be it unto thee even thou wilt.”

Passion Sunday:
"Before Abraham was, I AM"

In the Gospel for the 5^th Sunday in Lent, or Passion Sunday, we read again these words Jesus spake unto a gathering of some of God’s Chosen People:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you,
before Abraham was, I AM.”

He knew what they thought they knew from scripture, particularly the account in the Book of Exodus of God’s answer to Moses’ question about what he should say when asked for the name of God who sends him:

“And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM:
and he said,
Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel,
I AM hath sent me unto you.”

Thus asserting his divinity, authority and true knowledge of God the Father, Jesus removed any alternative options they might have used to explain away or marginalize his ministry and its impact; to restore the order and normality they thought proper for their religious and cultural practices; to assuage their envy and their desire to oust this renegade who had chased away their comfort of serving the lust of power rather than administering the Mercy of God; to avenge themselves for his having the ear and hearts of the people.

They would have to put Jesus to death.