Fasting is not good. It can make your headache. It can give you an upset stomach. It can make you irritable. It can make you proud of your willpower to avoid food. It can make you gloomy. It can lead to depression. Fasting by itself is not good.
The worldly and the vain can see something good in it by the weight loss that it can result in. It can lead to a sexier figure. But it is not the size of the body that God looks for but the size of a loving heart. In other words, your “fatness” or “thinness” is nothing. The capacity of your heart to serve is what counts the most in the Kingdom of God.
Fasting is not good. It is not good by itself. Fasting always has a twin sister, and that sister is alms-giving. It is service. It is concern for others. Fasting and service for others must always go together. We fast so that we can give more to people who fast by force of their life condition. Some people have to fast without their opting for it. Life can be so hard. Earning a living can be so difficult. Fasters must remember these people. The little money saved from not taking a merienda or not going to the grocery store must be given to the poor. It must be shared with those who fast practically every day. Fasting must be accompanied not only by acts of charity but also by acts of justice as well. Fasting must be accompanied by giving just wages to house helpers and drivers. Fasting must be a twin sister of fairness in business and equal treatment of persons. Without this twin sister of justice and charity, fasting is an act disgusting before the eyes of God.
At this phase of our history, when there is so much politicking and grandstanding, the fasting during Lent must be accompanied by concrete acts of patriotic love. Our fasting would be greatly incomplete if we cut our spiritual life away from the happenings in our beloved nation. Only a few months after the EDSA revolution, Cardinal Sin already called for this kind of fasting and sacrifice for the nation.
When you fast, it is certainly important to remember the poor. Almsgiving is her twin sister. Fasting has another twin sister, and that is feasting. When you fast, be happy and be joyful. Do not put on a gloomy face when you fast.
The gospel is very clear. We should fast if the bridegroom is taken away. If the bridegroom is with us, if the Lord is with us, we should stop fasting. The question is, should we fast or not?
We should fast because the realistic answer is “The Lord is not yet completely with us.” We should fast because the Lord is not yet realistically present to us completely. And yet we know the Lord said before he ascended to heaven, “I will be with you until the end of the world.” Therefore, the Lord is with us, so we should not fast.
Our Christian life is that way. It is an interplay of fasting and feasting. It is an interplay of presence and absence. The Lord is truly present, yet He is not truly present. The Lord is absent, yet He is present. We say yes, and yet we also have to say no. We must feast now as we celebrate the Eucharist, the banquet of the Lord. At the same time, we must fast because the presence of the Lord in our hearts is not yet complete.
The reality of the Christian life is like this. It is joy with pain, joy through pain, and joy in pain.
The Christian life is an interplay of fasting and feasting. The Eucharist is the sacrifice of the Lord, but it is also the banquet of the Lord.
Do we have enough proof in our hearts that we are a celebrating, as well as a sacrificing people? It is true we are an alleluia people. But it is also true we are sinners in need of forgiveness. The Christian life is an interplay of joy and pain, yes and no, presence and absence.
WHEN YOU FAST
Jesus Our Light