3-D Lent: Fasting

The three disciplines of Lent are fasting, almsgiving and prayer. When practiced, they improve the three dimensions of our lives—body, mind and spirit. I’m not talking humongous Lenten promises like not eating any form of dessert, tithing 90%, or praying all four mysteries of the rosary–daily. I’m talking about any attempt to fast, give alms and pray–even if all you can manage are paltry efforts.

Remember the parable of the mustard seed? (The tiny seed grows into a large, tree-like plant.) You’ll be amazed what God can do with tiny seed-size effort.

Let me say here what the three disciplines of Lent are not. They are not the mean-old Church’s way of making us obey some arcane rules. In fact, Merriam-Webster’s dictionary’s first definition of discipline is self-control. The Church encourages the three disciplines to increase our self-control in human activities (like eating, drinking and pleasure) so we’ll be more likely to maintain self-control in spiritual matters (like being tempted to overdo the good stuff of eating, drinking, and pleasure).

It’s really that simple and that honest.

Today we’ll focus on fasting.

Fasting is a prayer form that moves you closer to God by denying your appetite that tempts you to over indulge. Technically, it’s reducing your food intake to one regular meal and two smaller meals per day. The two smaller meals, together, should not equal a full meal. For people who snack between meals or eat as much as they want during meals, this is a challenge. So should you just ignore fasting if you’ve tried it and it doesn’t work?

No. Discipline is about developing self-control, right? So, develop self-control in small steps.

Maybe you have two cups of coffee each morning. Could you reduce it to one and a half? What about to one?

Maybe you always have second helpings. Could you skip the second helping, or take half as much of it?

Only you can say if you are honestly doing the best you can when you fast. But If you use a soft drink to replace the second cup of coffee, you haven’t sacrificed much. If you load your plate on the first serving because you won’t be taking a second, then you haven’t sacrificed anything. It’s not about “beating the system”. Afterall, there’s no system to beat but yourself. The goal is for you to control your body, not for your body to control you.

The Church suggests you fast if you have reached your 18^th birthday but have not yet celebrated your 60^th and are healthy.  No form of discipline should cause harm, though. If you have a condition that makes it unwise to reduce the amount or the frequency of your meals, you should tweak the recommended fast to suit your needs (not your wants). For instance, you could:

• Fast from candy, dessert, comfort foods, or preferred beverages
• Fast from adding sugar to your coffee or tea (or using a lot less of it)

You could also fast from consuming other things besides food. For instance, you could:

• Reduce your technology-use time by not playing games alone on an iPad, reading social media (except this blog, of course), or reading celebrity gossip. You could use the saved time to do something for someone else like help with a chore or visiting someone who enjoys your company or is lonely.
• Give up a fun event, like a regular T.V. show, and use the time for personal prayer, or better yet, participate in your parish’s Lenten programs online (or my Guided Meditation for Lent), or by using the pandemic prevention guidelines and attend in person. When’s the last time you prayed the Stations of the Cross? Or attended Holy Hour. (We’ll talk about that later in “Contemplative Prayer. It’s easier than you think.”)
• Give up doing what you want and letting others choose the activity, have the better seat, or tell the joke.

Although the purpose of fasting is to strengthen our self-control, there’s a second reason, a benefit, to fasting as well: it lets you feel what millions of people around the world feel all day, day after day—hungry. Hungry for food, for companionship, for having the spotlight.

Of course, your experience during fasting won’t replicate theirs. You know your fasting will end. You know a feast with fancy drinks and desserts awaits you at the completion of your 40 days if you want it. Your body will not become so weak that you’ll get sick. You won’t experience mental distress because you can’t feed your family or yourself. Your experience will be an artificial experience of what those in poverty are actually having. But having felt it, even on a small scale, will build an understanding in you of what others are going through and what blessings you have.

 Hopefully that will lead you to share with them; and pray for others to share with them as well.

Most importantly, fasting will build your self-control in spiritual matters so you can say no to sin as well as to apple pie.

The Church suggests we observe a 40-day Lenten Fast but minimally on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. And every year people ask what 40 days the Church is talking about. 40 days from Ash Wednesday is only Palm Sunday. So, do we not fast during Holy Week, those seven sacred days leading to Easter? Or should we take Sundays off from fasting and end our 40 days on Holy Saturday morning?

In actuality, 40 days is not unlike the symbolic 40-days talked about in the last post as meaning a long time. Our Lenten 40-days means for the whole of Lent—from Ash Wednesday until the end of the Easter Vigil services late on Holy Saturday night. (If you want to impress your Catholic friends, tell them the 40-day Lenten Fast is replaced by the Paschal Fast of the Triduum–which is Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

When you keep a 40-day Lenten Fast, you feel like you wake up Easter Morning feeling wonderful because you met a challenge head on. Your body, mind, and soul rejoice. And they should! You have accomplished something important.

I hope you’ll find this out for yourselves. Plan it now. Ash Wednesday is February 17^th this year.

I hope you stop by again. We have to talk about almsgiving.

Be blessed.