Fasting is the
soul of prayer; mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So if you
pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition
to be heard, then hear the petition of others. If you do not
close your ear to others you open God's ear to yourself. Offer
your soul to God. make him an oblation of your fasting, so that
your soul may be a pure offering, a holy sacrifice, a living
victim, remaining your own and at the same time made over to
God. Whoever fails to give this to God will not be excused, for
if you are to give him yourself you are never without the means
of giving.
Ash Wednesday is a Day of Fasting and Abstinence
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are to be observed as special days of
Fasting and Abstinence. Fasting means reducing the amount of food which
we would normally eat. Abstinence means not eating meat. The law of
Fasting binds all those who are between eighteen years of age and sixty
years of age. The law of Abstinence binds everyone age fourteen and
older (except for the frail and the sick). Parents are urged to foster
the spirit and practice of penance among those who are too young to be
subjects of either law.
We all should be able to fast in some degree on this day. Undoubtedly
most of us eat and drink too much. Rather than eating when we are indeed
hungry, when our body needs food, and drinking when we are thirsty, we
usually eat or drink for some kind of pleasure. Lent is a superb time to
subdue our eating and drinking indulgences and learn to monitor our body
respectfully and healthfully. It is after all the temple of the living
Spirit. By fasting it also enables us to share something of the plight
of millions of our brethren around the world who are dying from hunger
and who would gladly eat the crusts we cut off our bread and discard. By
fasting we also learn not to be wasteful. Fasting also helps to mortify
the flesh. "We must deny our own wills, our appetites of gluttony and
drunkenness, ... for the purchase of temperance." It is therefore a
means whereby "the will of man may humbly obey God, and absolutely rule
its inferior faculities."
However fasting is not simply a matter of exercising self discipline and
showing how strong willed we can be. It in fact has two parts: the
outward, pertaining to our body, and the inward in the heart and mind.
Thus like abstinence the discipline we impose on ourselves is an act of
love for Him in thanksgiving for the many blessings He has given us
through His passion, and to help us to grow in holiness and in imitation
of Christ Himself. By fasting, it means also we try to practise the
example of our Lord. Not only do we have His commendation for it by His
forty days in the wilderness, but also we have His example when He
withdrew from the crowds to a lonely place to pray and fast.
