What it is to fast

"A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:
This, rather, is the fasting that I wish. . . . (Isaiah 58:6)

The disciplines of Lent, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, are renewals - interior actions that require exterior expressions. Fasting is a practice that helps us break away from our attachments to worldly things. But if the focus of the fasting is entirely upon our experience, it is a wasted practice. If our thought in prayer or fasting, or repentance, is ever for ourselves, then we are not doing what we aim to do.

The entire purpose of Lent is to lead us ever closer to the Lord. For this to happen, our focus needs to be on Him and on service to Him. If we are looking inward and spending all of Lent considering how terrible and sinful and wretched we are, we will not, by the end of it, accomplish our goal.

What is the fasting the Lord wants? It is a fasting of service. If you are eating less, then share your food with those who have none. If you are fasting, then open your doors to those who have no home. If you want to perfect your fast, break every bond. Help others to overcome their addictions, their bondage to earthly things. Serve in a kitchen for the impoverished, and do it not with the idea that it is good for you, but with the idea that it is Good. Do everything you do with God firmly in mind and move forward with every action, not thinking about the wretched condition of your soul or what a pitiful sinner you are - these are points for evening examen, if they need to be taken up. No, rather do everything for the joy of serving Jesus - because THAT is a fast truly acceptable to the Lord."

~ JuandelaCruz