LENTEN PARTY

LENTEN PARTY

“Is this the manner of fasting I wish...” – Isaiah 58:5

I’ve associated fasting with eating less or not eating at all. That’s why Lent is such a difficult season for me. I love to eat! Chicharon, kare-kare, sinigang, pasta, extra rice etc… yummy!

But Lent is a feast too — a “party” if you will. It calls us to feast on fasting. To enjoy its benefits, not to endure it. To be more intimate with the Host of the season by allowing our spirit to splurge — on a “bottomless” drink of living water, an endless buffet of spiritual food and grace in abundance.

In a special way, it allows us to fellowship with those who benefit from our fasting — sharing food to the hungry, providing water to the thirsty, giving to those in need, forgiving our debtors and serving our King. Ariel Driz (adriz77@yahoo.com)

REFLECTION:

What is my attitude towards fasting? Do I allow others to benefit from it?

Lord Jesus, thank You for this season… for the chance to enjoy this spiritual feast! Amen.

Hypocritical and Real Fasting

What is fasting all about? Easy to answer but not easy to do — unless your friends hinted that you have gained some weight and you realize that your dress or pants don’t fit anymore as they did a while ago. In other words: fasting is abstaining from or reducing the intake of food, right?

Wrong! How wrong we can be about so many things we thought to be so clear. And we can easily be wrong because we don’t know our Bible enough, especially not the Old Testament. The great prophet Isaiah teaches us today something quite shocking about fasting.

The prophet thunders against the cheap trickery of people who try to impress God by abstaining from some things but commit the worse injustices against their fellowmen by oppressing them and by not caring for the poor, the hungry, the sick and the homeless. For it is easier to fast than to love.

As kids, we abstained during Lent from eating chocolates and candies. We collected them and got a bad stomach ache on Easter when we began to eat what we had collected during the six weeks of Lent. My father loved smoking cigars; during Lent he abstained but I did not see him doing any special acts of charity.

Ascetic practices are good in themselves. There is no doubt about this. But ascetic practices without practicing charity at home, in the neighborhood and among those we meet and live with every day, are useless. Better eat chocolates and smoke your cigarettes and go to a movie even during Lent, but abstain from quarreling, cheating in exams, from lying and gossiping.

Better than abstaining is doing something good. Therefore, your best “fast” would be becoming the most charitable person possible. That’s the “fasting” the disturbing prophet Isaiah teaches us today on the third day of Lent.Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD

Reflection Question:

Who in my family, in my neighborhood, among the people I live with needs my real “fasting” — my love, concern and support?

Ouch, Lord, You got me again. You made me realize that some of my exercises of “self-denial” are not pleasing You at all. Help me to change and serve You with love in the people around me.

Blessed Lucy, pray for us.