Fasting God's Way

In much of South America, Lent rolls in like a cooling cloud after a long weekend of extreme “let it all hang out heat.” Anyone who has been to Carnival in Rio (3 times I went reluctantly) gets a good idea of the point: for 4 days it’s do all you want, sin all you want, party, dance, parade, expose yourself all you want - because on Ash Wednesday it’s all over. And then it’s on the knees to ask God’s forgiveness for all that you did the previous few days and anything before that. It’s time to give up all that sinning, to shrink our excesses, to give up something specific, and to reduce our complaints and demands on ourselves and each other.  We look for something to give up that we can do without for a limited time, knowing that probably we’ll be successful because it’s only for 40 days. I don’t think this was the point of the holy season that follows Carnival, or Mardi Gras, or whatever nationwide celebration has drawn you into its claws.  These fiestas are short moments when we embrace excess, do all those things stored up in our mind that we think we need to do, then sobering up and getting back to work when Ash Wednesday arrives. What we decide to give up is what we had been doing those few days that we really don’t usually include in our itinerary. We did things we saved up all year to do in a wild and crazy manner, like a vacation, but it is instead related to the religious.

So we try fasting. Fasting in its overuse has lost its original intention.  The Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Church cling to fasting as a way of suffering for the soul. They dictate “Do without so you know what it is to do without. God won’t pay attention to your prayers if you don’t suffer somehow.” Or maybe you just need to prove you have a discipline in your soul that’s on point. But to do without, to suffer in order to please God, I don’t think that’s what God requests. The only fasting prescribed by Law in the Old Testament was the Day of Expiation. Later more chances were added to commemorate national disasters and to implore God’s mercy.  But, too many holy types and wannabes made a big deal out of it, looking like they were at death’s door or to broadcast “I’m fasting” so everyone would think they are a mighty religious person.

In Isaiah 58 God said, “Fasting like yours today will never make your voice heard on high. Is that the sort of fast that pleases me, a day when a person inflicts pain on himself, hanging your head like a reed, spreading out sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call fasting, a day acceptable to Yahweh? Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me: to break unjust fetters, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break all yokes? Is it not sharing food with the hungry, and sheltering the homeless poor; if you see someone lacking clothes, then clothe him, and not to turn away from your own kin? Your light will blaze out like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over. Saving justice for you will go ahead and Yahweh’s glory will come behind you. Then you will cry out for help and Yahweh will answer.”

Isaiah continues with God’s words: “If you do away with the yoke, and the clenched fist, and malicious words, if you deprive yourself for the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, your light will rise in the darkness and your darkest hours will be like noon. Yahweh will always guide you…. He will give strength to your bones and you will be like a watered garden, like a flowing spring whose waters never run dry.”

I think this is the kind of fasting that we should seek in our lives, not just during Lent, but all the time.  Fasting is not about me. It is about reaching out to others. It is sharing food with the hungry, not giving up chocolate. It is clothing the naked neighbor, not going semi-naked in a barely there bikini yourself. It is advocating for justice and freedom, and not being frightened to speak out about injustice nor delay in helping forgotten men and women. Yahweh’s fasting is satisfying, relieving the needs of the oppressed and the afflicted. This is what He wants. This is the kind of spiritual action that is much more important than giving up food and drink or crawling on our knees to pray to some statue of a saint or the Virgin Mary. God wants us to be useful citizens of the world and to care about each other. It is sad that this comes with the idea of reduction or giving up joys or suffering on our part, because that was not the intention. Doing good should be the outward expression of our inward feelings, our heart and soul.

Although I admire the desert hermits who cut themselves off from all luxury and identification with life, I don’t think that kind of fasting of life is what God expects us to do. Isolation, which we have learned so much about, is not healthy, nor is it serving God, except in the concept that in isolation, one is not passing or exposing self to the coronavirus.  In this day and time, when there is so much tragedy, crime, injustice, hunger, we need to get involved with mankind - no matter who it is or what they do or believe.  We need to sacrifice our comfort and our favorite hobbies now and then in order to leap into the thick of things and make a difference. As Frederick Douglass said, “Agitate. Agitate. Agitate.”

Lent is a time when maybe we can structure our lives to be more like Jesus. He was having his desert experience for forty days complete with Satan’s harassment. But in that desert place, Jesus learned about silence, about fortitude before temptation, about the presence of His Father and the point of his being on Earth. Because Jesus withdrew from the worldly world and went to that barren place, He was better able to listen. So maybe instead of not drinking coffee or beer for a while, what if we siphon off a half hour a day for our spiritual refreshment. Make it like a desert experience. Pray and Meditate. Close off all around you. Seek the silent. Sit in a chair and meditate about Jesus and his life and the words of the Gospels. Give God a chance to come into your mind and heart and reorder it. Maybe you will have a re-awakening that can change your whole attitude about what you are doing and where you should go. Some of us are in moments of change. Will restraint from eating from dawn to dusk make a difference? No.  Not if we keep trying to make it through our daily routines. So wouldn’t it be better to eat the little we need to eat to fuel our bodies and choose instead to give up a bit of our busy time to nourish someone else’s spirit?

If we cannot hear Yahweh guiding us, then we won’t know where to go. If we can be assured we are in his hands, then “He will give strength to your bones and you will be like a watered garden, like a flowing spring whose waters never run dry.” Just a few minutes a day on a regular basis is all God asks for. If we think first of Him, then the rest of the day cannot be a disaster. It is a neat habit, and maybe, when Lent ends, it will have so delighted you and brought you peace, that you will not give up that habit. It will become a fixed reward for yourself. A strange way to fast. But a more reasonable one which Yahweh will sanction.

 ~ Rev
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