A Reflection for Friday After Ash Wednesday
Find today’s readings here.
The practice of fasting appears in both readings today. It is a challenging topic; although fasting appears throughout the Bible as a pious practice, no clear tradition emerges. It has different meanings depending on the place, time and circumstances of its appearance in the text. St. Paul, for example, knows of it as a type of athletic training (1 Cor 9:25). For others, it is a practice associated with mourning and sadness (Jl 2:12; Mt 9:15). It is even possible that for others, fasting was part of a set of practices one undertook to receive a vision (Ex 24:28; Mt 4:1-11). Fasting was such a common activity in the ancient world that it is difficult to pin down a specific meaning attached to it.
Two situations in the pre-industrial world compelled fasting. One was the relative lack of stored foods at the end of winter. Before the invention of refrigeration, one had to eat up one’s stored food before it went bad. This led to periods of wintertime feasting like the English Twelve Days of Christmas, the German festival of Fasching, French Mardi Gras, and, in Latin countries, Carnival. Once the perishables ran out, one had to wait until late spring or early summer when land and livestock started producing again. The interim period was a lean time when only stored vegetables, grains and the occasional fresh fish were readily available.
The second situation was related to the first. In an era of relatively scarce foodstuffs, any big celebration required a time of fasting beforehand. To prepare enough food for one’s wedding guests, for example, one had to set aside supplies for the big day. In addition, whatever cash may have gone to day-to-day needs now had to be saved and spent on the feast. For most people, every celebration required a time of fasting beforehand. The longer the fast, the greater the feast. Fasting therefore symbolizes preparation, whether for summer or for a feast. This is what makes it so appropriate as a preparation for Easter.
Fasting has another aspect that comes out in today’s readings. Fasting is a way of paying attention. Eating and rest were closely connected in the ancient world. In general, people only ate full meals at midday and sundown. In both cases a rest period followed the meal. The evangelists play on this reality when they describe the disciples falling asleep at Jesus’ side in Gethsemane. To refrain from food was a way of staying alert.
Thus, in today’s Gospel passage, Jesus promises that, when he is no longer in the flesh, his disciples will prepare themselves for his return through fasting. It will keep them attentive to the signs of his arrival.
The mention of fasting in today’s first reading has some of the same qualities. It is clear that the people fasting in Is 58:2-3 are doing so, in part, out of a “desire to draw near to God.” It is an act of preparation and attentiveness. What God demands, however, is more than just some semi-magical incubation. To draw near to God, Israel also had to fast from their acts of oppression. Fasting had to cost them something that would liberate someone else. “Is it not sharing your bread with the hungry, bringing the afflicted and the homeless into your house, clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own flesh?”
This is the same fasting that God desires of us. Lent invites us to make sacrifices of time and pleasure in order to set others free from the things that enslave them. We prepare for the coming Easter feast by letting go of resentments or grudges, forgiving debts and restoring harmony in our families and communities. We keep ourselves attentive to Christ in the poor by sharing our bread with the hungry and clothing the naked. Only then will we catch sight of the bridegroom when he returns.
