Fasting

It is here; it has begun:  Ash Wednesday with its clear sign of penitence boldly imprinted on our foreheads.  A day of fasting and abstinence, that is, one full meatless meal (with two smaller "meals" to tide us over).  Is this just a spiritual endurance test, or can it be something deeper?  Heather King, convert and spiritual writer, sheds some light on the meaning of fasting:  Fasting has always been hard.  Fasting is a reflection of the fact that the more desperate we are, the more open we are to change.  Fasting reminds us that the more keenly aware we are of our empty hands and our empty stomach, the more likely we are to realize we need help.  Fasting helps us to remember that we are all poor, and how very much we do not want to be poor. --Magnificat, February 2013, p. 171.
 Taking today's fasting and abstinence seriously will make us hungry, and that pang, we trust, will make us hunger for the things that really matter; it will help us to clear the clutter that blocks us from a fuller relationship with Jesus and our neighbor; it will give us a sense of our own "poverty" and our need for God to fill up what is lacking.  Truly, no one likes to be poor, nor wants to be poor.  Seeing so much material poverty in Rwanda convinced me that being poor is not desirable...the poor certainly do everything possible to lift themselves out of poverty.  Yet, the awareness of our dependence on God is a healthy offshoot of being emptied, of being deprived.  Our Lenten fasting is a door to a healthier understanding of who we are and who God is, and leads to a more humble and compassionate relationship with our neighbor. In this light, as contradictory as it may sound, we can say, Happy Ash Wednesday, happy fasting!
Bro. Rene