The good news about fasting

IN THE OLD DAYS, one of the things that distinguished Catholics was the fact that they did not eat meat on Fridays. You could even tell how many Catholics lived in a city by the number of fish fries there were on a Friday.

After the Second Vatican Council, the obligation was loosened a bit. For a while we were totally free, and then later the bishops asked that people consider abstaining from meat once again, or at least consider performing some sort of penitential practice on Friday. Why do we fast and abstain? Who does it help?

Fasting is for us

Sometimes when we abstained from meat of Friday, or fasted on Ash Wednesday or good Friday, we had the feeling that if we failed to do it, God would be angry at us. It was almost as if God were in heaven looking down on us, searching for some reason to punish us.

Yet ultimately we fast for our own good. we are not asked to fast because God hates candy or meat on Friday; we are asked to fast because it helps us to choose God’s love with all our heart, soul and even our body.

Food is good

God created food for our benefit. Anyone who has eaten a hot fudge Sunday or a piece of New York cheesecake knows that they reflect the goodness of God! Yet, sometimes we allow something that was created for our good to become too important. for example, we misuse food by eating too much, or by eating the wrong thing. We begin to eat our meals without even thinking of how every mouthful is a gift from God, something for which we should be grateful. We allow our appetites to control us rather than our controlling our appetites.

Fasting helps us to put food back in its proper perspective. By fasting we are stating that food is not the most important thing in our lives. Those hunger pains that we feel after a couple of hours remind us that there are things more important than immediate gratification. Every hunger pain reminds us of how God, and not my next mouthful of food, should be the centre of my life.

Then, when the time of fasting is over, we can really enjoy what we are eating. We do not just devour what is set before us, we enjoy every mouthful. Just by skipping a meal or two, we loosen the hold that food can have on us, and we are free once again to celebrate the gift God has given us.

Notice that we are fasting not because we think that the food or material world is evil. God created the world and pronounced that everything in it was good. Certainly, at times we can use good things for the wrong purpose. That is why we have to put food back into its proper perspective. We want to celebrate the gift God has given us, and not be enslaved by it.

Spiritual combat

Fasting is also good because it helps us to develop the habit of being able to say no. Love means not only being able to say yes, but also being able to say no to all those choices which would take us away from our beloved. At times we even have to say no to things which are good, because we have to choose between two goods. Those who are married know this. After they have married, they might meet someone with whom they could have fallen in love. They have to be able to live out their commitment and say no to that second person, even if the choice is painful. Love is sometimes very painful.

Another example of this is the struggle between one’s obligation to one’s family and one’s career. Both of these are good things, but sometimes one must choose. The world tells us that we can have it all, or that we should be able to choose our immediate gratification. Yet, if we really want to say yes to love, we have to learn to say no as well.

Fasting teaches us the discipline to say no to things that might be harmful. A bag of Milky Way chocolate bars is good, but by saying no to it, we teach ourselves that the word no must be a part of our vocabulary. it is almost like a type of spiritual gymnastics to build up our spiritual muscles, so that when we have to bear an especially heavy spiritual burden, we will be able to do so. We will be able to find the courage needed when it comes time to make the difficult and painful choices that we need to make in order to be consistent in our love commitments.

Solidarity

One other benefit of fasting is that it brings us into solidarity with those who do not have enough to eat. There are literally billions of people who do not have enough to eat daily. When we fast and send the money that we would have spent on our meal to charity, we help to feed those who otherwise would have gone hungry.

But even if we do not send our money to charity, we are nevertheless entering into solidarity with those who go hungry. This is true because by fasting, we are practising a form of compassion. The meaning of the word compassion means to suffer with. By voluntarily accepting hunger into our lives, we are agreeing to suffer with those who have no other choice in the matter.

But what good does it do for them? One of the worst effects of suffering is that it alienates us from others. We feel all alone, we feel that no one else could possibly understand what we are going through. That is why it is so important to try to share our pain with others when we are hurting. It breaks down those barriers that seem to separate us from others.

When we fast, we are breaking down barriers. We are deciding to enter into the pain of those who are hungry. We come to understand their pain, and thus we destroy their isolation.

Mystical value

This value of compassion is true even if the people who are hungry do not know that we are fasting for them. They might never know that someone is voluntarily entering into compassion with them. Yet, to share one’s suffering is a form of love, and love always has an effect. We believe that love is stronger than distances, no matter how great. It is more powerful than any difference which divides us from one another. We even believe that love is stronger than death, for we can fast or do penitential practices for the benefit of those who have died. Love always has an effect!

This is the theory behind offering up some of our suffering for someone else. By willingly accepting the suffering which we are enduring, we are joining in compassion with the pain and suffering of others. We are expressing a form of love toward them which changes their lives. I might not be able to measure it with a calculator, but I know from my own life that when I experience the love of others, things are always better.

This does not mean that we should ever ignore the hunger of others or rationalise that we are doing enough by fasting for them. We must also try to feed those who hunger. Yet, no matter how much we try, there will always be hungry people in the world, and maybe we can reach out in a spiritual manner to some of them through our fasting.

How much and how often

Fasting should not be exaggerated. In ancient times people sometimes fasted until they destroyed their health. That is not what God wants. One should fast in a manner which is appropriate for one’s health and age. That is the rationale behind the Church’s teaching that one is only obliged to fast between 18 and 59 years of age.

For some people, it is sufficient to skip one meal. (The fasting which the Church requires is the eating of one full meal and two smaller meals which together do not add up to a full meal). Some people fast frequently by simply giving up deserts or candy for a period of time. Still others do not eat anything all day long or for a couple of days.

When one would like to begin fasting, it is always a good idea to consult with a spiritual director. The director will help one to discern what type of fasting is appropriate.

Fasting and joy 

One of the best signs that fasting is right for one is the fact that when it is done well, it brings joy. Every hunger pang becomes a reminder of the love one is trying to choose. Every no said to the food which attracts one (and be assured, when one is fasting, one will see food all around) becomes a yes to a greater love. One feels free and light, because one is no longer enslaved to every morsel of food that one might see or crave.

If you are miserable when fasting, do us all a favour and eat. There are enough miserable people in the world without adding to their number. True fasting should bring one to a Gospel joy in which one chooses the love of God and the love of neighbour (seen in one’s solidarity with those who hunger) above all things.