Fasting is an important spiritual discipline we practice during the season of Lent. Fasting is not a unique Christian Sadhana (practice). This is an integral part of the spiritual heritage of all religions. The vigorous fasting of Muslims during the month of Ramadan is famous. Followers of Hinduism observe fasting on the eve of the significant events of their lives. Fasting is one the three spiritual pillars of Judaism. The word fasting appears at least 92 times in the Bible. All the major Biblical figures such as Moses, Elijah, Esther, Nehemiah, David, Daniel, Paul and Jesus fasted at crucial points of their lives. They fasted for a variety of reasons. Some of them to show humility, others as a sign of repentance, still others to express their dependence on God and some others as part of grief and mourning.
The Mosaic Law established only one day of Fasting, the great day of Atonement (Lv 16: 29-34). After the Exile four special days of fasting were added ( Za 8:19). Jesus condemned the pharisaical aspects of fasting and restores the true meaning of fasting by his own fasting in the desert. The word fasting literally means to bow down one’s soul. The true meaning and purpose of fasting is evident from the response that Jesus gave to the disciples of John. John’s disciples approached Jesus and asked, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?”( Mt 9: 14-15).
Fasting is required when the bridegroom (Jesus/God) is taken away or separated from us. Hence, the purpose of Fasting is to bring back the bridegroom or to reunite with the bridegroom. This idea is clear if we look at the Indian word for fasting. The equivalent word for fasting in Sanskrit is UPAVAS. This is a combination of two words, namely, UPA and VAS. The word UPA means near and the word VAS means to stay. So UPAVAS means to stay near…Stay near God or stay with God. Ultimately the purpose of Fasting (upavas) is to stay with God. “Stay with us Lord”, this was the prayer of the disciples of Emmaus (Lk 24:28).
Four conditions to stay with God
1. Remove the obstacles that stand in between the bridegroom (God) and me. There are number of things that distract and deviates us from God. This varies from person to person. This can be a particular addiction or an attitude or a habit or some attractions or temperaments, and the list goes on indefinitely.
2. The path way to Jesus is through the street of the poor. As long as our brothers and sisters are deprived of the basic necessities of life such as bread, housing and clothing, the distance of the road to God remain longer and longer. The cry of the poor will distract God from hearing the voice of our prayer (The story of the Rich man and Lazarus). People may carefully distance themselves from responding to the needs of the helpless and less privileged. They may easily find reason to blame on them for their predicament. The question is not who is right or wrong but what I can do to change the situation. There are only few things of which I have no choices: to choose my parents and to choose my birth place. If they were born in a different situation their destiny could have been different. As Mother Theresa said, “Very often we take things for granted without knowing the ground reality”.
The poor is the sacrament of the rich. This is indisputably spelled out in the last judgment scene. Jesus said, for example, “ I was hungry and you gave me food, I was naked and you clothed me, I was a stranger and you welcomed me…Amen I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mat 25: 35-40). We see the same spirit in the book of Isaiah: “Thus says the Lord, see the fast that pleases me: Fast by sharing your bread with the hungry, bring to your house homeless, clothe the man you see naked” (Is 58: 7). Fasting is effective when we become ‘poor’ to make others rich (Lk 6: 20ff). Whatever we give up in charity become our capital in heaven.
3. Fasting to participate in the redemptive suffering of Jesus. A young lady after delivering her first child said, “Now I know the suffering and sacrifice my mother went through for me”. Only when we feel the pain of sacrifice do we appreciate the value of others sacrifice. Until then we take things for granted. Fasting necessarily brings inconveniences, discomforts and pain. This experience is our human way of appreciating the great love of Jesus towards us and responding to his invitation to take part in his suffering. Jesus said, for instance, “Can you drink the cup that I drink…” (Mk 10:38). “My soul is sorrowful even to death, remain here and keep watch….Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour?” ( Mk 14: 34,37). Abstain from something valuable and feel the discomfort and offer them to God as a sign of your love.
4. Fasting to reassert the vanity of the worldly things. Days before his passing, Alexander the Great told his minister: “When you put my body in the Casket, keep both my arms open. Let the world know that their king is not carrying anything with him”. Detachment/ fasting from material things speak our belief in the transient nature of the material world and our trust in the permanency of God. Remember the great saying of Jesus: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal” (Mt: 6: 19-20).
Let the opportunity for fasting be a moment of grace and occasion to deepen our relationship with God. Like the disciples of Emmaus let us pray: “Stay with us Lord, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over” (Lk 24:28).
Showing posts with label fasting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fasting. Show all posts
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Ashes on our Foreheads and Hope in our Hearts…!
Today is Ash Wednesday. Traditionally, people come to church on this day in large numbers and formally begin the journey of lent by applying ashes on their foreheads.
The Old Testament and New Testament refer to the use of ashes and sackcloth as signs of repentance. The prophet Jeremiah, for example, calls for repentance in this way: “ O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes” (Jer 6:26). Jesus, while talking about Chorazin and Bethsaida, remarked: “ Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes” ( Mt 11:21, Lk 10:13).
Ash Wednesday Practice for all believers started in the 10th century. Prior to that, ashes were given only to the public penitence. This was given to those entering the Order of Penitence. As time went on, others began to show their humility and their affection for the penitents by asking that they, too, be marked as sinners. Near the end of the 11th century Pope Urban extended the imposition of ashes to the whole congregation under the presumption that
“ all have sinned and all fall short of glory”.
What is Lent all about? Lent is a reminder of our mortality. Before God breathed into the nostrils of ‘Adam’ he was nothing more than a clay image. The breath of God raised him to the level of a living being. Without God’s life in us, we are dust. Naturally, Lent is a time to discover one’s status before God. It is a time for self -discovery. Our fall may be slow but steady. As in the story of the lost sheep (Lk 15: 1ff), at times we may not even be aware that we are drifting away from God. Sin progresses gradually. The story of the ‘Prodigal Son’ ( Lk 15: 11ff) gives a glimpse of the mechanism of sin. They are:-
• Selfishness : The son went to his Father and said: “Give me my
share”.
• Separation : By asking his share, he separated himself from his Father.
• Sensuality. : He went after worldly pleasures
• Starvation. : He looked around for food
• Subhuman behavior : He started eating with swine.
Lent is a time of self purification. Late is better than never. Our distractions tell us who we are and where we are. The Bible offers three spiritual tools for our purification: prayer, fasting and alms giving. They are not three independent entities but three aspects of the one and the same reality. Prayer is nothing but being with Jesus. In order to be with Jesus, we need to detach (fast) ourselves from material things. Whatever we may give up may help others to meet the necessities of their lives. Our detachment ( almsgiving) will benefit the needy.
Lent is a time for self-restoration. There is a beautiful passage in the book of Prophet Isaiah: “Do not remember the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not, I am doing something new, says the Lord” “ Your sins I remember no more” (Isaiah 43: 18, 25). God is a God of the future, not of the past. God wants to do something new in our life. In order to experience this newness that God promises we need to let our past go with all its bad and sad memories. We might have done awful things in the past. We may be still doing things that are unchristian, unethical and uncharitable. This is the time to break the chain of sinful habits. Brooding over the past memories of which we have no control do nothing good. They only paralyze our present. If God does not bother about our past sin, why do we? A person must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them. As every saint had a past every sinner has a future. Lent invites us to continue our journey focusing on Jesus with Hope in our Hearts…! Those who are in Jesus is a new creation. Lent is an invitation to climb the mount Calvary and have a vision of Mount Zion.
The Old Testament and New Testament refer to the use of ashes and sackcloth as signs of repentance. The prophet Jeremiah, for example, calls for repentance in this way: “ O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes” (Jer 6:26). Jesus, while talking about Chorazin and Bethsaida, remarked: “ Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes” ( Mt 11:21, Lk 10:13).
Ash Wednesday Practice for all believers started in the 10th century. Prior to that, ashes were given only to the public penitence. This was given to those entering the Order of Penitence. As time went on, others began to show their humility and their affection for the penitents by asking that they, too, be marked as sinners. Near the end of the 11th century Pope Urban extended the imposition of ashes to the whole congregation under the presumption that
“ all have sinned and all fall short of glory”.
What is Lent all about? Lent is a reminder of our mortality. Before God breathed into the nostrils of ‘Adam’ he was nothing more than a clay image. The breath of God raised him to the level of a living being. Without God’s life in us, we are dust. Naturally, Lent is a time to discover one’s status before God. It is a time for self -discovery. Our fall may be slow but steady. As in the story of the lost sheep (Lk 15: 1ff), at times we may not even be aware that we are drifting away from God. Sin progresses gradually. The story of the ‘Prodigal Son’ ( Lk 15: 11ff) gives a glimpse of the mechanism of sin. They are:-
• Selfishness : The son went to his Father and said: “Give me my
share”.
• Separation : By asking his share, he separated himself from his Father.
• Sensuality. : He went after worldly pleasures
• Starvation. : He looked around for food
• Subhuman behavior : He started eating with swine.
Lent is a time of self purification. Late is better than never. Our distractions tell us who we are and where we are. The Bible offers three spiritual tools for our purification: prayer, fasting and alms giving. They are not three independent entities but three aspects of the one and the same reality. Prayer is nothing but being with Jesus. In order to be with Jesus, we need to detach (fast) ourselves from material things. Whatever we may give up may help others to meet the necessities of their lives. Our detachment ( almsgiving) will benefit the needy.
Lent is a time for self-restoration. There is a beautiful passage in the book of Prophet Isaiah: “Do not remember the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not, I am doing something new, says the Lord” “ Your sins I remember no more” (Isaiah 43: 18, 25). God is a God of the future, not of the past. God wants to do something new in our life. In order to experience this newness that God promises we need to let our past go with all its bad and sad memories. We might have done awful things in the past. We may be still doing things that are unchristian, unethical and uncharitable. This is the time to break the chain of sinful habits. Brooding over the past memories of which we have no control do nothing good. They only paralyze our present. If God does not bother about our past sin, why do we? A person must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them. As every saint had a past every sinner has a future. Lent invites us to continue our journey focusing on Jesus with Hope in our Hearts…! Those who are in Jesus is a new creation. Lent is an invitation to climb the mount Calvary and have a vision of Mount Zion.
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