From fasting to feasting

Mar 01, 2024

As I was contemplating - Fr Gerard Steve Theraviam

We are well into Lent now and I guess many are fasting in some way or another, whether it is abstaining from certain foods, or partial or whole day fasts and perhaps it’s also the time when some of us might feel like giving up as well. Not so fast! Perhaps what might help is to check on our motivations as to why we fast or even abstain. If we are doing it because it has always been done in the family, we need to pause, ponder and see if we can claim it as something that I want to do for God and myself, and not because of family or other obligations.

Maybe we might need to look beyond food and drink and also see if there are any other attachments that we need to put aside, at least for a while – for instance, our phones and social media.

Fasting is certainly evident in both the Old and New Testaments. Moses fasted for forty days and forty nights after receiving the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:28) Likewise, Elijah fasted for forty days and nights while journeying to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:8). Jesus fasted for forty days and nights overcoming temptation in the desert “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:2-4). He thus pointed to a far greater need in our lives. In the Acts of the Apostles, the early Christians fasted and prayed before appointing leaders and sending out missionaries (Acts 13:2-3, 14:23). Paul fasted as he prayed and tried to understand what he had experienced in his conversion on the road to Damascus and what Christ was calling him to do (Acts 9: 8-9). Paul too spoke of fasting (2 Corinthians 11:27) as something he endured in his ministry.

Do not worry about what to eat… this is the injunction in Mt 6:25, In fasting, we shift our focus from ourselves and our bodily needs towards God. Initially perhaps we might be still focussing on ourselves as we moan and groan about how hard it all is, but when we settle down, it can be a powerful shift towards recognising that all we need comes from God and we turn our gaze towards God.

Our bodily thirsts and hunger remind us that all things come from God. Food is not our god. God is our God! Instead of thinking ourselves to be self-sufficient, we are led to look towards the Provider of all that we need. In this, we are learning humility, and not seeing ourselves as being the centre of everything but we nurture our spiritual wellbeing by turning towards God, in our pain and suffering, we turn towards and call out to God and we encounter the Crucified One, who is no stranger to vicarious suffering ? that is, suffering for and on behalf of others.

Perhaps one of the important lasting lessons will be to move from gluttony towards self-control and self-discipline in all we consume. We might learn also to have empathy towards those who struggle to have enough food and drink to survive, instead of carrying on in the path of unbridled consumption. We put ourselves in the shoes of those who suffer, as Jesus did. Hopefully, this does not remain a mere intellectual exercise but compels us to actually befriend the poor.

Fasting also helps us connect with another important Lenten practice – almsgiving. Fasting and abstinence, as well as a simpler lifestyle, should also help us channel the money we save towards those in need. Thus, we see a connection between fasting, almsgiving as well as prayer, since prayer enables us to keep the dialogue with God over all that we are going through and discover what God might be wanting to lead us towards. Fasting and prayer can help us regain the intimacy that we might have felt missing in our lives and help us experience something of our ‘first love’ with God.

Matthew 6:16, Jesus said, “When you fast, do not look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting.”

The Ninevites fasted to show their repentance and sorrow for sin (Jonah 3:7-8). When King David’s baby son was close to death, he fasted to show his sorrow and to dedicate himself to prayer (2 Samuel 12:16). The pain and self-denial of fasting can also help remind us of the pain and self-denial that Jesus endured in order to accomplish our salvation.

(Fr Gerard Theraviam is the Parish Priest of the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist in Kuala Lumpur, as well as the Spiritual Director to the World Community for Christian Meditation, Malaysia.)