Fasting much go much farther than just ‘giving up something’ for Lent

Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor.

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

A reflection on the daily readings, for Friday After Ash Wednesday, by Father Perry.

+ And they asked the Lord, “Why do we fast and you do not see it?”

They thought that their fast was pleasing to the Lord and it would win his affection and love for them.

But, in effect, the Lord answered back with his own question, “Why do you fast? Do you think that fasting is what I want? Or more precisely, do you think this is the kind of fasting I want?”

Then the Lord spoke through Isaiah and clarified the whole matter.

Fasting that does not change the heart is meaningless. In fact, the Lord got super specific: “This, rather, is the fasting I wish: release those bound unjustly; set free the oppressed; share your bread with the hungry; shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked.”

And does the Lord make perfect sense? I mean, stop and think of it.

What good are a bunch of people running around in sackcloth, with ashes all over their head, while continuing to quarrel and fight, taking care only of their own pursuits? And all the while, they have people around them in need of basic things like clothes and food — and they do nothing, nothing, to help them?

They barely see with their eyes and clearly do not see with their hearts.

And fasting, the kind the Lord wants, repairs the heart and opens the heart to see with love, to be truly human and even divine.

“A heart contrite and humbled, O God” — that is what you long to see in us and for us.

+ Jesus was teaching this kind of love. Jesus was not concerned with fasting for his disciples. Jesus noted that there is a time and place for everything — even for fasting.

Jesus went way beyond the practice of fasting and was untying the yokes of the sick and the paralyzed, opening the eyes of the blind, and unloosing the tongues of the mute; he was cleansing the souls of their sins and chasing away evil and evil spirits.

Jesus even shared his ministry with the disciples that they might learn these acts of love, that they would do this kind of fasting spoken by Isaiah.

The fasting of the body is a good practice; there is nothing wrong with it.

But the “fasting of the soul,” as God called it, is something quite different.

This is the kind of fasting that “heals our inner wounds” and makes us better people.

This kind of fasting opens the eyes and ears of our heart so that we can truly see and hear and love and live and share God’s goodness and blessings and grace.

As the verse before the Gospel so aptly puts it: “Seek good and not evil so that you may live, and the Lord will be with you.”

Father Perry D. Leiker is the 13th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at pleiker@stbernard-church.com. Follow Father Perry on Twitter: @MrDeano76.