"Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting....But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you."
Fasting is, without a doubt, one of the most rigorous physical spiritual disciplines one can seek to undertake. Denying the body of essential food stuffs can be a slippery slope for sure. But when done responsibly and spiritually-minded, it will produce the greatest rewards. But what dangers do we who fast during this holy season of Lent put ourselves up against? The line between the humble and the hypocrites in the synagogue is an easy one to cross - and sadly, some have the propensity to cross onto the negative side than stay on the positive. It can become a case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
For those who are unfamiliar with fasting, they see it as ridiculous. How could someone consciously give up food for a whole day? It's unheard of! How could someone seek to give up food for a week? It's absurd! Eating only on Sundays? You must be insane! Even those who practice sun-up, sun-down fasts during Lent are looked at almost as lepers in today's predominantly secular-minded world. They view the discipline as an essential loss to what it means to live in a McWorld's America where food is climaxed at a near demigod status. But what the world sees as an essential loss is our essential gain.
Fasting is anything but a loss - it is one of the truest gains of deep spirituality possible. And it's not about the food - never has been. It's about spiritual self-control and discipline. It is saying to the natural and worldly desires of the flesh that they no longer define us but that we, through Christ, define them. When we hunger during a fast, it is the conscious decision to switch our pangs of hunger away from the satisfaction of a Big Mac to the satisfaction of hungering for God and nestling deeper into his bonds of love and understanding. We transform our hunger for worldly food into a hunger for spiritual food - more precisely, a deeper and more focused dependence on God and not in our physicals needs and desires.
Easier said than done, of course and that's where Mr. Hyde waits, ready to strike from the shadows. Most who attempt the fast and fail do so because they are in it for the wrong reasons. They do it to be different, to stand out, to entice the outside world at their holiness and piety. They are doomed from the start. The renowned Father Larry Richards address their missteps head on. His words speak to those who attempt to fast as Mr. Hydes instead of Dr. Jekylls, and it is a true warning: "I can’t take the Lenten people. I can’t take people who are always focused on Lent - always focused on suffering. Always focused on, ‘I have to deny myself.’ I just can’t take it. Why? Because we are focusing on me. What I give up, how I need to suffer, how I need redemption, how I need to have peace, me, me, me, me, me. How I need mercy without giving it to anybody else....You can’t receive mercy unless you are willing to give it. So if Lent was supposed to truly be real, then instead of just receiving...you give it. That is what Easter focuses us on. That Jesus went through the suffering. He had to go through it. So do we. But now we went through the suffering, not for ourselves (Jesus didn’t go through the suffering for Himself), He went through it for us. So we go through Lent not for ourselves, we go through Lent for others."
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the difference.
No comments:
Post a Comment