Day 3
WHEN YOU FAST…
DAILY BEARINGS: WEEK 1
You are entering into the desert.
It is impossible to survive in the desert without God’s help. But God is with us, providing manna for us, moving as a pillar of fire and cloud before us, leading the way, and giving us strength.
Guideposts
1. Rely on God. (For more on the importance of prayer and an explanation of silent contemplative prayer, see “Fidelity to Prayer” in the Field Guide. For a how to on praying a holy hour, see “How to Pray a Holy Hour” in the Field Guide.)
2. Commit to your fraternity. (For more on the importance of your fraternity, see “Made for Fraternity” in the Field Guide.)
3. Be a well set anchor. (Think daily check-ins with your anchor aren’t important? See the sub-section titled, “Be a Well Set Anchor,” within the “Made for Fraternity” section of the Field Guide.)
4. Let the Word of God lead you.
5. Be ready to face temptation.
6. Make a good confession.
7. Examine your day nightly. (For an outline of how to do a nightly examen see “How to Make a Nightly Examen” in the Field Guide.)
Pray the Lord blesses you and your fraternity with a foundation for real personal change during this season of Lent.
Pray for the grace of perseverance with the Lord for all Exodus Men, just as they are praying for you.
Our Father …
MATTHEW 9:14-15
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
REFLECTION
“The holy season of Lent is a time for correcting our past negligence. Placed as we are among battles and conflicts, we can find a cure by vigilantly making use of the proper means. In order to overcome all our enemies, let us ask for Divine help by observing heaven’s directions. For we know that we can only defeat our enemies if we first conquer ourselves.” (St. Leo the Great, Sermon 39 on Lent)
We are now embarked on a period of extensive fasting, and we might pose the same question asked by the disciples of John. We might broaden it out. Why do Christians fast? Why should the intake of food be so significant as a spiritual practice? The reason touches on the sacramental nature of all reality. What happens in the physical realm has consequences in the spiritual realm. What we do with visible things affects invisible things. Fasting is denying ourselves physical nourishment. For reasons we don’t fully understand, fasting, when accompanied by prayer, mysteriously opens up the spiritual world to us. Why do we fast? Here are six reasons. (There are, no doubt, more.)
First: We fast because Jesus fasted and told us that we should fast too. This reason should be enough for us by itself. Jesus gives us the pattern for our lives, and he re-lives his own life in each of us. He is the way, and we are eagerly walking that way behind his lead.
Second: We fast as an expression of repentance. As Jesus pointed out in his answer to John’s disciples, fasting is kind of mourning. We purposely weaken ourselves and deny ourselves pleasure as a way of humbling ourselves. This purpose is at the forefront of the Ash Wednesday fast. “Blessed are those who mourn” (Matthew 5:4), said Jesus, meaning mourning for sins. Fasting is a way of saying “I am sorry” to God, and it is also a way of underlining our sorrow by an act that shows we are serious about our contrition.
Third: We fast to fight against the enemy. Fasting with prayer saps the strength of the devil and unleashes the grace of heaven. When Daniel was fasting and praying, his fast enabled the angel to gain power over the demonic “prince of the kingdom of Persia” (Daniel 10:13). Fasting is one of our spiritual weapons to assault strongholds of darkness.
Fourth: We fast to gain mastery over our passions. Feeding our physical desires makes them grow stronger, and denying them weakens their hold on us. St. Paul noted this when he said, “I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27). Fasting trains us to say no to our immediate cravings, and it gives us the self-mastery to rule our natural powers for the sake of love.
Fifth: We fast to express faith in God’s promises and to remember our need for him. We know that our true nourishment comes from God himself. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Fasting is a way of reminding ourselves of this and expressing to God our faith in his word.
Sixth: We fast to express our love for the Lord. When we put aside something good for the sake of another, it is a way of saying: “You are far more precious to me than what I am putting aside.” What lover doesn’t wish that he had whole kingdoms and vast treasures to renounce for the sake of his love? When we fast, we say with St. Paul, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).
Brothers, let’s embrace this time of fasting with a firm will to obey our Master, to mourn our sins, to unleash spiritual power, to rule our passions, to remember our need for God’s help, and to express how much we love our Lord. Let’s fast like men and like true disciples—with no shirking, no complaining, and no cutting corners. Let’s allow our fast to have the full effect the Lord desires.
In your time of prayer today, talk with the Lord about the gift of fasting. Ask him for an understanding of the value your fasting has for you and for those you love.