Here we are in the season of fasting.
Of course, two out of three internet health gurus have been extolling the virtues of fasting day in and day out, no matter the season. Eat this, but don’t eat that. Eat now, but don’t eat then. All the rules of fasting are quickly shored up and sold by all the benefits of fasting. You’ll be lighter, leaner, stronger, and able to think more clearly and for longer.
But will you be pleasing to God?
We tend to approach fasting as we approach so many other self-improvement techniques. We say to ourselves, “If I do this thing (this hard thing, perhaps), what will it do for me?” Lenten disciplines become just another iteration of New Year’s resolutions. The days from Ash Wednesday to Good Friday can evolve into the “New Year, New You” booster shot if we are not intentional about something different.
Contrary to what Dr. Internet might tell you, fasting itself is not a virtue. There are plenty of New Age pagans extolling the “virtues” of fasting. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that “a virtue is a habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions. The goal of the virtuous life is to become like God.” (para. 1803)
You might succeed in going without food for a specified amount of time, but that doesn’t guarantee that you will grow in holiness. St. Francis de Sales explains that “to draw strength and efficacy from fasting, something more than abstinence from prohibited food is necessary.” The spiritual master outlined three conditions in particular for fasting well.
You must fast “willingly, wholeheartedly, universally and entirely.” We sin with our mouths, certainly. St. Bernard tells us that fasting was given to us by God as a remedy for our gluttony. But we also sin with all our other senses. So, it follows that our eyes and our ears and our hands and our feet must also offer penance. Further, “not only must we make the bodily sense fast, but also the soul’s powers and passions — yes even the understanding, the memory and the will, since we have sinned through both body and spirit.”
The second condition put forth by St. Francis de Sales is never to fast through vanity, but always through humility. Vain fasting is undertaken and “succeeds” through one’s sheer force of will. It’s fasting where you set the rules, you do it your way and you do it under your own power. And then you get all the glory.
For our fast to be pleasing to God, it must be whatever God wants. The church prescribes a fast that is intended to be undertaken in community. It’s tempting to go rogue and choose your own fasting adventure. It’s tempting to do more because you’ve decided that what the church is asking is not enough. It’s humbling to keep the prescribed fast and be content. It’s humbling to ask a spiritual director for guidance regarding your Lenten practices. You avoid vanity when you avoid setting out to fast “better” than everyone else. Resist the temptation to puff yourself up with aspirations of “living your best Lent.” Instead, turn your attention to Christ, who died so you can die your best death. Let this be your most humble, obedient Lent. We begin Lent with the admonishment to remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return. If we live the whole season with this truth foremost in our minds, we will kneel humbly at the foot of the cross and beg sincerely to be more like the Savior who hangs there.
And that, St. Francis says, is the third condition: to look to God and to do everything to please him. “Whatever you do, work at it from the heart, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.” If we are truly working to please the Lord, we will do whatever he puts forth for us to do, content in the knowledge that the duty was assigned by the Almighty. We will put the same effort into the hidden, mundane work as into the uplifting, applauded tasks. With God as our only intended audience, everything we undertake during our season of fasting and penance can be offered as a holy sacrifice. We can go about our daily rounds, doing the obscure, the difficult, the unromantic and the undesirable tasks as a prayer, asking the Lord to sanctify the world for his glory.
And if our results are not what we intended? If we break the fast or fall short of the plan? We will not be upset. God doesn’t judge our results. He judges our hearts. He judges our intentions. We can know we are fasting for him and him alone when we can offer our best and be content. A truly successful Lent is one where Easter finds us wholeheartedly, humbly and fully surrendered to our good God.
Foss, whose website is takeupandread.org, writes from Connecticut.
