I mentioned some thoughts/resources on prayer last week; this week, we’ll discuss some for fasting and next week for almsgiving, to cover the three traditional Lenten practices.
Bridget mentioned this earlier, but there can be confusion if we use a truncated definition of fasting as “giving something up.” It’s not really fasting if you decide to give up cursing, losing your temper, overeating or drinking to excess, and other such. We shouldn’t be doing those things any day of the year, let alone during Lent. For our spiritual health it is certainly necessary to cease engaging in these sins, but to do so isn’t technically fasting.
A short but accurate definition, then, is that fasting is giving up something that is good. The traditional fast from meat makes this clear: meat itself isn’t bad or evil (sometimes it is downright awesome); it is a good thing that we voluntarily choose not to partake in.
Whoa, not that fast…
We can go part-way with our fasting, in that we choose a few good things to go without throughout Lent: chocolates, TV, Starbucks coffee (though this could arguably be in the “bad” category), Facebook, etc. It is laudable to forgo these things since it strengthens our detachment from earthly things.
But let’s go all the way with our fasting: in the void that was created while giving something up, fill it with something else that will encourage your spiritual growth. The money spent on chocolates and Starbucks can be given to the poor or a crisis pregnancy center. The time spent on TV or Facebook can be used in spiritual reading or prayer.
A good example is the E5 Men movement:
e5 Men fast in unison on bread and water for at least one 24 hour day per month – preferably the 1st Wednesday of the month.
I’ve actually found it easier to practice this type of fast on a weekly basis instead of monthly. (As I write this, I wonder whether my goal should be to make the fast “easy.” So why do these E5 men do this?
The e5 Man fasts for his bride as a way to imitate Jesus as described by Saint Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, chapter 5 (for which the e5 is named)…
EPHESIANS 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”
EPHESIANS 5:28-29 “So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church.”
Jesus made a bodily sacrifice on the cross for his bride the church to present her to God the Father “without spot or wrinkle.” (Eph 5:27) By fasting for our earthly bride and joining our sufferings to Christ’s we intercede for grace for our brides. At the same time our act of bodily love in union with Christ accelerates our own conversion.
By making this sacrifice for the women in our lives we live out the essence of the gospel through a very particular act of self denial. To lay down one’s body out of love for another is the central message of the gospel.
Women can also join in the effort of E5 men:
If you would like to be specifically included in the intentions of all the e5 Men’s fasts we ask that if you are a Christian women that on the first Wednesday of the month you ask for the graces fasted for by the e5 Men through your own chosen prayer.
Going without while going toward Christ. I pray that your Lent is filled with graces springing from your own practice of fasting!