By Fr. Michael Della Penna, OFM, Director of Ongoing Formation

Breaking our Fast from Fasting. Besides not liking it, there seems to be many good reasons not to fast, not the least of which is the fact that it is just plain difficult.  Since I had never read what I considered to be a credible or convincing theological basis for fasting, I had deemed it unnecessary for my life; after all, how could not eating chocolate really get me closer to God anyway? Besides, the history of spirituality contained some examples of how many good-intentioned Christians and even saints mistakenly undertook some questionable penitential practices that were not only unhealthy but also excessive, like self-flagellation. 

I had therefore concluded that my ordinary daily life offered more than enough penitential opportunities without searching for more. I need only embrace those crosses I encountered; after all didn't St. Francis himself, at the end of his life, repent of being too hard on brother ass? Even the Church didn't seem to place much importance on fasting or to take it too seriously; on the contrary, it relaxed its observance of fasting since Vatican II, even removing the language of the "serious obligations" of fasting and the consequences of their violations.

That all changed, however, after I experienced first hand what fasting could do for those I was interceding for. Let me first share Isaiah's description of what true fasting is, found in chapter 58: 6-14, which reveals God's idea of fasting.  

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter -when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? If you do away.....with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed."

It is therefore fasting combined with almsgiving, namely, refraining from food and doing acts of charity and justice, which St. Augustine says forms the "two wings" which enable our prayer to reach God.  Not only had I been trying to fly with one wing, but I had missed the deeper meaning of fasting, which Benedict XVI said "is directed to eating the 'true food,' which is to do the Father's will (cf. Jn 4,34)" and so "allows Him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God."  

Fasting and almsgiving help us get in touch with the true hunger of our hearts, our very real need to be fed with the super substantial daily bread of the Word of God that alone can satisfy and fulfill the deepest longings of our heart.  

This is the real goal of penance; being able to share in the happiness and joy of doing God's will as evidenced in the life of St. Francis who experienced a divine freedom from disordered attachment. St. Francis gained a deep sense of peace not only through a detachment from material goods, but from any good the Lord did in him, as well as from his ego, and most importantly, his own self will.  Emptied and freed from his own self-centeredness, he was able to receive all as gift as well as make himself a gift to God and neighbor and all creation.

The double practice of fasting and almsgiving contains a sacrificial dimension that is both personal and social. This not only challenges us to give up or share our possessions, time, and food but also to deprive our selves and "let go" interiorly of any attachments and even something of our very being.  In the case of fasting from food, we literary offer up a part of our very "self" physically. This very concrete sacrificing and handing over of our "self" is a radical act of denial, which, in imitation of Christ, empties and cleanses us and thus purifies us spiritually. Few other practices allow us to experience this type of participation in the paschal mystery: the dying of self, of our own wills, our own desires, our own wants, etc, which leads to a new sense of freedom and new life. 

Fasting empties us in order to fill us, tears us down, in order to build us back up, makes of us a dessert, in order that God transform us into "well-watered gardens, like a spring whose waters never fail." Fasting helps us rise above the selfish interests of our egos and so gain some objectivity from our often blind, self-centeredness. In this way, the craving to satisfy the worldly desires of the "flesh" dies interiorly and "passes over" into new life; we make ourselves a tomb in order to become a temple in which the spirit may dwell. 

Why is this so vital today? Probably because we live at a time like no other in history, in a culture overtaken with greed and the self-indulgence of consumerism, where we are deprived of little or nothing. Fasting is an antidote to this cultures unbridled gluttonous subjection to addiction. St. Thomas Aquinas proposed fasting would (1) restrain the desires of the flesh; (2) raise the mind to contemplate sublime things; (3) make satisfaction for our sins. Some have called fasting a therapy for the deepest entrenched sins we have. 

• The catechism from the counsel of Trent: "Nothing can be more effectual in uprooting all sin from the soul than these three kinds of satisfaction. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving"
• The Baltimore Catechism had included prayer, fasting and penance, as the top three means by which we make reparation to God.
• Our Lady of Medjugorje said fasting can stop wars and makes us unafraid of evil and Satan.