Lent - why fast?

I thought I'd include this for those that don't know, for those that want to know and for those that need a gentle reminder. I'm not trying to be a bible-basher - those that know me know that I try to be anything BUT that... but I found this article quite well-written.

Why fast during Lent?

Is it to raisemoney to helpneedy in Africa? No.

Is it to draw attention to some issue of injustice in the world? No.

Is it to make a political statement? No. Is it to reduce one's excess fat? Quite evidently, no.

All of these reasons for fasting are good in themselves, but none of them is sufficient reason to fast during Lent. The above reasons may well be secondary motives in our Lenten fast, but they can also distract us from the real reason the Church imposes an obligation on us to fast during Lent.

And that reason is, put simply, to recover once again the primacy of God in our lives.

That primacy is in constant danger of being usurped by good causes that appeal to our better nature and by the more immediate (and initially more satisfying) demands of our sensuous natures, one of which is food. This more immediate danger is very real today, since we in the Western world live in the land of plenty. The temptation to make our belly our god is very great indeed. When the living God vanishes from public consciousness, then the danger of making food a substitute god becomes a real temptation, as we can observe all around us in our society today.

And, not surprisingly, though albeit for different reasons, it was the first temptation of the Devil to Jesus, after Our Lord had spent 40 days fasting in the desert (the second was the temptation to redeem the world by political means, the third was the temptation to sensationalism, to become a celebrity by doing something spectacular).

Lent is the time, when Jesus Christ through the voice of the Church invites us to withdraw with Our Lord for 40 days in preparation for the celebration of the great mysteries of his passion, death and resurrection, the source of our salvation, namely of our liberation from all that keeps us from the joy of union with God.

Forty is a symbolic number. It is the number of years spent by the People of God in the desert after their escape from Egypt, when they were tested by God before entering the Promised Land. It is the number of days Moses spent on Mount Sinai in union with God before God revealed the Ten Commandments to him. And it is the number of days spent by Jesus in the desert, where he too was tested and found worthy, before he took up his public ministry that ended on the cross.

Beginning on Ash Wednesday, Lent lasts 40 days, calculated by leaving out Sundays, which are not, strictly speaking, fast days and which should not be treated as such.

Lent is a time to withdraw to the desert that is our interior life, our soul, which, like a dry weary land without water, thirsts for God, the living God. To experience a little physical hunger and thirst helps us to become aware of the deeper hunger and thirst for God that constitutes our unredeemed selves. In this way, it helps to restore the primacy of God in our lives. It restores joy to our lives. It also helps us recover our taste for the good things of creation, such as food and drink.

Lent is above all a time for prayer, for withdrawing a little from the hustle and bustle of daily life to be alone with God in the secret room of our hearts, to encounter the hidden God. The danger is that, using the Lenten fast for any other reason — like collecting money for Third World projects, for example, which are good in themselves and can be personally gratifying — can so easily distract us from the initially less appealing task of seeking the face of God.

But that is the real purpose of the Lenten Fast.

D Vincent Twomey, Society of the Divine Word, is the professor emeritus of moral theology at Maynooth. He is a regular contributor to religious monthly, The Word, from where this article is copied.