Not famous for fasting

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today offer an opportunity to consider the practice of fasting. This experience is not given much serious attention in our society. Friar Jude Winkler reflects on the many traditional fasts and the value to our being of a ritual which brings us into contact with sorrow about the consequences of our sin and mourning over the suffering and death of Jesus as the greatest human love action. The Gospel and the Book of Isaiah show two directions of fasting. The actions of ending the oppression of others and living with mercy, forgiveness and charity toward them is the "fasting" from  self serving life which always takes care of "number one". The Book of Isaiah declares the desire of the Divine to see this practice among people. The ritual of self denial gives the body a role in motivating our spiritual change. Fr Jude reminds us of the necessity of our solidarity with the hungry and poor  which we can get a sense of in our body by fasting from food. Our over eating and our abundance of food from all over the globe begs the question of the authenticity of our attempts to "live simply so others can simply live". The denial of self can create an experience in our flesh of our need and dependance on God. We are invited to explore the paradox of fullness through fasting.