The First reading and Gospel focus on the value of Fasting, which is one of the three penitential practices that are very dear to the biblical and Christian tradition – prayer, almsgiving, and fasting. I focus my reflections on the value and meaning of fasting through today's readings.
1. Fasting helps to build self-control: Fasting becomes useless if it is more centered on oneself. God asks the people who do fasting not to worry what others see.
2. Fasting is a great help to avoid sin and all that leads to it. In the Book of Genesis, we read the first commandment which is: “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Gn 2, 16-17). ‘You shall not eat’ is a law of fasting and abstinence”. Through fasting, we become humble before God.
Fasting is an aid to open our eyes to the situation in which so many of our brothers and sisters live in poor situation. The fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.
3. Fasting is a good ascetic practice, an instrument to battle against every possible disordered attachment to ourselves. Freely chosen detachment from the pleasure of food and other material goods helps the disciple of Christ to control the appetites of nature, weakened by original sin, whose negative effects impact the entire human person.
4. Fasting should help you to consider Jesus as a real bridegroom of your life and keep relationship with God. Wedding guests will rejoice when their bridegroom is with them. I am thinking especially of a greater commitment to prayer, lectio divina, recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and active participation in the Eucharist, especially the Holy Sunday Mass.
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