Fasting for the Sake of Love

Ash Wednesday, February 18, 2015

TWO BROTHERS visited a hermit who made it a habit not to eat every day. The hermit welcomed them warmly, showing complete hospitality. Smiling, he said “Fasting has its own reward, but when love motivates you to eat, you keep two commandments. You lose your self-will and you refresh your brothers.”
[Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert, p. 259.]

The season of Lent begins today on Ash Wednesday. For these first days of Lent, we think about the spiritual practice of fasting. In solidarity with Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, many of us choose some type of fast for the season of Lent. Some of us fast a meal each week . . . some fast from a particular type of food or drink . . . some fast from a regular and normal activity (shopping, for instance, or reading news feeds, or watching television) . . . some seek to fast some attitude or interior posture (anger, for instance, or criticism, and so on).

Whatever form our Lenten spiritual practice takes, though, we are not engaging in spiritual disciplines for the sake of the discipline . . . we are not taking on spiritual practices for the sake of the practices.

The Desert Fathers and Mothers remind us that fasting is in the service of love . . . that we might find in our hearts a spaciousness to love God more completely (heart, mind, soul, strength) and to love others as we love self.

As you consider how God is inviting you to step into this Lenten season, perhaps a good question to ask God (and yourself) is: “What spiritual practice is going to help clear out some interior space within me so that I can love God and others more completely?” That’s a good place to begin. . . .

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