Friday after Ash Wednesday

 Lectionary: 221

Would that today you might fast
so as to make your voice heard on high!
Is this the manner of fasting I wish,
of keeping a day of penance:
That a man bow his head like a reed
and lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?

During the 1960s, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, when Harvey Cox's The Secular City set the standard for much reflection, it was popular to explain religious practices with secular theories. Jews abstained from pork because, without scientific knowledge, they nonetheless suspected trichinosis. They observed kosher laws to avoid contamination with soiled pots and pans. Food shortages during winter, and especially in early spring before the harvest, required everyone to fast until plenty returned. The fishing lobby in Rome promoted Friday abstinence from meat. And so forth. 

In that same secular spirit today we might encourage a healthier lifestyle as a religious practice. Eating a reasonable diet, moderate use of alcohol, ample sleep, regular exercise, proper hygiene, periodic medical checkups, total abstention from cigarettes and recreational drugs: we should do these things anyway. Religion adds only a patina of holiness to common sense, and enlightened people don't need it. They'll do the sensible thing without the mumbo jumbo.  

But where the Secular City would dismiss the religious dimension of "prayer, fasting, and almsgiving," the Holy City eagerly embraces them. And the only reason offered is perfectly acceptable: "Because God said so!" 

As he pondered the disease and disrepute of prostitution, Saint Paul urged his Corinthians:

Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. (1 Cor 6:18-19)

Lent reminds us that our bodies are churches, "temples of the Holy Spirit." Just as we observe a certain decorum within the Lord's house, we should live always within the Presence of Almighty God. Our Lord's oversight is neither harsh nor unfairly critical. 

Our fasting should lead us to a deeper awareness of the blessings we are given, with the assurance that our Father has a sense of humor. We struggle and often fail to curb our appetites. As C.S. Lewis said, "God is easy to please but hard to satisfy." 

Essentially our fasting, in whatever form, is a continual awareness of God's benevolence, and especially of the Cross of Jesus Christ. We keep our eyes fixed on him for life means nothing without him.