Welcome
back! On this Lenten journey, you need to fast to be spiritually strong and
active. Fasting is a tool of spiritual empowerment. Little wonder Jesus fasted
for forty days and forty nights before he started his public ministry. Through
mortification of the flesh, the urge to sin is subdued. In this age of
gullibility and perversity, humanity really needs to fast to regain her moral
fiber and spiritual foundation. “The world diets, the church fasts. The difference
is the intention”, says Fulton Sheen. Fasting is neither an end in itself nor a
means to a material end like saving for the future and dieting. Fasting, like
other religious practices, is prone to abuse. In Isaiah 58:1-9, the prophet raises
this concern and warns against such attitudes that undermine the purpose of
fasting. Such attitudes are keeping others uncomfortable, being too mean,
flaring up at a slightest provocation and even starving others. On the extreme,
one can become paranoid. Fasting can be a blessed or a terrible experience for you.
One
can fast from food and from sin. Fasting from food helps us to fight
selfishness, gluttony and avarice. It also helps us to be charitable by gathering
what we saved by and giving to the poor. Fasting from sin is one of the best
ways to fast. . It disciplines the senses
of sight, hearing and speech to see no evil, hear no evil and speak no
evil. Are you so free in talking dirty and enjoying salacious jokes? Do
you realize the pernicious influence it has on your soul? Did you know that such
acts like watching pornography, masturbation, fornication, and other sexual
aberrations destroy the beauty of your soul? This is a time of restoring the
beauty of the soul by fasting from sin. Perhaps you are not finding it easy to stop;
you have become so addicted to them. All hope is not lost! One of the
advantages of fasting from sin is that it breaks the chain of addiction. With fasting
and prayer, a new you is guaranteed. Don’t be afraid to ask for God’s help for
he does not spurn a humble contrite heart (Ps. 51:17).
