Last year, my homily for the Friday after Ash Wednesday set the table for the Christian discipline of Fasting. We said:
The practice of fasting and abstinence teaches our senses to ignore the cultural programming of instant gratification by focusing instead on our need for God.
Further, the practice of fasting and abstinence gives us a spiritual defense against the seven capital sins; particularly gluttony. In those times we are tempted to fall to a capital sin, the practice of fasting and/or abstinence can give us an alternative focus to avoid the temptation.
I thought it appropriate today to double click on the idea of tempering our temptation through fasting.
As we see in the example of Jesus in the desert, fasting can strengthen the will as one does not live on bread alone. Through that strengthening of the will, we begin to see a dissipation of disordered passions. By voluntarily denying ourselves of the carnal pleasures of the world, we train our mind and psyche to resist the perceived demands of instant gratification.
Let’s break that down a bit more:
Fasting tempers temptation by strengthening the will. By training the mind to say no to the little things like that daily soda, that afternoon snack, or that hamburger on Fridays, we gain in the virtue of temperance. It's like doing pushups of virtue in that we gain the strength necessary to say "no" to more significant temptations, like the capital sins.
Fasting tempers temptation by mortifying the passions. In this aspect, we echo Saint Paul as we “put to death” our disordered passions. Through the death of our disordered passions, our self-mastery over our senses is restored. We can more consistently respond to things with love as opposed to reacting from the depths of our fear and other disordered passions.
Fasting tempers temptation by weakening the flesh. If you recall, the Carnivale season was intended to be a season of preparation to say "farewell to the flesh". Carnivale, after all, means "farewell to the flesh".
Now is the time to put that preparation into action. Our motto becomes that of Jesus in the desert in that we only rely on “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” as opposed to the pleasures and temptations of the world around us.
We hear the word of God through the Mass and the Sacraments, and we surrender our weakened bodies to the Paschal Mystery. Through the Paschal Mystery, our weakened bodies are paradoxically strengthened. Through the Eucharist, we participate in the victory of Christ in the desert.
Fasting tempers temptation by sharpening discernment. We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with idols. These idols create unnecessary and excessive noise that serves to distract us from hearing the word of God and distracts us from seeing the tactics of the evil one.
Fasting can help eliminate this noise in our life, which in turn, will enable us to hear the Holy Spirit more clearly. With more focus on the Holy Spirit, we can better discern the will of God in our life. And, with a strengthened will, we will have the fortitude to live it out.
We can see how fasting on a regular basis helps to temper our temptations and aids us in our spiritual lives. As we have said in the past, the practice of fasting and abstinence is a gift Jesus has given to His disciples in order to foster a deeper relationship with God and to seek Him more earnestly with a humble and contrite heart.
A heart contrite and humbled through fasting, O God, you will not spurn.
Thanks be to God!
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