Fasting: not a punishment, but an opportunity

Lent is here, and as every year, Catholics are invited to fast in preparation for Easter. Fasting is mandatory on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and at least abstaining from meat is required every Friday during Lent.
The tradition of fasting goes back to the period after the persecutions. While before, being a Christian alone already involved daily danger and, thus, penance, Christians later started adding small sacrifices to repent and prepare for the commemoration of the resurrection.
Soon, it became a common practice. In 325, the Council of Nicea established a 40-day period of pre-Easter fasting. The interpretation though varied, whereas the Church in Jerusalem’s 40-day Lent lasted for eight weeks (during which time the fast was suspended on Saturdays and Sundays), Rome’s Lent ran for five whole weeks (including Saturdays and Sundays) and extended into a sixth week, concluding with Holy Thursday. Sometime before the pontificate of Pope Saint Gregory the Great (590-604), Christians in Rome began to suspend their Lenten fasting on Sundays. As a result, the Lenten season no longer included a full 40 days of fasting – the date then was anticipated to match the 40 days that Jesus fasted and was tempted by the devil (see Matthew 4:1-11).
How we fast in these 40 days is up to each one’s conscience. Besides the requirements for Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, the minimum is easy to meet. Just swap bacon with cheese in the morning and meat with fish on Fridays! Eastern Christian traditions have a much stricter understanding of fasting – they usually fast every Wednesday and Friday, abstaining from animal products like eggs and milk.
However, you might ask yourselves – what would be a small penance to me? Enjoying a delicious meal from the parish fish fry is good because you support your parish, and it is even better if you go there and enjoy fellowship. But what about eating a simple meal like lentils and rice once a week? What about not giving up sweets and stocking up on chips and other salty treats but saving money by skipping a snack or a take-out cappuccino and donating the money?
These practices, though, are not only meant to strengthen our willpower – though this is a good side effect. They are deeply linked to Christ and His journey as the Son of Man: “God gives us a body to glorify Him,” said Fr. Brady Williams, SOLT, at a recent event. Today’s popular trend of the “quantified self” means that counting steps or avoiding certain foods could become an end in itself and, therefore, take the first place in our hearts. Fasting is similar: “When you take God out of the picture, it becomes dieting.”
Therefore, we can ask Jesus what the best way would be to make Fridays memorable during Lent by giving something up. It could be getting fish from your parish and rounding the money up. It could be eating something that you don’t like so much, but other family members do. For the whole Lenten time, you could fast instead from social media, introduce phone-free evenings, or take a walk every evening while saying the rosary.
Christ’s life is a model for integrating physical, emotional, and spiritual health. “Jesus experiences everything that we experience, except sin,” said Fr. Brady. All these aspects are part of our lives, and we need to find a balance. Moderation is crucial and can help us enjoy good food without overdoing it – and give up our favorites for some time to recognize that God also loves us by giving us good things. He fasted in the desert but changed water into wine at the Wedding of Cana. Fasting in Lent is not a punishment, but an opportunity to put God first and show it to Him by small penances.