Why do we fast?

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MichelleTherese

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I’m having a very non-productive Lent because I’m so lost and confused.

Why do we fast? I just don’t understand it. I’ve been told all of the usual stuff about discipline and it “keeps us focused on what really counts” but that just doesn’t make sense.

If we can’t earn heaven why do we do things that cause us pain and discomfort, like fasting? What does not eating do to make us a better person?? It seems to me like self-inflicted punishment all in the name of “discipline” and “staying focused on what really matters in life.”

I wanted to become a nun but I can’t fast because I get so shaky I can’t function. I don’t need to eat immense amounts of food - but I just can’t fast. I was unable to follow my vocation because of this strange discipline of fasting. While the Church is crying for vocations a very willing vocation was locked out because of something as small and simple as not being able to fast. It seems kind of silly to me.

Fasting really has me baffled because I really can’t see that much of a benefit from it. Why do we fast??
 
Fasting denies our body of things that we want. Our Msgr talked about this at mass earlier this week. He quoted Jesus from the bible saying that unless we do penenace, we will not enter the kingdom of God. Then he ended his homily by asking the following question: “If you don’t go to heaven, where the hell do you think you will end up?” (I’m sure he did an intentionally play on words there)
 
We fast to deny ourselves something to strengthen our resistance against sin. By practicing denying ourselves one thing, we acknowledge our need for God, and we get better at self-denial- this helps us in avoiding sin.

In the Latin Rite of the Church, fasting means one full-sized meal, and two other smaller meals (together still less than a full sized meal). If you really feel you are called to religious life, There are communities out there who will work with you- this alone should not prevent you from pursuing a religious vocation.
 
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MichelleTherese:
Why do we fast? I just don’t understand it. I’ve been told all of the usual stuff about discipline and it “keeps us focused on what really counts” but that just doesn’t make sense.
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In addition to the disciplinary and penitential aspects of fasting, it can do something else. Fasting can be a way of making us slow down and looking with appreciation at all the things that God gives us.

One of the things I have been hearing lately is about “10 second fasting”. The idea here is that before you partake of any food, or put on clean clothes, or climb in a nice warm shower, or any other good thing, you pause for 10 seconds to thank God for such a wonderful gift. Then you actually pay attention to to how good a gift it is and savor every bit of it. It helps us to remember that this is a gift and we may not always have it.

During lent we experience much longer fasts. But we can still use the time to think about what wonderful things God does for us. And we can think about how fleeting and ordinary this world really is when we compare it to our life in heaven.

And when Lent is finally over and we go back to enjoying whatever we were fasting from, we need to slow down and truly ‘taste’ the gifts that God gives to us.
 
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MichelleTherese:
I’m having a very non-productive Lent because I’m so lost and confused.

Why do we fast? I just don’t understand it. I’ve been told all of the usual stuff about discipline and it “keeps us focused on what really counts” but that just doesn’t make sense.

If we can’t earn heaven why do we do things that cause us pain and discomfort, like fasting? What does not eating do to make us a better person?? It seems to me like self-inflicted punishment all in the name of “discipline” and “staying focused on what really matters in life.”

I wanted to become a nun but I can’t fast because I get so shaky I can’t function. I don’t need to eat immense amounts of food - but I just can’t fast. I was unable to follow my vocation because of this strange discipline of fasting. While the Church is crying for vocations a very willing vocation was locked out because of something as small and simple as not being able to fast. It seems kind of silly to me.

Fasting really has me baffled because I really can’t see that much of a benefit from it. Why do we fast??
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in the first place the discipline of fasting applies two days in the year, Ash Wed and Good Friday, and does not apply at all to anyone with a health reason, like you. so what is the problem? No fasting or penitential practices do nothing to help us "earn’ heaven. They prepare us for heaven. How did Christ prepare? By prayer and fasting as strength to face temptation. how did he prepare his disciples? by urging them to pray and fast.

I find it hard to believe that the vocations director of a religious order told you that you could not join because you could not fast.

If you cannot fast from food because of medical reasons, fast from something else: a habit that prevents you from growing closer to the Lord, from a minor indulgence like shopping. Self-denial and self-control are disciplines that help adults function in the world and increase virtue, help resist temptation, help us achieve goals (both spiritual and temporal goals–ask any athlete).
 
from office of readings Tues 3rd week of Lent, 2nd reading, from sermon by St Peter Chrysologus, Bishop (probably part of his instruction for Elect during Lent) you can probably get full text on one of the LOTH sites

There are 3 things by which faith stands firm, devotion remains constant and virtue endures. they are prayer, fasting and mercy. Prayer knocks at the door, fasting obtains, mercy receives. Prayer, mercy and fasting: these 3 are one and they give life to each other.

Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. let no one try to separate them, the cannot be separated. If you have only one of them or not all together you have nothing. so if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petitions to be heard, hear the petitions of others, if you do not close your ear to others you open God’s ear to yourself.

When you fast, see the fasting of others. if you want God to know that you are hunger, know that another is hungry. If you hope for mercy, show mercy. If you look for kindness, show kindness. If you want to receive, give. if you ask for yourself what you deny to others, your asking is a mockery.

therefore let prayer, mercy and fasting be one single plea to God on our behalf, one speech in our defense, a threefold united prayer in our favor.

Let us use fasting to make up for what we have lost by despising others. let us offer our souls in sacrifice by means of fasting. there is nothing more pleasing that we cna offer to God as the psalmist said in prophecy: A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; God does not despise a bruised and humble heart.

Offer your soul to God, make him an oblation of your fasting, so that your soul may be a pure offering, a holy sacrifice, a living victim, remaing your own and and the same time made over to God. To make this acceptable, mercy must be added. Fasting dries up when mercy dries up. Mercy is to fasting as rain is to the earth.

there is more, but the message is clear. In searching for this thread to add this note I reviewed the posts on fast and abstinence for the last couple of weeks, including the debate on dispensation for March 17. The spirit of mercy and true fasting described here are notably absent in some of our comments on these threads.
 
I can relate because i am still in the process of understanding fasting. For what it’s worth here are some of my thoughts.

Many saints and saintly people have said that sacrifice is central to the Christian religion. Here is a quote from the book “In the Heart of the World” by Mother Teresa, p.45 (New World Library)
“Love, to be real, must cost - it must hurt - it must empty us of self.”
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It is not that we are earning our salvation – that’s impossible – it is more that we are LEARNING what it took for God to effect our salvation. Some things we can only learn by experiencing them. Of course we do not experience crucifixion on a cross. But still small sufferings and self-denials teach us many things if we try to associate them with the sufferings of Our Lord. For example, think how awesome Jesus was to fast 40 days and resist the devil (Matt 4:1-4).

Jesus demonstrated His love for us by suffering for us. That is one way we know for sure that His love for us is so real and so deep. If you’re like me you wonder sometimes if your love for God is real or how real it is. Fasting and other sacrifices give us a chance to send God little trinkets of our selves to show our love is real. I don’t think of it as earning my salvation - the cost of that was Calvary and I can barely get through one day fasting! I could never earn it - but I can at least show God some little self-denial for His sake to try and show my love is real.

Fasting also reminds us that there is more to life than the physical world we can sense. Fasting can teach us a bit of what is required to live in that spiritual realm. From John 4:31-34…
Meanwhile the disciples besought him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
So the disciples said to one another, “Has any one brought Him food?”
Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to accomplish His work.
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When we show God that we are willing to forego food and try to make it our “food” – our desire and our joy – to do His will (be good, kind, etc.) while denying ourselves, I think it is pleasing to Him. And meanwhile we are hopefully learning more and more how to live in Him and find joy in Him, detached from the world, even though we are still in it (for now 😃 ).
 
Have heard many times that fasting strengthens one for spiritual battle.
 
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