Fasting as Spiritual Food

Fasting as Spiritual Food
Did you ever send your child up to bed without supper? You knew skipping one meal wouldn’t harm the child physically, even though you were trying to “mortify” the child’s pride and bad behavior. Fasting is similar. But instead of skipping a meal because it’s a punishment, people of faith freely take on this sacrifice as a way to temper their needs, improve their spiritual stamina, and, yes, recognize that as God’s children, we can sometimes use a little “discipline” ourselves.
The second Spiritual “Pillar” of Lent is fasting and abstinence. It touches upon what we’re all about at Grace Before Meals (by the way, check out our cool new website and tell us what you think). Some people think Lent is just a time to stock up on fish sticks and to get the phone number ready for the local pizza parlor for cheese pizzas on Fridays. But if we just look at it that way, then we may be missing out on the spiritual food that fasting provides! Jesus’ words in Scripture are actually quite clear: “Man cannot live on bread alone.” In other words, do we really think physical food and water are the only thing we need to survive?
Just for the record, I want to provide a link that has some explanation of fasting and abstinence. That way people can see and read for themselves that this discipline is not as “terrible” or as “archaic” as presented by the ill-informed or ill-willed, who simply want to say all sacrifices are “bad,” “out of touch,” and “useless.”
If fasting was not spiritually important, we have to ask why Jesus fasted and abstained during his 40 days in the desert. There is obviously spiritual food that fasting and abstinence provides. Fasting can even help the physical body, and can even compel athletes to take on all sorts of dietary disciplines.
On a spiritual level, fasting teaches us compassion. We literally hunger with people who are much hungrier than we can imagine! CRS and the Operation Rice Bowl program remind us we have brother and sisters who hunger for our table scraps. We could actually transform fasting into money. In other words, the money we would have spent for ourselves could then be given to the poor. Our compassion, which literally means “to suffer with,” is an important aspect of our Christian Faith that can only come from actually experiencing it. It is usually the ones who know pain, who are most compassionate to those who are experiencing it too.
My first experience of sincere and appropriate fasting took place in the seminary. Of all places, I began fasting while in ITALY! Talk about a sacrifice! When I started fasting, my imagination made me crave olive oil, garlic, onions, fresh herbs, and roasted meats! Talk about weird temptations! It was then I realized how my love for food can become a form of disordered concupiscence. That means, eating food could become more important than the grace before meals. The act of feeding myself seemed more important than feeding others much more needy. I realized how dependent I became on earthly foods – some of which were not even healthy for me! Fasting helped me see how easy it is to forget how I must also hunger for spiritual food – the food of eternal life!
When a person fasts properly, they literally learn the meaning of sacrificial love! Parents will be the first to tell you that feeding their children is an act of selfless love. They will sacrifice and wait until all the children eat before they, themselves, eat. Fasting can teach us how to be patient and generous, as well as give us a better perspective on food as something to be shared rather than something just to be craved.
In this, I learned that what really filled up my spirit was not physical food or drink. Instead, it was love for God and God’s love for me that gave me the greatest joy! Proper fasting ( i.e., fasting done in conjunction with Church teachings or with a spiritual director’s guidance) helped me to feel an energy I couldn’t get after eating a big meal! In fact, eating a big meal always made me sleepy and lethargic. While fasting – which included trying to have the right attitude and intention – I was actually “fed” with a spirit and zeal to do God’s work. As I tried making room in my body for God, I sensed His presence in a way that made me more productive in my day. Of course, at first I felt some fatigue, simply from not eating. But at the same time, when I took my mind off my physical hunger and focused on the spiritual purpose of fasting, I also felt a unique strength. This strength was called freedom!
The act of fasting and abstinence helped me to be more disciplined in body, mind, and spirit! As a child should willingly go to his room because he knew he was bad at the dinner table, I know people who willingly fast in order to learn the great lesson about attitudes toward food, relationships with others, and their relationship with God. It is God who sends us to our “inner room,” not as punishment per se, but so we can be fed by Him with His spiritual food! As secular fasting makes us crave earthly food, a spiritual purpose for fasting makes us crave the food of eternal life!

Angolan Kizaka
This is a touching story about a friend in the seminary who went to Africa with Catholic Relief Services. One day, while working in a poor village, he decided to fast from the lunch prepared for him. It was his way to develop compassion with the poor people of that country. He took a short walk and sat on a log overlooking the strange combination of jungle and dessert. As he sat there, a small boy from the village came to him and quietly sat very closely next to him. The child said nothing. My friend didn’t say anything either, especially since this child was exceptionally shy when the newcomers were first introduced to the village. So as to not ruin the beautiful stillness of the moment, my friend also just sat there in silence. Both of them fasted from food, from conversation, from the world – but they relished in the beauty of the moment. After a while, my friend got up and asked the local people what this little boy could have wanted or meant by his silent presence. The village elders explained how the people in the village do not want people to ever feel alone. The little boy, out of his natural and tribal compassion, just wanted to keep him company and be with him so he didn’t feel alone.
For me, this story highlights a reality about fasting. When we fast, we may be separating ourselves from “earthly realities,” but we are never alone. It is in those special moments when we learn how to hunger for God, the Lord gives us the food we need to help us through our hungers. He also gives us the people we need to teach us compassion! Click here for another tasty and Lent Friendly recipe in honor of that beautiful continent of Africa, the work of CRS, and the ingenious program Operation Rice Bowl:

We hunger For You and with You!
Can a singular experience of hunger change our attitudes towards the surplus of food thrown away in rich countries? I know it can, and I hope it does! But lest we turn into mere social activists and forget the spiritual lessons of hunger, we have to make sure we provide them not only food for digestion but food for inspiration as well.
This prayer comes from the Operation Rice Bowl box:
Good and gracious God, You who are full of compassion, help us to show compassion towards others this Lent. During this Holy Season we: Pray that we may be transformed, Fast in solidarity with those who are hungry; Learn to live with less, and Give so that others may live. May we join in solidarity as one human family and love one another as You love each of us. Amen.
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