Fasting
This week’s reflection focuses on fasting—how it restores us, strengthens obedience, and helps us imitate Christ’s self-emptying love as we strive not just to make Jackson Catholic, but to become saints ourselves.
MC: Adam Hohn
Presenter: Joseph Gruber
Deacon: Rick Freedberg
Brought to you By: The Knights of Columbus
Jackson Michigan & Surrounding Area Catholic Parishes
Queen of the Miraculous Medal: https://queenschurch.com/
St John the Evangelist: https://saintjohnjackson.org/
St Mary Star of the Sea: https://stmaryjackson.com/
St Joseph Oratory: https://saintjohnjackson.org/new-here/st-joseph-the-worker-oratory/
Our Lady of Fatima: http://www.fatimaparish.net/
St Rita: http://www.stritacatholicparish.com/
St Catherine: https://stcatherinelaboureconcord.org/
Audio Trasnscription
Today is the fourth Saturday of the month, so if anyone is interested in doing their daily rosary, you can join us over at the Jackson County Community Health Facility over on Lansing Avenue, 930, and we're normally done between 1030 and 11. So come on over and spread some joy to the residents. Thank you.
Good morning everybody. Good morning. Anyone remember what are the three main pillars of CORE real quick? I didn't hear anybody.
I know everybody said prayer. Prayer, faith, fraternity. Yeah, prayer, formation, fraternity.
Three things we need as men. And then what are the two goals of CORE here in Jackson? So make Jackson Catholic, but the only way that we can do that realistically... No, we have to become saints. You guys skipped that part.
This is probably the biggest problem in the Catholic world today, is we say we want the world to be Catholic, but we skip the step where we say we have to become saints first. So, no knock on you. That's an everywhere problem.
I mean, I go through the same thing myself. Why isn't everybody else better? Why isn't my wife better? Well, am I the saint that I'm called to be? I can never tell where people are going to sit before I set anything up. Does that mean you have to die first? You don't have to die to be a saint? To be recognized as a saint, you have to die.
To be canonized as a saint, you have to die. To be lifted as an example by the church formally, you have to die first. But, you have to be the saint first.
So I guess I have to be the saint first. That's what I thought. I hope.
It's not doing anything anymore. Hello, hello, hello, hello. Okay.
Maybe. Okay. Great.
Maybe not. Am I audible? Yes. Okay.
Becoming a saint is not the primary target of today's talk. This is going to help us, but that's not the theme of today's talk. Do you mind if we begin in prayer again? In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen. Direct, O Lord, our actions by Thy holy inspiration, and carry them on by Thy gracious assistance, that every word and work of ours may begin in Thee, and by Thee be happy ended. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Anyone here for the first time? First time in a long time.
Anyone else here first time in a long time? Round of applause. Today we're going to be talking about the topic of fasting. This is everybody's favorite topic.
Everybody loves to fast. Everybody loves giving things up. It's everybody's favorite to go hungry.
Maybe that's not the case right now, but maybe after this talk we'll have a greater appreciation for it. That's my goal. Greater appreciation for fasting, why we do it, how to do it better.
And we can look at fasting through a bunch of different lenses. This morning I'm going to be talking about restoration of us as humans. I'm going to be talking about obedience, and then imitation.
Fasting as restorative, fasting as an expression of obedience, and fasting as an act of imitation. So restoration. Restoration.
If you look at why to fast, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, he gives three really good reasons to fast. Actually, he gives more than three. I'll get to one of them eventually.
But three that he gives. One is that fasting purifies us from our prior sins. We've all done things that we're ashamed of.
We've all done things that we actually carry with us that are still impacting us. And the act of fasting purifies us from past sins. So if you feel like that your past is weighing you down, that you're still suffering from the mistakes that you've made, the deliberate decisions you've made to run counter to the will of God, Aquinas says, if you fast, that is actually purifying.
There is a purification that happens when we say no to our base desires. He talks about it also as preventative of future sin. He says, when people have their fill of food and drink, they're actually more liable, they're more likely to sin in other ways as well.
So especially when it comes to drinking wine, he was like, if you are inviting Bacchus into the house, you're going to be inviting Venus into the house. Which is another way of saying, if you drink a lot, you're going to be tempted sexually. And St. Francis de Sales, he uses the same kind of language, he doesn't use the Greek gods and goddesses language, but he does use the language of fasting as helpful, especially for sexual sin.
But temptation in general, if we learn how to say no to good things, that trains us in saying no to bad things, things we shouldn't do. So fasting is purifying, it is preventative, and then he also talks about how it lifts the heart to God, how it opens the mind to contemplation. And to go into this one a little bit more, just a general, this is no knock on anyone, how do people feel about artificial sweeteners, like zero calorie sweeteners? Some people thumbs down, some people thumbs up.
I don't like the taste of them, I don't mind them. But here's a funny scenario. Are you guys familiar with hummingbirds? Have you ever put out a hummingbird feeder? What do you put in a hummingbird feeder? Sugar water.
Why? They need it. They need a lot of calories. They're burning a lot of calories by the flapping of their wings.
They're drinking all of the nectar from the flowers because they're burning a lot of calories. What happens if you put in the hummingbird feeder Splenda water? What if you use an artificial sweetener in the water? Do you know what happens to the hummingbird? I heard somebody say they die. Why do they die? They're not being sustained.
They don't just die though. They die filled with that artificially sweetened water. They look full, and yet it is all empty.
One of the reasons we fast is because it is very easy to fill ourselves with all of the things that can distract us from what is actually satisfying. It is better to feel hunger than to be suffering under the illusion, the lie, that we are actually being filled by the things of this world. The things of this world do not ultimately satisfy me.
And fasting is a way of expressing, I know that this is not the satisfying thing. And the hunger that I feel for food is actually evocative. It is calling forth the kind of hunger that I have for the things of heaven.
One of the signs that our culture is a little bit off is that people look like they're hummingbirds filled with artificial sweetener. They're busy. They are full.
You say, do you want to get together sometime? And people will say, no, no, we're really busy. What are they busy with? They go home and they turn on the TV. They go home and they pull out their phone.
They're not full of anything that's actually enduring. They're not full of anything that's actually sustaining. They're full of artificial sweetener water.
So fasting, these are three things that restore us as human beings. To be purified of past sins. To be strengthened to say no in times of temptation in the future.
And then to make space for actually receiving the word of God. So that's what Aquinas would say, that there's something restorative about fasting. This is why the church proposes to us fasting as an annual event.
Forty days of fasting and Lent. Because the church wants us to be restored. The church wants us to experience full restoration.
God wants us to be restored. Okay, so that's one angle for fasting. And maybe you already knew that one because you're pulling out the Summa Theologica constantly and reading it.
And that's great. Awesome. Another reason to fast, which I just alluded to, is out of obedience.
If we're Catholic and the church asks us to fast, then we do it out of obedience. We do it because she said so. And this is another reason that Aquinas lists for fasting.
The way that the Summa is set up, he'll ask a question. And then he'll have several different takes on wrong answers. Like really good takes on wrong answers.
Very strong arguments why you should go one way. And then he'll say, said contra, but on the contrary. And then he'll quote an authority.
And then he'll say, okay, and then I'll explain more. And then I'll reply to each of these objections. And his appeal to authority for fasting, for several of the questions regarding fasting in the Summa, is this is the church's custom.
Custom is a great reason to fast. It's what we've been doing. It's what the church proposes.
And it's a sign that we are not just following our own will. This is a tricky thing. If the church wants us to be glorious, resplendent saints, if the church, if her whole deal is helping us become like Christ, what's a sign that we're not just doing it out of a desire for our own glory? What's a sign of saying that we're not just following along with the church's teachings because they make a lot of sense to us, or they're reasonable, or we love Catholic social teaching, or we love Catholic philosophy? It's to give us something where the rubber hits the road, where we have to make a decision that is uncomfortable, where there is no reason why we would ever do this, except that we were told to do it.
Our will will always drift toward comfort, and a sign that we're following our Lord and his bride, the church, is that we follow an authority outside of ourselves. So, first reason for fasting? Restoration. Second reason for fasting? Obedience.
Third reason for fasting? Imitation. We want to be like Jesus. Maybe we don't really want to, but we want to want to be like Jesus.
And if that's the case, that means that we are in training to become like him. When we look at boxers or wrestlers, when they're in training for a fight, they are very deliberate about what they eat and what they drink and how they behave. Some of this so that they stay within their certain weight class, because they're trying to look like the kind of athlete they want to become.
And so they fast. They're trying to imitate an ideal, and so they fast. They are very deliberate about what they eat and what they don't eat.
Actors now, this didn't used to be the case so much, but the whole marvelization of Hollywood means that most men, if they have some sort of heroic role, or even not so heroic role, they get a personal trainer, and they get a dietitian, a nutritionist, so that they can look like a Norse god, or they can look like a son of Krypton. They fast in order to imitate an ideal. They are very deliberate so they can be like who they're pretending to be.
We fast so that we might become like Christ. And what is Christ like? Well, in Philippians 2, we get this really cool line. Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.
Being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. So Christ Jesus, who was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. Christ is giving us an example to follow.
The fancy Greek term for what he did is called kenosis, a self-emptying. His love is kenotic. Kenosis, it's a fun word.
You can say it if you like. If anybody asks you what you learned today, you can say the word kenosis. It means self-emptying.
And his love is self-emptying. He didn't need anything in heaven. And he came to earth and experienced need.
But think about this for a little bit, guys. Who actually deserves all of the good things of this world? Who deserves the good things of the world the most? I think a strong argument could be made that the person who deserves the good things of this world the most is the guy who created it. More than you, more than me, more than any royalty, more than any politician, more than anyone else that you can possibly imagine, the one guy who deserves all of the good things of this world the most would be Jesus Christ, the creator of the world.
But that's not the example that he gave. He doesn't give the example, well, I'm here now, I'm going to always be well-fed. I'm here now, I'm going to enjoy all of the pleasures of this world.
He doesn't give that as the example to imitate. He actually gives the example quite the opposite. We're going to take a look at the Gospel passage from this past Sunday, where Jesus spends 40 days in the desert.
Gentlemen, how do we know that he spent 40 days in the desert? How do we know he spent 40 days fasting? Hm? It's in the Gospel. How did the apostles know that he did it? Because he told them. He would have told them, I spent 40 days fasting.
Why would he tell them that? This isn't just like a humble brag on his part. This isn't like, hey guys, I want you to know I gave up chocolate this Lent. He's telling them something deeply true about what it is that he's about.
He's telling them something deeply true about what it is they are called to. He's saying, I am the man who voluntarily gives up pleasure. I am the man who voluntarily gives up even good things for a span of time, so that you might see the deeper reality that I, who lack nothing, gave up everything to be with you.
His time in the desert is a sign of the whole mystery of the Incarnation. His time walking the earth amongst us, his 33-ish years on earth. Guys, I hope this is not a surprise to you.
This world, compared to heaven, is worse than a desert. And his time in the desert, those 40 days at the beginning of his public ministry, he is giving to us as a sign of the whole mystery of the Incarnation. And I think this gets to the heart of why at least I struggle with fasting.
Because what happens with me, and this might not be with you, you guys are good men, I get that. But me, ridiculous man that I am, any time that I might break a fast, any time that I might cut a corner on a fast, any time that I might eat between meals or say, well, I'm going to give this up for Lent, but not today, and it's because I come up with a reason, I come up with a justification, I come up with a way of saying, I actually deserve this right now. I actually need this right now.
The world owes me this. After the day that I've had, after the conversation that I've had, after the meeting that I've had, after how my body has been feeling, I deserve this. I have a right to this.
And so I will break a fast. I deserve time, just sitting in my recliner, scrolling on social media. I know I said I was going to give up time on screens, but today, today it makes sense.
I know I said I was going to give up sweets, but man, I could really use a scoop of ice cream right now. And there's some in the freezer. And everybody else is in bed.
It's been a very long day. I deserve it. And gentlemen, the example that Christ gives is the most deserving being possible.
The most deserving being you could possibly imagine, beyond what you can imagine. He said, actually, no, I deserve everything, and I'm going to take nothing. This is why fasting is hard, because I don't do that.
I will make justifications. I will reveal to myself and to the world that I'm not yet Christ. And this is one of the cool things about fasting, is it shows us that we are not yet the men we are called to be.
We are not yet conformed to the heart of Christ. We are not yet the saints we're called to be. And maybe that's the fourth reason to fast, is to see just how much further we have to go, which is not a bad thing to find out.
In fact, if we don't know how much further we need to go, we're probably not going to take another step. So why do we fast? Well, we fast because it's restorative. We fast because it's a sign of obedience.
But very deeply, we fast because we want to be like Jesus. And this is the example he showed. We cannot match him in his wits.
We cannot match him in his glory. We cannot match him in his divinity. But we can match him in his humility.
He embraced poverty, and he invites us to do the same. In these 40 days of Lent, we are being asked particularly to embrace poverty. And we can.
This is the example he gave to us. It is not so distant. It is actually very near.
It is just saying no to goods temporarily, which purifies us, which prevents us from screwing up later, which carves out time to be with our Lord more personally, more intentionally. And it also conforms us to the heart of Christ. What a beautiful thing fasting is.
And so, with that, I want to invite you all to spend some time with this past week's Gospel. Again, I never know where people are going to sit, so there are copies of the Gospel from this past Sunday on some tables, and on some tables, maybe not. So if you want to pass them down and see.
We're going to take just like six or seven minutes in silence. If you don't know what to do with Scripture, on the back is just a sort of cheat sheet on how to do Lectio Divina, which is praying with Scripture. Mark, question? Yes, one question.
Some guys who are fasting, they may know of Sundays as a possible exception. Can you speak to that for a moment? Yeah, so Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, and so it is a less appropriate time to be fasting. It is like a built-in 52 times a year feast day.
So, yeah, if you're giving up sinful things, don't do them on Sundays. That's a bad idea. If you're giving up sinful things, don't do them on Sundays.
If you're giving up just some of the goods of this world, be prudent. You know, if you're like, well, I know if I have cake on Sunday, I'm going to have cake on Monday. Well, maybe you don't have cake on Sunday then.
You guys, you probably know yourselves a little bit now. Just be prudent about it, but also enter into the joy of the resurrection on Sundays. All right, so the Gospel is on the tables.
I'm going to read it out loud once, and then a good rule of thumb is with praying with Scripture, read it over a few times, listen for what is standing out to you, listen for how our Lord might be speaking through this scene, and then talk to him about it. Prayer is conversation with God. So this is a conversation starter between you and our Lord.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. At that time, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, and afterwards he was hungry.
The tempter approached and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones become loaves of bread. He said in reply, It is written, One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and made him stand on the parapet of the temple and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.
For it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone. Jesus answered him, Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their magnificence.
And he said to him, All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me. At this Jesus said to him, Get away, Satan. It is written, The Lord your God shall you worship, and him alone shall you serve.
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him.
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.)
