"Is this the fast I seek?"
Julie Higgs
A confirmation student called me early during Holy Week one year to ask, “when is Lent officially over?” She wanted to know when she could start eating chocolate again. I was delighted that she had taken seriously the idea of doing something different for Lent. But I couldn’t help but wonder if God was asking, “Is this the fast I seek?”
For many years, the local newspaper had an article on Ash Wednesday filled with responses to a question about what they were going to “give up” for Lent. A lot of people were giving up some particular food. During the weeks of Lent, the newspaper’s weekly Food section was filled with extravagant fish recipes that took away any notion that giving up meat was a sacrifice. I couldn’t help but wonder if God was asking, “Is this the fast I seek?”
A formerly Catholic friend was deeply faithful about following Catholic practices for observing Lent, including no meat on Ash Wednesday or Fridays. Grieving and exhausted while driving across the country for her aunt’s funeral one year, she and her husband stopped at about 1:00 am for hamburgers before crashing at a hotel for a few hours and getting back on the road. Weeks later she realized that she had eaten meat at 1 am on Ash Wednesday. She was guilt-ridden. But I couldn’t help but wonder if God was asking, “Is this the fast I seek?”
I don’t mean to denigrate those who choose such fasts for their Lenten disciplines. But for me, I haven’t found much meaning in giving up particular foods for Lent. The suffering of not having chips or French fries (two of my vices) certainly never served as a powerful reminder of Christ’s suffering.
The most “successful” Lenten discipline I ever kept began with a list of questions with the instruction to choose one or more to focus on for the seven weeks of Lent, in hopes of changing my behavior in a significant way not just during, but beyond Lent.
In these divisive times when disagreement can lead to complete rejection or a mistake in language can result in the attribution of a host of negative characteristics, perhaps these are the questions I will think about this Lent:
When others disagree with me, do I continue to listen to them and try to understand their perspectives? Do I respond in an attempt to generate mutual understanding? Or do I try to convince them that I’m right?
On issues where I’m particularly passionate, do I respond to disagreements in a way that permits us to walk together while still disagreeing? Or do I cut off those who disagree with me (in my mind, if not aloud) and conclude that they aren’t open to the conversation?
O God, help us to choose the fast that you would choose for us in order to loose the bonds of injustice, undo the thongs of the yoke, let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke.
