Why should I give up my favorite pork sisig today, Ash Wednesday, on Good Friday and on the Fridays of Lent? Why fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday?
Of the three Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, fasting seems to be the most impractical, useless and maybe even absurd for us today. Why do we fast?
Fasting is deeply based in hundreds, even thousands, of years of spiritual practice and wisdom: when you tame the body, you tame the soul.
Paul writes to the Church in Corinth: “Christ died for our sins.” (1 Cor 15: 3) Most of our sins are rooted in our failure to tame our appetites â for food, drink, sex, comfort, affection, prestige, honors. We seek pleasure and avoid pain, even when this may destroy us and others. We are helplessly enslaved by many addictions: “In fact I do not do the good I want, but the evil I hate.” (Rom 7: 19)
In many cases, through fasting and abstinence in food or giving up on other areas â drink, recreation, movies, TV and the Internet, we increase our capacity for sacrifice which is the essence of all love.
And so this Lent I will fast and abstain from food, drink and other areas I enjoy, taming my body to tame my soul, expressing my love for Christ by my sacrifice. And I will not complain