By Fr. Thom Hennen
Question Box
Q: Why do we fast? Recently, Pope Francis encouraged Christians to fast and pray for world peace. Does fasting somehow move God to orchestrate things our way?
A: This is an excellent and timely question as we are now a full two weeks into Lent, a time in which we especially think of fasting.
In Matthew’s Gospel, the disciples of John the Baptist asked Jesus, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus replies, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast” (Mt 9:14-15).
As we hear in the Gospel each year for Ash Wednesday, Jesus tells his disciples, “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites … But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to others to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you” (Mt 6:16-18).
Clearly, then, Jesus instructs his disciples to fast. We also know that Jesus fasted, as we heard in the Gospel for the first Sunday of Lent, “Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry” (Lk 4:1-2).
In a variant verse of Matthew 17:21, when asked by his disciples why they had such trouble casting out a demon, Jesus responds, “This kind does not come out except by prayer and fasting.” In almost all of the approved apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she also has called for fasting in reparation for sin, for conversion and for peace.
Clearly, this practice is not foreign to our tradition. It has deep biblical roots, in not only the life and ministry of Jesus, but also going back to our elder brothers and sisters in faith, the Jewish people. Think of Esther and her fast to spare the lives of her people.
Does it work? We need to be clear: fasting is not like going on a “hunger strike” to bend God’s will to ours. Yet, why would Jesus, Mary and the pope ask for this if it had no effect? To be sure, we are dealing with mystery here, but I believe fasting must be effective. Whether it achieves exactly what we wish is another matter.
At the very least, fasting changes us. Like prayer, fasting is less about getting God to “orchestrate things our way,” and more about conforming our will to God’s. It creates a hunger in us that goes beyond physical hunger. As Jesus says, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied” (Mt 5: 6). In a sense, by fasting, we pray with our whole body; we make a “living sacrifice.”
Fasting also allows us to enter into solidarity with the poor, the hungry and the displaced, if only in the smallest of ways. It softens our hearts and makes us more understanding and, therefore, more compassionate to those in need.
Fasting, or any form of Lenten penance, is also never about punishing ourselves or proving how tough or holy we are to God. God would certainly reject that kind of sacrifice.
Still, I wonder what might happen if all 1.4 billion Catholics on planet earth earnestly fasted for world peace. The line of G.K. Chesterton comes to mind: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”
(Father Thom Hennen serves as the pastor of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport and vicar general for the Diocese of Davenport. Send questions to messenger@davenportdiocese.org)
