Why Do We...
Fast During Lent?

Bishop Michael Pfeifer, O.M.I. was ordained to the priesthood in 1964. He served in a variety of assignments, including many years as a missionary in Mexico. While serving as the Provincial of the Southern Province of the Oblates he was named the fifth Bishop of the Diocese of San Angelo in Texas by Pope John Paul II on May 31, 1985.

Lent is a time to fast and to feast. There are many ways to do this. Lent is a reminder that we are on a journey, and the important thing is to know where we are going. Lent is a time to take stock of what we need, or do not need, on life’s journey. There is one thing that we cannot live without and that is God’s love.

During Lent we look at those areas where we need to fast in order to improve our spiritual life. We need to identify how to fast from those anxieties and fears that keep us from being all that God wants us to be. Our fasting makes us look at the little things of daily living that give a hard edge to life.

We need to fast from gossip that attempts to put others down, from jealousy and envy that evoke sharp remarks, from anger that deliberately keeps others out of our life, from arrogance that leads to disdain and harsh judgments, and from self-centeredness that easily forgets about the needs of others.

Lent is also a time to feast - not in a physical way but in a spiritual sense. Our feasting should be centered on God’s great love for us, and to see how we can invite others into the great feast of God’s love for all.

Our feasting should be centered on bringing joy and harmony to our world, to offering a kind word and withholding critical remarks, to lending a hand or heart without being asked or expected to do so, to thinking and speaking with respect about all people, especially people from other lands and cultures and taking time to really listen to others.

In the Lenten season, we need to dedicate ourselves to more prayer, to more reading of the Scriptures, more meditation, to works of service and outreach. With open hearts we surrender totally to our God who will help us to grow in love and goodness ever more fully.

In this manner we can truly develop the program of fasting and feasting that Christ wants for each one of us as we walk through the Lenten season. We remember how much Christ suffered for us and recall that He died on the cross to save us from our sins and weaknesses and to give us the fullness of God’s love.

Isaiah provides us with a timely Lenten meditation –
Isaiah 58: 1-9:

“Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive out all your laborers. Yes, your fast ends in quarrelling and fighting, striking with wicked claws. Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high! Is this the manner of fasting I wish, or keeping a day of penance. Do you call this a fast?...

“This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own. Then your light should break forth like - the dawn and your wound shall quickly be healed:…

“Then you shall call and the Lord will answer, you shall cry for help and He will say:‘Here I am!’ ”