Friday After Ash Wednesday
My husband Joel and I have a cookbook titled "The Joyful Fast." It is a holdover from the days when we attended an Eastern Rite Catholic parish, which has different fasting rules than the ones we use in our Western Roman Catholic tradition (for more about this, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Catholic_Churches#.22Rite.22). I am always struck by the cookbook's title: how can fasting, indeed how can Lent itself, be joyful? The reflection we do on our sins throughout this season makes the tone seem somber and gloomy.
Today's scriptures remind me, however, that Lenten fasting is exactly meant for seeking God's joy. Consider the lengthy first passage (Isaiah 58:1-9a): it begins with a caution about the reasons for undertaking a fast. The peoples' sins hinge on the fact that they do their fasting the wrong way - they do it for their own pursuits, which only ends in fighting. I'm embarrassed to admit that when I read these words, I'm reminded of all the years I've been glad to see Lent only because I presumed that my "fasting" would help me lose weight. Fasting became for my own pursuits, and not for God's, and indeed, the crankiness I felt from giving up foods meant I was also cranky with my friends and family.
By the end of the passage we see that fasting for the right reasons leads truly to celebrations, because people who have no food now have it, people who are oppressed see justice, and "light breaks forth like the dawn." Light breaking forth! This sounds more appropriate for Easter, where our vigil service begins in darkness and ends with bright shining lights. But here we are at the beginning of Lent, already seeing the light if we are fasting in the right ways and for the right reasons.
Thus, though the gospel reading seems a bit contradictory in tone to the first passage (Matthew 9:14-15), here too, Jesus is emphasizing the joy of being with the bridegroom. Jesus speaks of a time when the "bridegroom is taken away" from the disciples. I used to think that passage referred to us here and now, when we do not experience the physical/historical reality of Jesus' presence on earth. That is true, to some extent. But I now also think that the time when the bridegroom was taken away from the disciples refers to the three days Jesus lay in the tomb, because in another sense, we Christians know absolutely that Jesus is with us. He is with us in the Eucharist, and he is with us in the Body of Christ, and we see him in "the least of these." So we should be joyful because we live in a time when we already know the ending of the story: Jesus died but he is risen!
Our fasting this Lent is truly meant to be a celebration of Jesus, the Bridegroom. This is not because we are sad Jesus is gone, but because this time is a gift we have been given. We have the gift of being able to spend six weeks each year really, really, trying to focus on God, like the first passage suggests, and take out the extra stuff we don't need. It is like spring cleaning - getting rid of the things we've saved in our closets can be difficult, but how free and joyful we feel when we have pared down our lives!
A hymn we often sing this time of year reminds us of this great joy: "The glory of these forty days we celebrate with songs of praise! For Christ by whom all things were made himself has fasted and has prayed." Let us therefore begin Lent well and with joy, celebrating all the good reasons to fast.
- Jana M. Bennett