Anyone for a FAST lent?

Next week is mid lent commemorating the half way of the great lent. There are many in the church who have different sorts of lent. The first and last week of the great lent, the entire lent and half the lent. As the mid lent approaches we must also understand the real concept of the lent and also look at how it was seen in the early church.

What are some of the problems that face us during the lent? Reconciliation is supposed to be so important that we have a reconciliation service at the beginning and the end of lent. But how many of us reconcile with one another and everyone we know? Wouldn’t our church and society benefit from such a reconciliation? But we refuse to do that as reconciliation is the most difficult thing to do in our lives, more difficult than any fast, lent and diet restriction. In fact it is so difficult that we leave that out of the picture and do a big lent, feeling very self righteous in the process.

A fast like this is satisfying for our ego but does not bring about pretty much anything else. This is when we need to look at one of the advises of St.John Chrysostom. “Fasting is the change of every part of our life, because the sacrifice of the fast is not the abstinence but the distancing from sins. Therefore, whoever limits the fast to the deprivation of food, he is the one who, in reality, abhors and ridicules the fast. Are you fasting? Show me your fast with your works. Which works? If you see someone who is poor, show him mercy. If you see an enemy, reconcile with him. If you see a friend who is becoming successful, do not be jealous of him! If you see a beautiful woman on the street, pass her by. In other words, not only should the mouth fast, but the eyes and the legs and the arms and all the other parts of the body should fast as well. Let the hands fast, remaining clean from stealing and greediness. Let the legs fast, avoiding roads which lead to sinful sights. Let the eyes fast by not fixing themselves on beautiful faces and by not observing the beauty of others. You are not eating meat, are you? You should not eat debauchery with your eyes as well. Let your hearing also fast. The fast of hearing is not to accept bad talk against others and sly defamations.”

So we are asked to bring every part of our body into the fast and not just the stomach. Our mind should think of positive life affirming things, our eyes should see proper sights, our ears should hear good about others, our mouth and lips should talk good things about others, our hands should do good, our stomach should fast with others in mind, our legs should go the extra mile and our feet should stand up for others. The FAST lent that we undertake should make us
F- Feast
A- And
S- Say
       The
T- Truth

What is a feast? A feast is to make what is available the best and happily have it instead of grumbling about what is not there. Even as we fast we must know that the poor have limited resources with them. For them a meal may be left over rice and fish curry without any fish. It could be the remains of the meal of someone else. There we cannot talk about the purity of the lent but we must give what we have to others. We are on lent so that others may have. We cannot impose our lent on others because sometimes our lent becomes the only opportunity in a year for them to eat properly. A feast is also a feast of the soul. So when the body fasts, the soul feasts. That is why the fast should not show on our face as our soul is feasting and happy.

St. John Chrysostom says again “Let the mouth fast from disgraceful and abusive words, because, what gain is there when, on the one hand we avoid eating chicken and fish and, on the other, we chew-up and consume our brothers? He who condemns and blasphemes is as if he has eaten brotherly meat, as if he has bitten into the flesh of his fellow man. It is because of this that Paul frightened us, saying: "If you chew up and consume one another be careful that you do not annihilate yourselves." You did not thrust your teeth into the flesh (of your neighbor) but you thrusted bad talk in his soul; you wounded it by spreading disfame, causing unestimatable damage both to yourself, to him, and to many others. If you cannot go without eating all day because of an ailment of the body, beloved one, no logical man will be able to criticize you for that. Besides, we have a Lord who is meek and loving (philanthropic) and who does not ask for anything beyond our power. Because he neither requires the abstinence from foods, neither that the fast take place for the simple sake of fasting, neither is its aim that we remain with empty stomachs, but that we fast to offer our entire selves to the dedication of spiritual things, having distanced ourselves from secular things.”

Our fast according to this should make our soul reach out to our brothers and sisters and not consume them by eating their souls up! The church father advises us to not eat each other! During lent is that what we end up doing or do we share with those who are in need? All through the year the poor are eaten up by others. Isn’t it time now for them to have what otherwise is always ours? FEAST AND SAY the TRUTH is being happy with what we are doing but ultimately realizing that our responsibility lies in doing good for others. This we can do only if we realize that we are also responsible in the hungry not having food and the poor not being helped. This is the essence of lent. We must fast to accept and say the truth. In St. John 8:31-32 Jesus says “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” We are sometimes blindly bound to our lent that we do not see how we should transform ourselves and help others. Our lent should make us see the truth and it should set us free. Let us FAST. Let us Feast And Say the Truth. Amen.

Shall we try an anger fast this lent?

Lent helps to cleanse our soul and make us better people. But when people talk of the struggles that they face in life, anger is one of the top most things that come out. There are many people who say that he/she is a good person but can’t control their anger. It is interesting to note that many people who have diet restrictions and fasting end up being angrier than others. It could also be due to the frustration of not being able to eat properly or even the fluctuation of blood sugar levels. Whatever it is, anger in men and women becomes one significant thing that people can change during lent but it is easier said than done. It should also be noted that channelizing anger rather than completely doing away with anger perhaps is a better model. Can an anger fast then be a meaningful fast for us during lent?

Whichever ladder of the hierarchy we belong to, anger should not be a part of our repertoire. A priest should not get angry at his congregation, a father and mother at their child/children, siblings to one another, friend to another friend and colleague to colleague. There is no justification for anger as it is unsettling for our body and soul. Thomas Aquinas wrote that anger can become a mortal sin if “through the fierceness” of the anger a person “falls away from the love of God and his neighbor.” Getting angry at someone is not a solution to a problem and neither can it be justified citing seniority and more experience. The more one has seen the world, the more one should be able to channelize one’s anger as we can’t justify getting angry at God’s creation because it is like getting angry with God.

Ephesians 4:26 says “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” Our fasting and lent should teach us and reform us to deal with our anger. Some of us fast till noon, some afternoon and some evening. But what use will it be if we can’t channelize our anger properly? We justify anger because we do not see it as part of morality and morality is what concerns us the most than anything else. James 1:19-20 says “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” We jump at something we hear and don’t even think for a moment or say a small prayer. It is the spur of the moment and then we can’t take back what we said.

Anger mostly only instills fear in others and we are not justified in instilling fear in others as that would lead to forcing people into things. Nothing forced will last in life. We sometimes get angry at one word or one action. Proper prayer will give us the strength to be patient and understanding. One explanation of diet restriction for lent is that ordinary food makes us calm and patient. But this may not be the case always because people can be bitter with the fact that they are on a lent or that they are doing this for someone. This may not help. Anger will not get us anywhere. Matthew 5:22 says “But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment…” Lent is a hope for a better tomorrow. By getting angry and judging others we are falling into judgment ourselves. This does not in any way fulfill the reason for lent. The Psalmist puts it more directly in Psalm 37:8-9, “Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret- it leads only to evil. For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.”

Aristotle said something very thought provoking and it is “To become angry is easy. To be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way - that is not easy.” Even when we say that lent is a good time to do away with anger or channelize anger properly there are two things that should qualify that. In a house it could mean that the wife can never get angry because she will have the burden of being patient and keeping quiet to prevent a tensed situation. This may lead to the explanation by a husband that his wife did not allow him to observe a true lent because she did not understand his anger and keep quiet and instead got angry herself leading to a reaction from him. Anger sometimes has to be talked out between family and friends as otherwise it will come out at an unexpected time. This is a danger that we ignore. Husband and wife or partners should use lent as a time to talk about frustrations, dreams, unaccomplished things, misunderstandings and plans. This will become properly channelized anger as the anger inside will come out instead of being suppressed.

The second thing is righteous anger which is often quoted by many in church as a justification to get angry. Michael Perrott talks of Jesus getting angry at the temple. This is seen in three gospels in Matthew 21, Mark 11 and John 2. By and large I have seen this as a passage used by church leaders to justify getting angry in church and in certain cases refusing to reconcile. But Perrott has a different explanation of the righteous anger of Jesus. He says that the shops and the money exchange happened in the place which was for the gentiles. All this activity denied them an opportunity to worship in a certain section of the temple. So it was not only that they were confined to a certain section but that even that was taken over by commercial interests. This was when Jesus got very angry. I look back at the three years of pastoral ministry in my latest church. I have got angry very few times. But once I had an outburst and everyone in church was surprised. It was because there was talk of pushing a family out of church for a flimsy reason. I can understand how Jesus would have felt when certain people were denied an opportunity to worship God.

So channelizing our anger and expressing righteous anger for the right reasons are how we qualify not getting angry. But otherwise anger will not get us anywhere and we will only drown in our own anger. Lent is an excellent opportunity to reform ourselves from being angry people to channelizing our anger and expressing rightful and righteous anger like Jesus did, for the people of God. May we be able to deal with our anger pangs and anger issues this lent. Let us try an anger fast where we consciously tell ourselves that we won’t get angry with anyone unless we are talking for God's people and not just ourselves. Amen.