When and how should we fast? In today’s first reading Isaiah tells us that a true fast is not just refraining from food but refraining from “your own pursuits, and drive[ing] all your laborers.” A true fast is refraining from a “quarrel and fight.” A true fast is “releasing those bound unjustly…setting free the oppressed…sharing your bread with the hungry…clothing the naked.” Isaiah tells us that the true fast that God wishes and desires is social justice: to love one another as God has already loved us.
Jesus echoes the teaching of Isaiah and tells us that we will been judged on how well we have fasted, but not a fast from food but the true fast that God desires: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.” (Matthew 25:31-46).
Today’s Gospel teaches that turning to God and encountering Jesus are more important than any fasting. Jesus says that now is not the time for fasting and mourning: “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” While we are called to fast during Lent this fast should be joyful and remind us that the bridegroom, Jesus, is still with us. Pope Francis has invited us to encounter Jesus each day:
“I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord. The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms.” (Pope Francis, “The Joy of the Gospel,” #3).