7 March 2014 - avail-able

7 March 2014 - avail-able 

We cannot fast when the bridegroom is here with us.  His presence fills us with such overwhelming
joy that the mourning which fasting entails is impossible for us.  And when he ascends into heaven he promises to be with us always, even unto the end of the age (cf. Mat. 28:20).  Is fasting, perhaps, a mistake, then?  No, because in spite of this promise Jesus also tells us, "The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”"

How can Jesus be with us always and yet taken from us?  It isn't that his presence is unavailable to us.  We can always find him in the Eucharist, in the Word of God, and in the faces of the poor and suffering.  Yet we do not always find him there.  He is available to us but we do not avail ourselves of this gift.  And when he is absent our hearts should mourn.  We must allow ourselves to truly feel this absence for what it is. 

Fasting, therefore, isn't something we struggle through primarily as a discipline for ourselves.  If we approach it this way it will end in "quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw."  It only serves to make ourselves and those around us miserable. It isn't an external practice which we can add over the top of a day filled with our own pursuits.  It is a posture of heart, not mainly of body.

Is this the manner of fasting I wish,
of keeping a day of penance:
That a man bow his head like a reed
and lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?

Yet it isn't mere introspection.  It isn't trying to work up feelings within.  It isn't getting locked inside of ourselves. It is the mournful knowledge that we way are far from God and the desperate desire to be close to him.

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.

When we do what we can for the least of these we are doing it for Jesus.  We are drawing near to him who has become far from us.  Fasting is turning aside from material things, yes, but it is only valuable if it is also a turn toward God himself.

What happens when we have a "heart contrite and humbled"?  He will not spurn us!  He will have mercy on us when we call out to him.  When the desire for his presence fills us he will not tarry, but will come at once to meet us.

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
Your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,
you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!

Let us again hear him say, "Here I am!"  Let his glory surround us!