By Father Daniel Merz
Fasting, which is
required of Catholics on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, has biblical roots. Our
fall from grace happened when Adam and Eve broke the fast, and a key moment in
our restoration to grace occurred when Christ fasted for 40 days in the desert.
Humanity's first sin
involved eating. God had proclaimed a fast from the fruit of only one tree, the
tree of knowledge of good and evil, and Adam and Eve broke it. All of us, in
Adam and Eve, rejected a life dependent on God alone for one that was dependent
on “bread alone” instead. The tragedy is not so much that Adam and Eve ate
food, but that they ate the food for its own sake, apart from God and to gain
independence from Him. They believed the deceiving serpent’s message that food
had life in itself and that by eating of that one tree they could be “like God”
and thus rid of Him. They put their
faith in food, believing that their existence depended on bread alone.
Christ, the new Adam, at
the start of his ministry fasted 40 days and 40 nights. He became hungry. Such
hunger helps us realize we depend on something else—when we face the ultimate
question: on what does my life depend? Satan tempted Adam and Eve and Christ,
saying: Eat, for your hunger is proof that you depend entirely on food, that
your life is in food. Adam and Eve believed and ate. Christ, meanwhile, said, “Man does NOT live by bread alone.” This liberates us from total dependence on
food, on matter, on the world. Thus, for Christians, fasting is the only means
by which a person recovers his true spiritual nature. People sometimes fast as
a fad, of course, but there must be a spiritual component to fasting, otherwise
it remains essentially about food—the lack of it. The second half of Christ’s
statement revealed what humanity does live by: “every word that comes forth
from the mouth of God.” (Mt. 4:4)
Fasting in Lent recalls
our dependence on God alone: His Word
and His Word made flesh. The truest of all foods is the Eucharist. Before this
food, we break our fast every time, because this is not food for this world,
but the Bread of Heaven. Fasting empties us, making us ready to receive the
food of grace.
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Father Daniel Merz is associate director
of the Secretariat for Divine Worship of the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Great title!
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