ARE WE WILLING TO “FAST” IN THE SMALL DAILY THINGS FOR LOVE OF GOD?
HERE’S HOW…
Fasting does not only involve abstaining from food. It could also be applied to different things. As St. Bernard wrote in one of his Lenten homilies:
Let the eyes fast from curiosity.
Let the ears fast in not heeding vain words or anything unnecessary for the soul’s salvation.
Let the tongue fast from defamation and gossip, from vain and useless words.
Let the hand fast from idleness and unnecessary busyness.
Let the soul fast even more from all vices and sins, and from imposing its will and judgments.
For without such fasting, all other fasting is rejected by God.
We could also very well apply this idea to a great deal of things from which provides us pleasure or which causes some form of attachment if not slavery, such as:
- fasting from the use of social media, television, internet, xbox or playstation games
- mortification of the tongue, imagination, and memory,
- limiting time for listening to music,
- abstaining from using the elevator if we just have to go up a flight of stairs or two,
- putting our things, clothers in order,
- overcoming our laziness to help someone, or make life pleasant to those around us,
- and the list goes so on…as long as we do it for the right reason:
And all these done for love of God, as a manifestation of our contrition, in reparation for our sins and those of humanity, for the conversion of many souls and so forth…
It is up to us to freely discern in our personal prayer what Our Lord wants from us so that this Lenten season would really be a time of grace, penance, and conversion of our heart.
A Blessed Lenten season to all!
Fr. Rolly Arjonillo