There
are three traditional practices associated with Lent—almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. Jesus mentions all three in today’s gospel. He also offers some advice on the proper
attitude when carrying out these practices.
With respect to each practice, Jesus warns against seeking praise from
others for our good deeds. As he puts
it, “When you give alms, do not blow a
trumpet before you; when you pray, go to your inner room and pray to your
Father in secret; when you fast, do not appear to be fasting, except to your
Father who is hidden. And your Father
who sees what is hidden will repay you.”
Throughout his life and mission, Jesus offered
many ways to understand the heart of each practice. The parable of the widow’s
mite, for example, illustrates the right attitude when giving money. According to this story, the amount of money
given is not what counts, but the sincerity of heart with which it is given
that matters most. But, giving money is
only one way to practice almsgiving.
The Psalmist offers deeper insight in this
regard when he says, "Blessed is he that considers the needy and the
poor" (Psalm 40:2). Notice that the
Psalmist says “considers” rather than “gives” to the needy and the poor. This intentional way of putting it suggests
that anything done to assist the needy and the poor out of genuine charity and
with a sincere heart is in fact almsgiving.
In this sense, almsgiving includes much more than giving money to the
indigent. Every deed done to benefit our
neighbor in the name of Christ is almsgiving.
Every time we support a policy or practice that considers the needs of
the poor, this is almsgiving.
When
it comes to the practice of prayer, Jesus is our first model for several
reasons. For one, we know that Jesus
often went out alone to a secluded place and prayed to his heavenly Father. Rarely is the content of his prayer revealed
to us. What we do know suggests that,
during his prayer, Jesus spoke openly and honestly with his heavenly Father,
holding back nothing. Since he came to do
the Father’s will, we can be sure that Jesus spent time in prayer discerning
what that might involve. If Jesus found
it necessary to spend time in prayer with the heavenly father, surely we can do
no better.
We
also can do no better than to pray as Jesus taught us. When his disciples asked Jesus to teach them
how to pray, he offered what has become the classic model for genuine
prayer. The Lord’s Prayer offers a
loving and beautiful way to talk openly and honestly with our heavenly Father. The words that Jesus gave us contain all that
we need to know about how to pray. The
beauty and simplicity of the Lord’s Prayer is why it has a special and distinct
part in the Mass.
Fasting
is the third traditional Lenten practice.
We usually think of fasting in terms of giving up a favorite food or
special treat. This way of fasting is
certainly appropriate. Vatican II in
fact encouraged the renewal of this practice, especially before celebration of
the Easter Vigil. My grandson used to give up sodas for Lent, but he no longer
drinks sodas as a matter of good health.
Fortunately, other ways of fasting can be found.
The
words of the prophet Isaiah offer insight into what authentic fasting really
means. To make his point, Isaiah quotes
the Lord when he says, "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" (Is
58:6-7). The prophet Joel makes the same
point more succinctly in today’s first reading when he says on behalf of the
Lord, “…return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and
mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your
God” (Jl 2:12-13). In other words, tear
open your hearts to those who need you, most especially your family.
In a
less dramatic way, we might give up making critical remarks about others. I personally have resolved not to call some drivers
on the road idiots. My grandson Justin
laughs at my resolution, for he knows that I will never make it through Lent. On a more serious note, we can give up
rejecting and judging others. Or, we can
give up those ambitions that we know in our heart of hearts are not in keeping
with the Father’s will. There are many
other ways of fasting that we can think of with some reflection.
Prayer,
fasting and almsgiving are the three legs of a traditional Lenten
practice. If we apply these three themes
to our daily lives during this season of Lent, I suspect that we will be better
off at the end of Lent than when we began.
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