Why Fasting?

Pope Francis has called for Peace in Syria, and announces a worldwide day of fasting and Prayer on 7th September. Why do we fast?

“Why do your disciples not fast?” Jesus answered: “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast” (Mt 9:15)

Fasting, to which I intend to draw your attention briefly today, is the second element necessary for the spring of the spirit. More than mere abstinence from nourishment or material food, it represents a complex and deep reality. Fasting is a symbol, a sign, a serious and stimulating call to accept or to make renunciations. What renunciation? Renunciation of the “ego”, that is, of so many caprices or unhealthy aspirations; renunciation of one’s own defects, of impetuous passion, of unlawful desires. Fasting is being able to say “no”, bluntly and firmly, to what is suggested or asked by pride, selfishness, and vice; listening to one’s own conscience, respecting the good of others, remaining faithful to God’s holy Law.

Fasting means putting a limit on so many desires, sometimes good ones, in order to have full mastery of oneself, to learn to control one’s own instincts, to train the will in good. Acts of this kind were once known as “fioretti” (small acts of sacrifice). The name changes, but the substance remains! They were and remain acts of renunciation, carried out for love of the Lord or of Our Lady, with a noble purpose to attain. They were and are a “sport”, and indispensable training in order to be victorious in the competitions of the Spirit! Fasting, finally, means depriving oneself of something in order to meet the need of one’s brother, becoming, in this way, and exercise of goodness, of charity.

Fasting, understood, put into practice, lived in this way, becomes repentance, that is, conversion to God. For it purifies the heart from so much dross of evil, beautifies the soul with virtues, trains the will to good, dilates the heart to receive the abundance of divine grace. In this conversion faith becomes stronger, hope more joyful, and charity more active!

Be converted to God, fill yourself with the Spirit of the Lord, and you will have in your heart a real, deep, and irrepressible joy; you will show a genuine, winning smile; you will see your youth as a stupendous gift, worthy of being lived in fullness and authenticity of human and Christian life.

With these brief considerations, which I hope will find a deep echo in your spirit and in your behaviour, receive, as testimony of great good will and a token of abundant heavenly graces, my fatherly Blessing, which I willingly extend to your families and to all the persons dear to you.

Blessed Pope John Paul II

General Audience to young people

March 21, 1979