My reflection is from “The Little Black Book”
“Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guest fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.” Mark 2:19
“Actually Jesus did fast – one time for 40 days in the desert.
But he also departed from many Jewish religious practices because routine had robbed them of their original meaning. He questioned ritual purification before meals. He healed on the Sabbath, ate with sinners, touched lepers and dead people-all for bidden by Jewish law.
He did these things because his relationship with God and his exercise of religion were not routine. These were things to be reflected upon and acted out responsibly.
The early church also maintained fasting, as well as the traditional forms of penance (prayer and almsgiving) as essential to Christian living. The early church never understood Jesus to have said that his followers shouldn’t fast – they just fasted on different days than their Jewish brothers and sisters.
I need to choose deliberately how I will intensify my prayer, fasting, and charitable works during this Lenten season. It is more difficult to have to decide for myself the ways I’m going to do them, but consciously deciding can be much more effective.
Of course, I can always talk it over with the Lord.”
Let us take time and reevaluate if my Lenten practices are bringing me closer to Jesus? The purpose of Lent is not just to give up things …but to find what will bring me closer to God each day.
