12 March 2023
Third Sunday of Lent
These days, the Catholic Church asks her faithful to fast for only two days per year. That’s not very much fasting by the standards of the sports industry, or of the entertainment industry, or of the weight-loss industry. On the other hand, what all those industries ask for is not very much either compared to what Jesus Christ did. He went without food for forty days and forty nights in the desert. To better understand Christ’s accomplishment, recall his words in the gospel of John: “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” Jesus explained that his food is to do the will of his Father who sent him. This means that Jesus was able to survive in a supernatural mode merely by doing God’s will perfectly, seeing it through all the way to its completion.
Our Lenten fasting is not meant to make us better sportsmen or entertainers, or to reach our weight-loss goal. It is more important than that. It attunes us more closely to God’s will. That is why theSpiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola so often “praise works of penance, not only those that are interior but also those that are exterior” (SpEx 359). As you continue your Lenten journey, rededicate yourself to penance, both interior and exterior, adding more if necessary, and asking God to share with you some of that same food that Christ has to eat, of which you do not know.