The Fast God Wants Living Lent with the Old Testament Peter Arndt

The Old Testament reading from Joel (Joel 2:12-18), the second reading from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (2Cor 5:20-6:2) and the Gospel reading from Matthew (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18) each encourage us to seek a renewed relationship with God through an inner spiritual reconnection. The prophet urges the people of Israel to rend their hearts rather than their garments in order to return to God; Paul beseeches the followers of Christ to be reconciled with God in order that they can be Christ’s ambassadors; and Jesus tells us that our spiritual practices – almsgiving, praying and fasting – should be focused on deepening our relationship with God rather than on being seen by others as engaging in these practices.

Along with almsgiving and prayer, fasting is a spiritual practice we are still encouraged to perform during Lent as a means of renewal and conversion of heart; and in the lectionary readings which follow for the Friday and the Saturday after Ash Wednesday, a study of the Old Testament readings, in particular, can offer us a very different perspective on the nature of the fasting which will bring us closer to God, a fasting which takes us well beyond going without certain foods during Lent.

On these days, the Old Testament readings come from the prophet Isaiah namely, Isaiah 58:1-9a and Isaiah 58:9b-14. In these passages, the prophet tells the people that God will not take notice of their fasting if they focus on ritual practices such as wearing sackcloth and ashes while, at the same time, treating others unjustly and ignoring suffering and oppression in society. He tells the people that God will be close to them only if their fasting is associated with just practices in their daily living. For the prophet, fasting acceptable to God must be accompanied by action which promotes justice and dignity for all people in society:

Is not this the fast that I choose?:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin? (vv 6,7)

Many Old Testament passages like these point to the strong connection between developing a commitment to social justice and deepening and strengthening our relationship with God. So, they can be a very useful resource for you to guide students in any spiritual renewal process during Lent.

An Acceptable Fast

How can you help students to explore the implications of passages such as those from Isaiah 58 during Lent?

As a first step, it may be worthwhile to engage students in a discussion about the three readings for Ash Wednesday at the beginning of Lent with a view to:

• encouraging them to incorporate fasting, prayer and almsgiving into their daily spiritual practices during Lent;
• broadening the possibilities for fasting to include not only going without certain types of food, but also limiting or going without other activities such as playing video games, watching TV programs or going to the movies;
• helping them to understand the importance of getting involved in action for justice as an essential element in the spiritual renewal process.

If we take Isaiah’s words seriously, students should be offered not only opportunities for prayer and ritual practices during Lent, but also opportunities for seeing the poverty and injustice around them and taking action to challenge it.

During each week of Lent, then, students’ awareness of poverty and injustice in our world could be raised by using appropriate resources. Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion has excellent materials for each week of Lent designed for both primary and secondary students. These can be found at: http://www.caritas.org.au/project_compassion_10/Resources/schools.html

Project Compassion’s theme for 2010 is Blueprint for a Better World and helps students to learn more about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and what is being done to achieve them so that the scourge of poverty might be ended.

Such resources not only give students reasons for raising funds for development projects run by Caritas Australia and other agencies but also provide them with ideas for getting involved in action to challenge injustice. Caritas Australia’s Be More Campaign provides excellent opportunities for young people to get involved in working for justice. For example, the campaign is currently asking young people to participate in an action encouraging pharmaceutical companies to put more resources into developing treatments for young people with HIV. You will find the Be More web site at http://www.bemore.org.au/.
Of course, there are many other suitable projects and campaigns which students could explore to get ideas for action to promote justice in the world,e.g., the Make Poverty History Campaign (http://www.makepovertyhistory.com.au/), Jubilee Australia’s Tree of Truth Campaign (http://www.jubileeaustralia.org/) and the Edmund Rice Centre’s Pacific Calling Partnership (http://www.erc.org.au/pcp/).

As you progress through Lent, you may wish to suggest to your class that it participate in a Be More activity or a Stand Up Against Poverty event during the year. However, it is just as important to encourage students to take a personal interest in injustices in the world, to take time to learn more about particular justice issues and groups of people facing injustice and oppression, and to make a personal commitment to take action outside of the classroom to make a better world.

Certainly, in offering students the powerful call for justice by Isaiah and the other prophets of the Old Testament as a prayer and reflection resource, you will be providing them with a wonderful spiritual compass in their search for intimacy with God!