God did not come to Earth so that He could have a feast. He came to Earth to Fast for us so that we could have a Feast when He was gone.
During Lent, we commemorate the forty days and nights that Christ spent in the wilderness, being tempted by the Evil One.
And yet – the period of lent is longer than forty days. During this time, we offer sacrifices to God to atone for our sins. And we do this over the forty days to unite ourselves to Christ and His suffering for us. And I have been reflecting on those extra few days that we have in Lent.
You see, we are not supposed to offer sacrifices and fast and do penance on Sunday. On Sunday we commemorate not the death and suffering of God – but His conquering over death and His resurrection! And it is on those days we are the wedding guests while the bridegroom is with them…
“ Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘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.’” (Matthew 9:14-15).
But there is a time and a place for mortification and acts of penance. Christ told Saint Faustina, “You will save more souls through prayer and suffering than will a missionary through his teachings and sermons alone.”
And the Saints lived lives of holiness, underlined by their acts of penance and mortification. Saints like Saint Philip Neri taught that “without mortification nothing can be done.”
And I have been reflecting on that today, as I have been reflecting on all the different types of mortification – the penance made voluntarily, the involuntary suffering offered as penance anyway, the surrender to God’s Holy Will – and all the other types of penance. I have been thinking about the pure loveliness of trusting in God and doing as He wishes. I have been reflecting on the pure joy of making a mortification well. And I have been thinking about what it means to feast on Sundays.
You see, our God is so perfectly benevolent that He has not even asked me to offer penance continuously for forty days and nights – He gives me a break for feasting in between.
And He does this even though He never got a break for feasting when He was on Earth. When He was in the desert, He had no breaks. Instead, He sacrificed and offered penance continuously – without any breaks. Because God did not come to Earth so that He could have a feast. He came to Earth to Fast for us so that we could have a Feast when He was gone.
And I have been thinking about that today – as I FEAST this Sunday. And it occurs to me that I am more lucky than I could have ever imagined…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.