Homily
Friday after Ash Wednesday
4 March 2022
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
AMDG
Why fast?
Actually, Jesus was asked the opposite. Jesus was asked why He partied! It's not that Jesus didn't fast. We know that privately He fasted more than anyone, in the desert for 40 days. Yet in public He was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard, and for breaking the Sabbath. Guilty as charged I would say. After all, this is the guy whose first miracle was making 180 gallons of 100 pt wine.
Jesus partied in public, fasted in private. He instructed his disciples to pray and give alms in private as well. That's because fasting is never to be seen as an end unto itself. Jesus is clear in today's Gospel. Fasting is so much more than a strengthening of the will against temptation. We fast in order to be ready for the ultimate party. We fast so as to prefer nothing to the richest of feasts, the showering of God's mercy upon his bride.
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