Serve an Easy Lenten Meal
ash wednesday and good friday are both what you call, days of fasting and abstinence, like both those two things. and so it means fasting right? so giving up some food. abstinence means avoiding meat. all fridays in lent are also days that we avoid meat. now there's a whole reason about that, we talk about in another video, but one of the things that i think is important is what we've talked about here before. what is fasting? like, so we have you know, in the whole catholic church, the entire year there's only two days when we have to fast. and that's ash wednesday and good friday.
you know what? whenever you have a rule, someone has to ask the question, in the 2000 year history of the church, someone has to say, "what is the most i can possibly eat, and it's still considered a fast day?" and so the church has to answer that question because people really want to know. so, like, what's the most i can possibly eat and still have it be a fast day? or when other rules, it's like, okay, what's the least i can possibly do, and it still counts, for, like, the thing? okay, so the church comes up with this formula and says okay, well how 'bout two small meals and then one regular sized meal that's not you know, larger than both those small meals put together, like just, here's a formula.
well that's easy. because, think about, the only two fast days we have to fast you get to eat, if you're an american, or canadian, or somewhere in the west then you pretty much get to eat more food than most people do on a regular day of their life now here's the important thing that's- one of the reasons why, is because the fasting, it's not about doing something super tough um even during lent when you give something up- um we're called to make sacrifices, we're called to pray in a certain way, we're called to give in a certain way it's not about how hard it is
it's not about how difficult it is see we keep falling into that trap, about thinking like well that's a- that's a fast? that's not very difficult, yeah you're right, it's not, what's difficult is, this is a fast day whether i like it or not like this is a day that i'm called to eat less, i'm called to act differently, whether i like it or not the same thing is true when it comes to mass on every sunday and holy day of obligation it's a thing that i'm called to do whether i like it or not, now here's the- here's why that's so good what is love? what's the definition of love? well, a definition, i think the best definition, is love is willing the good of the other so it's willing or choosing the good of the other,
so we're called to love our neighbor, we're called to love the people in our families, we're called to love others right? to will their good, to choose their good the problem is not that we can't love others, the problem is that how do you love god? right? so because if love is willing the good of the other you're providing for something they lack typically, you're giving them something they don't have but when it comes to god, he has everything, he's completely full, right? god is good, how can i will the good of god, how can i love god? and so we kind of find ourselves in a little bit of a bind, and it's this- that sense of like oh wait, how can i give god something he doesn't already have when god has everything?
the way you and i can love god is basically through thr- through three things we can love god through giving him glory right- by praising him, by giving him thanksgiving, holy thanksgiving, or by worshiping him we love god by serving our neighbor right by loving the ones around us, by willing the good of the people in our lives but thirdly we love god through obedience jesus even said this, right he says, if you love me, keep my commandments by saying yes to him- why? because god has everything in the world, he has everything in the universe except for one thing, and the one thing god doesn't have is your heart when we say yes to his will we're giving him our heart
when we say yes to his law we're giving him our heart, when we say yes to his rules we're saying, god, you get actually the thing you don't have, you get my will, you get my heart, you have my obedience you see at the very core of obedience is love it's not about how hard the fast is, it's about i'm doing this because i was asked to do it when it comes to going to mass, it's not because like, oh gosh, mass is so boring, or mass is so long or mass is so hard to get to, it's not that hard to get to, it is l- it's about an hour and you probably have a church somewhere within your immediate vicinity it's about going there because i was asked to go there
you see when you and i skip out of the fast that we were asked to do, when you and i skip out of sunday mass that we're asked to do what we're essentially saying is god, you don't get my heart, i will do what i want, that's the heart of every sin right? god, i know what you want, i don't care, i want what i want but when you know, actually, god's call is that i have to go to mass every single sunday god's call is that on ash wednesday, and good friday, i'm called to- to fast, i'm called to abstain from meat god, i'm doing this because you asked me to you asked me to through scripture, you asked me to through your church when we say yes to that, we're saying yes to him
and when we're obedient to him, that is the- in some ways, ultimate sign, an ultimate expression of our love for him, and this lent you don't have to do something incredible, you don't have to do something unimaginable maybe this lent, what you and i are called to do, is simply obey his commands and to do it why? because i love him and to do it why? because you asked me to do it from all of us here at ascension presents, my name is father mike, god bless
