Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Every year, Lent arrives with its familiar call: pray more, give more, and fast. Yet for many Catholics, fasting can feel like the most confusing part of the season. Why does the Church ask us to give up food, pleasures, or comforts? Is God impressed when we suffer? Does fasting somehow “earn” His love?
The answer is simple: we do not fast because God needs our sacrifice. We fast because we need conversion.
At its heart, fasting is about love. In every meaningful relationship, love requires sacrifice. Loving spouses sacrifice time for one another. Loving parents sacrifice sleep for their children. A good friend sacrifices convenience for loyalty. Love is proven not in words, but in the willingness to give something up for the good of another.
So it is with God.
Lent reminds us that following Jesus is not only about believing in Him, but about being shaped into His likeness. And Christ reveals that the path of love always passes through the Cross. When we fast, we are training our hearts to live the kind of love that Jesus lived: self-giving, disciplined, and free.
This is why sacrifice isn’t meant to be gloomy. True sacrifice is not about self-hatred, but self-mastery. When we voluntarily deny ourselves something good, like food, entertainment, or comfort, we begin to recognize how often we are ruled by cravings, habits, and impulses. Many of us live more “reactively” than we realize. We eat when stressed. We scroll when bored. We spend when anxious. We indulge when lonely. Fasting gently exposes these patterns, not to shame us, but to heal us.
Fasting teaches us a powerful spiritual lesson: I am not my appetites.
Even more, fasting creates space within us. When we remove something from our routine, we feel its absence. We will be tempted to fill the space created by fasting with something else. Resist that temptation, and that space, that openness becomes a place where God can speak. Hunger becomes a prayer. Desire becomes an offering. Weakness becomes a doorway to grace.
This is also why fasting unites us to the suffering of Christ. Jesus did not save the world through comfort, but through sacrifice. When we fast, even in small ways, we are joining our lives to His. We are saying, “Lord, I want to love as You loved. I want my life to be an offering.”
And finally, fasting awakens compassion. When we experience even a small amount of hunger or discomfort, we become more aware of those who live that way every day. It becomes easier to understand the poor, the struggling, the lonely, and the burdened. In this way, fasting naturally leads to almsgiving, because it softens our hearts and reminds us that we are called to live not for ourselves, but for others.
Lent is not about proving our strength but about admitting our weakness and letting Christ transform it. We cannot earn God’s favor, but by grace we can become more available to Him, exposing where our hearts are grasping to sin and selfishness.
So as we fast this Lent, let’s do so with purpose and joy. Let’s offer our sacrifices quietly, sincerely, and with love. Because every sacrifice made in faith becomes a small echo of the Cross, and every Cross embraced with Christ comes with the transformative power of the resurrection.
May this Lent be a season of true freedom, deeper prayer, and lasting conversion. Here’s to a fruitful Lent for all of us!
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever!
All you holy saints of God, pray for us!
Peace in Christ,
Fr. Michael Silloway