Ash Wednesday and Good Friday
are both what you call, days of fasting and abstinence, 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 can 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?
So we have 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.
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.
What's the most I can possibly eat and still have it be a fast day?
Or when other rules, it's like, OK, what's the least I can possibly do, and it still counts, for the thing?
Okay, so the Church comes up with this formula
and says OK, well how about two small meals and then one regular sized meal that's not
larger than both those small meals put together, 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.
Even during Lent, when you give something up,
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, "Well, 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.
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 then, 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 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'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 fast, I'm called to abstain from meat.
God, I'm doing this because you asked me to.
You asked me to through your 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.