Our Venerable Father Parthenius, Bishop of Lampsacus (312-37). Passing into Eternal Life (1957) of Blessed Petro Verhun, apostolic Visitator of Forced Labourers in Germany and Martyr of Siberia.
Joel 2:12-26. Joel 3:12-21.
Read Joel 2:12-26
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Today is Wednesday of Cheesefare Week, a day in which the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated. This week, we are on the cusp of beginning the Great Fast. Among the Old Testament readings prescribed for today, we read from the prophet Joel. We hear God’s words through the prophet: “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning” (Joel 2:12). God calls us to turn back to Him, and with this He blesses our fasting, penance, and other ascetic efforts.
“So rend your heart, and not your garments” (Joel 2:13). Our acts of penance serve to assist us in our repentance. God has no need of our sacrifices, as David recollects: “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise” (Ps. 50:16-17 (LXX)). Although penitents fast, wear ashes, wear hairshirts, and perform other penitential acts, the purpose of these acts is to express and increase our contrition for our sins. These actions in themselves do not matter to God if there is no interior change of heart.
As we prepare ourselves to embark on the Great Fast, let us commit ourselves not to use our fasting as a superficial excuse to diet. Our fasting should be a tool to help us grow in humility and increasingly recognize our dependence on God. We should tell our bellies “no” with discipline and avoid the sin of gluttony so that we may not only properly order our natural desire for food and drink with God’s help but also order our other natural desires. We must always strive to order ourselves entirely according to the will of our Heavenly Father. Let us pray for the grace to be able to recognize and follow God’s will.