The Venerable-Martyr Stephen the New (c. 764); The Holy Martyr Irenarchus (284-305).
Nativity Fast.
1 Timothy 5:11-21; Luke 17:26-37.
Read Luke 17:26-37
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
We are now on day 14 of the Philip’s fast, the forty-day fast that leads up to the feast of the Nativity of our Lord. How’s it going? Have we been following at least the minimum the Church currently asks of us: abstaining from meat on Wednesdays and Fridays? Have we been doing a bit more? Has even the minimum been a struggle?
Today’s gospel gives us a helpful reminder of one of the purposes of fasting: the discipline of waiting, or, put differently, the practice of expectation. Jesus mentions two groups of people (people in the days of Noah, and people in the days of Lot) who spent time feasting and drinking without thinking about the future, without much expectation that things would change. But,all of a sudden, they encountered the judgment of God, and it wasn’t pretty.
Fasting can train us to think about the future a bit more, to “practice expectation”. When our meals are less exciting, less “festal,” it’s easier to see beyond what’s on the plate, to focus on those things that are more vital to our lives than tasty meals. The gospel today reminds us that we also will encounter the judgment of God: when that happens, will we be prepared, or taken by surprise? If we are “on the rooftop”, will we have the good sense (engrained in us from experience) to look toward the Lord? Or will we be grasping for whatever we’ve left behind? Fasting is boring, but it trains us to look beyond our current circumstances and start to expect that God will reveal something to us. God willing, may that future thing be better than what we currently have on our plate (something the feast at the end of the fast symbolizes), rather than something truly worse.
Bible References