Fasting to Create Space

By Beth Tellman

Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?" Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?" (Isaiah 58, verses 6 and 4).

Isaiah is not subtle, and the fact that these challenging, provoking, dare I say revolutionary words, are spoken every other year on Ash Wednesday to welcome us into the blessed struggle of the Lenten season is no accident. And if it's not Isaiah one year, it's Joel the next, who beckons us to rend our hearts not our clothing. And how, may we ask, do we rend our hearts? Will eating a little less chocolate really rend my heart and loosen the bonds of injustice?

I'm a cradle Catholic, and for most of my young Catholic life, I gave up sweets in some form or another, as well as the standard no meat on Fridays. We would debate in my religion class if Sunday was the "free day"; like I can gorge on all the chocolate I want once a week? Somehow, the fire in Isaiah's words got lost, and the Lenten message we received was: Just give something up you kinda like and see if you can do it. Can food denial, or fasting, be spiritually fulfilling?

Working with the Ethics Center studying food justice this year, I have been blessed with some amazing conversations, like one held a few weeks ago in Campus Ministry over a simple, locally cooked, and delicious meal. The take-away message from that conversation for me was that fasting, if done right, should create space-create space and make your heart grow just a little bigger. To create space is to push your boundaries, opening yourself up in a new way. This is not about celebrating your self and your will power, or about "how much you can give up." Fasting should lead us to create a bigger space for love and solidarity. This should be the object of any dogma we follow, and dare I say that if giving up cookies does not make you a more loving and intentional person, maybe you should ask yourself "why?''

If fasting is about truly loosening the chains of injustice, "fasting" from your Friday nap to give away food to the homeless in San Jose with CHAM (Community Homeless Alliance Ministry, visit SCCAP for details) is a great way to open space. Lent is about commitment to love; it's about getting yourself ready for the Jesus Revolution. 2 cups of commitment, 3 cups of love, a dash of intentionality, and a pinch of courage to really push your comfort boundaries could become your new banquet of reflection throughout these next weeks.

You can still give up food, but do it to create space for you: give up buying non-local food, or processed food, or commit to sharing your meals and not eating alone. Maybe you haven't gotten into the whole "solidarity scene" yet at Santa Clara. Fast from apathy. Open your heart to the reality of oppression both on this campus and beyond our country's borders. Fast from loneliness, and commit to Campus Ministry's simple meals on Fridays to celebrate nourishment in community.

However you choose to grow, intentionally commit to it. Jesus went into the desert to get ready for something really big… and Catholics have got to go deep down in our hearts to get ready for the same big event. Death and resurrection are not to be taken lightly, but we've got time before that. Breaking the chains of oppression is not going to be easy, but it's going to be a lot easier if we can commit ourselves more deeply to love and solidarity. Let us begin!

Beth Tellman is a 2008-09 Hackworth Fellow at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. She presented these remarks at Mass for the First Sunday of Lent.

March 2008