Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103:2-5
“With the help of the mercy of the Lord our God, the temptations of this age, the crafty traps of the devil, the toils of this world, the allurements of the flesh, and the swirl of turbulent times, and all bodily and spiritual adversity, are to be overcome by almsgiving and fasting, and prayer…
“Alms,” of course, comes from a Greek word meaning “mercy.” What greater mercy, though could there be toward the miserable, than that which pulled the creator down from heaven, and clothed the founder of the earthy in an earthly body; which made the one who abides equal in eternity to the Father, equal to us in mortality, imposing the form of a servant on the Lord of the world; so that bread itself would be hungry, fullness be thirsty, strength become weak, health would be wounded, life would die?
And all this to feed our hunger, water our drought, comfort our infirmity, extinguish our iniquity, kindle our charity…And so let us perform our alms and deeds of kindness all the more lavishly, all the more frequently, the nearer the day approaches on which is celebrated the alms, the kindness that has been done to us. Because fasting without kindness and mercy is worth nothing to the one who’s fasting.”
Augustine of Hippo in Sermon 207 in Essentials Sermons (New York: New City Press, 2007) 259.
As we enter the last quarter of a challenging year, let’s start it by reflecting on all the benefits we have enjoyed from our compassionate God and apply ourselves to fasting with kindness and mercy.
This is the season when the world will beckon us to self-indulgence, entitlement, and gratification because we ‘deserve’ it. We must not be allured, but must attune to God, setting aside our desires.
Don’t pursue that which will not satisfy. It’s counterintuitive and other worldly. Join the community of stewards around the world aiming to live this way, extending mercy to the world.
When we add kindness and mercy to your fasting, see what happens. It’s God’s design for overcoming the brokenness of this world. And it transforms both us, and the world around us in heavenly ways.