“We become more truly like Jesus if we are not preoccupied or identified with material possessions…Fasting and abstinence, Lenten alms, giving to charity. These are not optional extras for the follower of Jesus. They are the very condition of being his disciple.”
George Stack, Archbishop of Cardiff, at CBC on 2 March 2014.
I cannot get the words of Jesus from Matthew 6 out of my mind this Lent. “When you give alms…” (6:2), “when you pray…” (6:5), and “when you fast…” (6:15). Jesus explains what it looks like to follow Him.
Recently, I appreciated how candid the Archbishop of Cardiff depicts these activities as “the very condition of being” a disciple of Jesus. If you think they are optional extras, perhaps revisit Matthew 6.