Fasting, meant to purify us and our relationships with God and God's people, should lead us to be more forgiving, understanding and generous. Isaiah tells us that the only fast that is required by God is to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into your house and cover the naked. The law prescribed only one fast a year, on the day of Atonement. (Lev.16-29) but the Pharisees apparently fasted twice a week (parable of the Pharisee and the Publican Luke 18:12)

The disciples of the Baptist and other pious Jews may have been following the practice of fasting more often than once a year. The disciples of Jesus did not observe the regulations about fasting. They were definitely too absorbed in the company of Jesus to be worried about rules that would have distracted them from their following Jesus who was inaugurating the new messianic age, a time to live God's extraordinary love for us.

The early Church did indeed fast on Wednesdays and Fridays (CF Didache 8:1) awaiting the return of the Lord. The questioners were totally unaware of the radical newness of the messianic age.

This Lent let us truly examine our motives for fasting. Are we with the Lord and his people as Isaiah pronounces?