Those that know me well, know that I am a man that is not easily separated from his meals. I enjoy food. I enjoy the fellowship that happens at the meal table. I think that is likely why for all these years I have avoided the idea of a true fast for Lent. The thought of not eating, even for a controlled time, is a very difficult thought. It has always been far easier for me to give up chocolate or coffee.
Today is Ash Wednesday, and as I reflected on how I would keep a Holy Lent, I was bombarded with troubling things. I saw images of the Ontario Provincial Police using tear gas on Indigenous protesters at Tyendinaga -- a part of this Diocese -- who were protesting on their own unceded land. I read articles that said that reconciliation in Canada is dead. I woke on Ash Wednesday with the realization that I was waking up in a very troubled, broken and hurting nation.
Driving in to the Cathedral, bits of scripture ran through my mind. (Isaiah 58) "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen; to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and to break every yoke?" (Micah 6) "He has shown you, O mortal what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
As I gathered with the Cathedral community for worship, I heard in the Litany of Repentence words that rang true to my earlier thoughts. "Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people, we confess to you, Lord." "For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us, accept our repentance, Lord." "Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done, for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty." These are not abstract things. These are the very sins that have created the broken and hurting reality that I had been thinking on before.
In the face of such thoughts, I remembered the call of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, calling people to a fast and to pray for their nation, and in that moment felt that I must also keep a fast, and pray for this nation.
Every Wednesday in Lent, I have decided that I WILL not eat, and that whenever I feel the pangs of hunger throughout the day, I will stop, and take time to pray for Canada; for our leaders, our people, and the issues that seem insurmountable today.
Whether or not you should choose to observe such a fast for Lent, I would ask that you do take time to pray for our country during these 40 Lenten days.
