This question was posed to Rabbi Yeshua ben Yosef, "We see that the followers of Rabbi Yohannam and the sages are fasting. But your disciples are eating and drinking. Why do they not fast?" And he replied, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast."(From the Synoptic Gospels in poor homage to the Talmud).
It's funny. On one hand, my parish church has been promoting the idea of God's October Surprise: an unusual conjunction of Yom Kippur in Ramadan, thus allowing Jews and Muslims to share their fast times. Of course, it's no fair if everyone can't get into the act. So this highly irregular event includes a Hindu festival commemorating spiritual struggle and victory, a Buddhist festival, and the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, whose work to make peace between Islam and Christianity is not as well-known as it should be and gives the lie to all of the critiques of Kingdom of Heaven about the anachronistic religious tolerance of some of the characters. In every age, there are a few saints who can recognize genuine religious differences without considering it an excuse for bloodshed or the impossibility of friendship. The Kingdom of Jerusalem probably had a higher concentration of such people. But anyhow... The Rector encouraged us all to use the conjunction of the Islamic and Jewish festivals to use Yom Kippur as an opportunity to fast and pray for peace and justice. I am presently taking him up on it, though I am not doing it wholesale. For one thing, I am tempted to rub a little olive oil on my head tomorrow to give a Christian character to what I am doing. I also am working. Thus, let not my fast be confused for other fasts going on tomorrow. I merely wish to share some of the sanctity of the day and incline my heart toward the providence of God, bewail my sins and the systems of oppression I uphold, and thank God for the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ.
It is also tomorrow the Feast of St. Edward the Confessor, King of England and founder of St Peter's Abbey, the original West Minster of the See of London. It is also roughly the millenium of his birth. St. Edward the Confessor is quite a proper patron for this fast. In a time of much fighting for the throne of England, Edward came to power not by his sword but by his relationships. He was connected somehow to each of his four most recent predecessors, giving him a superior claim to all rival claimants, who were less connected. Yet Edward never intended to become king. He had taken a vow of chastity and probably would have ended up under the Rule of St. Benedict if he were not needed to bring civil peace to England. He ruled well and mercifully, though. He even married but made it clear to his wife that they would be living as "brother and sister" as the Apostle saith. Although in the long run, this probably was not the most responsible thing to do. Edward also tried to secure the succession for his Norman relatives, which was another ambiguously responsible act. But Edward also was said to have visions from God. Perhaps, he saw that the Normans and Saxons had a common destiny and tried to avoid future bloodshed. His life reminds us that self-denial, mercy, and peace are worthy virtues for even the most powerful of us to cultivate.
And now I hear of this :
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Fasting, almsgiving, and prayer have a long foundation in the Christian tradition stemming from our Jewish matrix. This triple counsel calls us to share signs of tangible grace with one another, reminding each of us to live in such a way that our very lives declare “God is gracious and bountiful, generous and merciful.”
Our holiness is found in loving our neighbor as ourselves. Many saints past knew this. Fasting was not simply a matter of individual piety, but a matter of personal responsibility to sisters and brothers with whom we are intertwined. And so we find St. Catherine of Sienna fasting and giving her meals away to the hungry. We find Desert Elders selling their woven wares to purchase food not for themselves, but for those without sustenance.
In the last few weeks, a series of natural disasters have ravaged the earth, striking brothers and sisters far and near. Some leaders within the Christian community have taken this as a sign of God’s wrath, singling out one or another sort and condition of human being for blame. Others are speaking up about taking care of our own first.
Rather than seeking to lay blame, to raise dividing walls for deciding who is our neighbor, or to get caught up in speculation about the end of days, we choose to discern in the signs of the times, that now is always the time for solidarity with those who are suffering. The signs of the times call us to live graciously as our Heavenly Father is gracious toward us.
To this end, we pledge to be signs of God’s generosity through fasting, prayer, and almsgiving in solidarity in a particular way with our brothers and sisters: To begin each day with the Lord’s Prayer, remembering that the Bread of Heaven at Holy Eucharist is intricately tied to striving so that all shall have daily bread; to abstain from a meal or simplify our eating habits each day; and to give the cost of this meal or savings from simplified eating to Episcopal Relief and Development or equivalent relief organizations for the work of disaster relief amongst our sisters and brothers both far and near.
At a time when our Communion is impaired by conflict and many search far and wide for signs of God’s tangible grace, we invite you to join us in the work of Christ, living into our Baptismal Covenant as we seek to serve Christ in all peoples, loving our neighbor as ourselves.
lux Christi vobis,
*Christopher and Annie
It really weaves all of our troubles into a common whole and a common solution. I've been reading poor Anglican Scotist. Our pangs of schism hit very close to home for him. Rev. Mr. Wilkins has yielded to anger and repented of it. And it's best not to talk about what I've seen at Titusonenine and Virtuosity. While our Bridegroom already has been taken from us and passed through the heavens, having needed no purificatory sacrifice but offering Himself for us, He returns to us in the Bread and Wine of the Holy Eucharist. He also returns to us in all of those acts of two or three or more of us by which we demonstrate our visible unity and the stirring of His Kingdom into this world. Though our unity with Christ is not exclusively dependent on our visible unity with one another, it is only strengthened by our communal obedience to his commandments by which God is reconciled to the world not only by the dispersal of the lifegiving Gospel as it regards salvation but also by works of mercy. Thus, the threat of the diminution of the visible unity of the Church is very much like something of the Bridegroom being taken away from us, it feels very much like an excuse to postpone a wedding (even if the divine economy doesn't work that way.) Thus, *Christopher and Annie are quite right to see natural disasters and schism as two very good reasons to fast, to pray, and to do works of mercy. I'll try to do a little more of all three.
Until next time, the Holy Brothers remind you that the sacrifice of God is a well-threshed spirit, a contrite heart He will not despise.
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