In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
“I fast,” I tell myself, yet the whole world knows I’m fasting, “I fast,” yet serving other people does not even occur to me, “I fast,” yet I hold onto the hurts, pains, evils and sins committed against me. And my fasting has not changed me, has not brought me closer to God—I am wallowing in my self-pity that I am going through such hardships.
The Lord is calling you and he is calling me to take up the Fast with joy, to give up the eating of meat but, much more importantly, to give up the eating of the flesh of our neighbour through gossiping, backbiting and slander. Our Fast, if it is to be godly, must bring us closer to him and, therefore, closer to our neighbour. So, before we start, before we commence our battle against the Satan, we must be reconciled to each other.
“If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother,” the beloved disciple tells us,
he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
First John 4:20–21
And if we reconcile ourselves to God by repenting before him thus showing our love, so too we reconcile ourselves to one another by repenting before each other thus showing our love. And if the Spirit of love, of forgiveness, of meekness and humility, can lead us into the Great Fast, we will have the opportunity that we not be as the hypocrites and keep our fasting in secret, “and [our] Father who sees in secret will reward [us].”
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Let Lent be a time where we demonstrate where our treasure truly lies that we may be found worthy to come before the empty tomb and meet our risen Lord.
For all the wrongs, the evils and the sins which I have committed before you and against you, whether by thought, by word or by deed, committed in knowledge or in ignorance, through action or through inaction, forgive me.
That we may come worthily to the Resurrection of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ and offer him true worship, together with his unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
Brethren, salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed; the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for disputes over opinions. One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who abstains, and let not him who abstains pass judgment on him who eats; for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for God is able to make him stand.
— Romans 13:11–14; 14:1–4
The Lord said, “If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
— Matthew 6:14–21