Why do we fast, offer sacrifices and make prayers of reparation?  In the beginning, as children or adults who are either new to the Faith or have returned, we take on these things in sorrow for our sins, as good disciplines, and to grow in virtue.  These are the first steps in following Christ, the steps of learning Righteousness.  However, we remember that Christ called us to something more; His time of fasting in the desert, His passion and death on the Cross revealed a greater reason behind all of these; We are called to perfection and to be Perfect as His heavenly Father is Perfect.  One way of understanding their purpose is to look in the face of the poor.

Consider the children who, on days when school is canceled, they have no lunch to eat;  Think of the elderly who have been left in bed in nursing homes for years, and especially those who have no one to visit them, except for the nurses and staff; Hear the cries of families who are abused, of the mentally ill, the addict, the hopeless, mothers and fathers who lose a child, children who have run away from home, those kidnapped and sold into slavery, victims of gang violence and war, those who have lost their homes in natural disasters and many who are simply abandoned and lost.  What is the source of their hope?  What is the source of their salvation?

This is why we fast, offer sacrifices and make prayers of reparation.  As our Lord entered the desert, so to our Lenten practices are not simply for ourselves, but are the way of helping a world in need and responding to the cries of the poor—the poor in body and in especially in spirit.

The tradition of Laetare Sunday echoes the first word of the Introit, “Rejoice, O Jerusalem . . .” and is meant to encourage our hearts.  Rejoice, because the source of your salvation is near.  Rejoice, we could say, because you have been called to become perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect; you have been called to the work of raising the lowly and comfort to the afflicted.

We fast, not so that the food we would have eaten can feed the children of Africa, but to join in their hunger, that our prayers do not rise alone, but with everyone who fasts and is hungered; the pain of sacrifice we may feel becomes joined also with theirs; our reparation places us as their advocate and pays off their debt to give them footing on new life.

Rejoice, because today your eyes are opened and the mystery of salvation has been opened to you, that you may no longer wonder how to respond and help a world in need, but through prayer, fasting and sacrifice, you join in the work that is truly Good.