Honor God with Your Heart

It is a longstanding tradition for people to accuse the Church of hypocrisy. I can’t say I blame them. Just look around the Church and you will be hard-pressed to find many people living the words they preach. It is much easier to talk about God than to love Him in your heart.

One of the most common accusations against the Church is about fasting. Besides those who think fasting is following the Old Testament Law, the idea that fasting from food is more important than how we treat other people, chasing people away from the Church.

It also ruins fasting. This is why those who refuse to fast love to quote today’s passage. “Father, it isn’t what goes into our mouths, but what comes out!” I always laugh at this rebuttal to fasting because it proves we don’t understand fasting. Fasting isn’t about food. It is about our hearts.

At that time, when the men of Gennesaret recognized Jesus, they sent round to all that region and brought to him all that were sick, and besought him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment; and as many as touched it were made well. Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die.’ But you say, ‘If any one tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is given to God, he need not honor his father.’ So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ ” And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”

Matthew 14:35-36;15:1-11

In today’s passage from the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, the religious elites were accusing the Church of not following the Law. Jesus responded by revealing their hypocrisy. Not only were they ignoring the Law, what the ‘were following’ wasn’t about loving God.

Since today is a fasting day, we can use fasting to reveal our hearts. If we are following the fast today while resenting God and the Church for not ‘letting us’ eat our favorite food, our fasting is in vain. We may as well eat than resent God. This is the meaning of the last verse.

But before you step away from fasting, I invite you to challenge yourself. Fasting has never been about food. Fasting is about controlling our desires in honor of God. Resenting God ruins our fast but refusing to fast ruins our hearts. Every time we refuse to fast, we serve our ego.

Serving our ego will never draw us closer to God. An evil heart will never draw us closer to God. The hypocrites in today’s reading may have fasted according to the Law but their hearts resented God. Their solution was to change the Law to serve their ego and then accuse God.

Fasting isn’t easy, for sure. There is an average of 230 fasting days each year which explains why fasting preoccupies our attention. If fasting is only seen as obedience to the Law, then we will never break free from our evil hearts. We must transition from Law to love.

As you struggle today to keep the fast, keep reminding yourself, “I’m fasting because I love God.” When your friends ask you why you CAN’T eat something, remind them you CAN eat whatever you want. You choose to fast to because you love God more than your ego.

Now maybe you will embrace the discipline of fasting, for the sake of your heart. If you fail, cut yourself some slack. As humans we spend most of our time fighting with our ego. We won’t be able to defeat our ego overnight.

Through prayer and fasting, bit by bit, our ego takes a back seat to our love for God. Fasting eventually becomes part of who we are, making room for others in our hearts. You will be pleasantly surprised by how many people fit inside your heart when your ego moves out.

Honoring God with your heart goes way beyond what you eat. What you eat, or lovingly choose not to eat, is just a starting point to loving God. You must start somewhere. Why not start with fasting to defeat your ego, making room for love in your heart.