A Homily for Us Hypocrites

“Hypocrite”, Jesus says. That’s a hard word. It is so easy, when reading the gospels, to see that hard word spoken to others, and so hard to hear it as a word to us.

We, too, are hypocrites. The hypocrites in this lesson (Luke 13:10-17) followed all the rules, but missed spirit of the Law. We, in the midst of the fast, focus on the fasting rules. Maybe we follow them and maybe we don’t, but, still, our focus during the fast is on the rules. So easily, we lose sight of why we are fasting.

Fasting is exercise.

Like the athlete who disciplines himself, who diligently shows up everyday, who pushes himself: in the same way, we show up. We exercise.

And better than that, these are more than random rules the Church has passed down to us; this training regimen is time-tested and proven. Do this...and you will find eternal life. Fasting is exercise.

Fasting also...acquires the Holy Spirit.

St. Seraphim of Sarov explains this when he says, "Prayer, fasting, vigil, and all other Christian practices, however good they may be in themselves, do not constitute the aim of our Christian life, although they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this end. The true aim of our Christian life consists in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God."

St. Seraphim is saying the same thing as the gospel lesson: the Law, or the fasting rules, are not the goal. They are only one way among the many ways we work toward the goal: fasting, prayer, and other practices like forgiveness of our brother.

But the goal—the goal of everything in the Christian life—the goal is to acquire the Holy Spirit, which is the very same thing as uniting ourselves to Christ. Fasting is one way we acquire the Holy Spirit.

Fasting is exercise. Through fasting, we acquire the Holy Spirit. And…fasting is preparation.

The Israelites prepared themselves for forty days, waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain. They were not waiting for a set of rules; it was a covenant between God and man. We prepare these forty days for the feast of the Lord, and not a feast of food, not to return to a normal set of dietary rules, but the revelation of the covenant: God himself being born in the flesh of man. Fasting is preparation.

Fasting is exercise. Through fasting, we acquire the Holy Spirit. And by fasting, we prepare ourselves.

We hypocrites seek to follow the rules. We can follow all the rules, and maybe even reach fasting perfection. But as the psalmist says, "To all perfection I see a limit, but your commands are boundless."

That rule-following perfection is limited; we hit a wall. But the commands of the Lord, true fasting...is boundless, limitless, ever deeper into Christ.

So, if we aim to delve deeper in Christ...

  • we show up, do our exercise;
  • acquire the Holy Spirit through these labors;
  • and prepare ourselves for Christ’s Incarnation in us.
That is why we fast: to know Christ, his everlasting Father, and his life-giving Spirit.

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