Pope: fasting is real when concerned with helping others

Fasting is "stripping oneself a little"; maybe thanking the Lord because we are able to fast: "poor people", they must fast because they do not have anything to eat "and you even despise them ". Do penance in peace: "You cannot talk to God on one side and talk to the devil on the other" because it is inconsistent.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – “True fasting", one of the "tasks" of Lent is aimed at helping others, Pope Francis said at Mass this morning at Casa Santa Marta.  He was commenting on the First Reading, taken from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (Is 58.1-9a), which describes the fasting that the Lord wants: "To dissolve unjust chains, to remove the bonds of the yoke, to set free the oppressed and to break every yoke".

"If you cannot observe a total fast - he added - that makes you feel hungry to the bone", "makes a humble but true fast". Isaiah highlights so many inconsistencies in the practice of virtue: taking care of one's own affairs, money, while fasting is "stripping oneself a little "; tormenting the workers maybe thanking the Lord for being able to fast: " poor people", they must fast because they do not have anything to eat "and you even despise them ". Do penance in peace: "You cannot talk to God on one side and talk to the devil on the other" because it is inconsistent.

"You do not fast anymore as you do today, so as your noise is heard on high, that is, we fast, we are Catholics, we practice; I belong to that association, we always fast, we do penance. But fast with consistency or do penance incoherently as the Lord says, with noise, so that everyone sees it, and they say: 'But what a just person, what a just man, what a just woman ...'. This is a trick; it is embellishing virtue ".

Francis said we must fast seriously, with a smile, that is, not to show that one is doing penance. Fast "to help others, but always with a smile." Fasting also consists in humiliating itself and this is realized by thinking of one's own sins and asking for forgiveness from the Lord.

"But if the newspapers found out about my sin, what a shame! "" I think you are ashamed! "" I think - the Pope said - of many maids who earn their bread with their work: humiliated, despised ... I have never been able to forget once I went to the home of a friend as a child, I saw mum slap the maid ... 81 years old ... I will never forget that 'No, Father, I will never give a slap' - 'But how do you treat them? As people or as slaves? do you pay them a just wage, do you give them holidays, is he or she a person or an animal that helps you in your house? 'Only think of this: in our houses, in our institutions, there are some. How do I behave towards the maids, the domestic workers in my home? ".

On another occasion, talking to a very cultured gentleman who had maids, the Pope made it clear that it was a serious sin because they are "like us, the image of God" while he claimed that they were "inferior people". The fasting that the Lord wants, as the First Reading recalls, consistency also in "sharing the bread with the hungry, in welcoming the poor, homeless to our homes, in dressing one that you see naked, without neglecting your relatives". "Today - Francis noted - we discuss whether we should shelter or not to those who come to ask for it".

In conclusion, the Pope exhorts us to "do penance", to "feel a little hunger", to "pray more" during Lent and to ask ourselves how we behave with others: "Does my fasting help me help others ? If it does not, it's fake, it's incoherent and it leads you to the road of a double life. I pretend to be a Christian, just ... like the Pharisees, like the Sadducees. But, from inside, I'm not. I humbly ask for the grace of consistency. Consistency. If I cannot do something, I will not do it. But do not do it incoherently. Do only what I can do, but with Christian consistency. May the Lord give us this grace ".