"Fast" | Reflection by the Rev. Luk De Volder

Never before did people live in such prosperity and never did people feel so distraught. Such is the observation of the Dutch philosopher and psychiatrist Damiaan Denys who explored the deficits of today’s excesses. Whether it is, freedom, possessions, or knowledge, today people in general have unprecedented access to them. But all the abundance has not resulted in more peace, contentment, or gratitude. On the contrary, more knowledge seems to bring more gloom or at times aversion of knowledge. More comfort causes many people to feel uncomfortable. More freedom has made some people feel disoriented. For the longest time many people felt like “more is better,” but today many people feel also how more can be less. The overflowing influx of goods and notions seems to have caused a certain blockage. 

Maybe the old wisdom of fasting and letting go is the practice we all need right now. Not as a letting go of freedom or wisdom or basic needs, but as a letting go of all that feels too much. Fasting can be a practice to give space to the pace of our soul, the rhythm of our being, to slow down and take the time to see again instead of watching whatever; to listening again instead of hearing whatever; to tasting again instead of eating whatever. According to this old wisdom of modesty, “mastication”, as in chewing slowly on food or thoughts as a way to give your being a chance to really digest, is an proved recommended Lenten practice to rediscover the beauty of life. By extension, any exercise of giving space is an act of love and reconnecting with humanity: giving space of the thoughts of someone else, making room through hospitality, welcoming the needs of others. 

Discovering how more is less and how less is more is such a source of joy. One would almost have some “fear of missing out” when skipping the rewarding time of Lent and fasting.