When I was a child I overheard news reports stating a certain number of children went to bed hungry every night in America.
I was too little to understand the statistic meant something other than a craving for dessert or a cookie at bedtime. I was too young and well off to understand the difference between being ready for dinner and actual hunger from being too poor to have food on the table.
I know better now and I’m very aware of being in the 69 percent of Americans the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classify as overweight or obese.
Which brings me to fasting during Lent. Fasting is required by church law only twice during Lent — one full meal on Ash Wednesday and on Good Friday.
Eating just one full meal on most days should be easy as, uh, pie, for most Americans, let’s say 69 percent of us who are above an optimal healthy weight.
Fasting as a way of prayer, what my grade school nuns called “offering up” by giving up, is encouraged by the church throughout Lent, not just on two days.
Giving up candy, alcohol, desserts or soda is a time-honored Lenten practice. The sacrifice of not eating or drinking something disciplines us, gives us an opportunity to control our physical desires and focus on our spiritual goals.
Fasting can also be a Lenten form of charity when one donates the money saved by skipping full meals to the poor and hungry. That’s the aim of the Rice Bowl program run by the U.S. bishops’ Catholic Relief Services.
Most of all, fasting can open our eyes to those in the world who are really hungry.
World Hunger reports that one in seven U.S. households is “food insecure,” a 21st century term for measuring hunger. Of these, nearly 4 million households in a recent year were unable to provide adequate food for their children.
Whether we only fast on two days during Lent or have “given up” a nightly fix of ice cream, our fasting can remind us of those in our communities who face a struggle to eat — the shut-in elderly, the unemployed on food assistance programs, and the poor in line at food pantries and soup kitchens.
Offering our time and resources to help feed the hungry this Lent would be a great way to pray, fast and give.
Think about donating to your parish food pantry, preparing a meal for a soup kitchen or helping the diocese care for the needy by donating to the Annual Catholic Appeal.
The heart of every Catholic community in the Diocese of Wilmington is our parish where Mass is offered daily. There, we gather around the altar to commemorate a meal, the Last Supper.
In the breaking of the bread, as the theme for this year’s Catholic Appeal reminds us, Christ reveals himself to us and calls us to share his life-giving meal, his gifts and our gifts with others.
Helping to feed the needy physically will help both the hungry and us grow spiritually.
Ryan is editor/general manager of The Dialog.
