Priest Says not to Fast during Ash Wednesday Mass!

In this sermon, Father Ryan challenges the common Anglican Catholic, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox assumptions surrounding Lenten fasting by grounding the practice in the broader biblical narrative.
     Scripture shows that fasting is not primarily about personal discipline, ritual performance, or self-improvement. Biblically, fasting prepares and commissions people for participation in God’s reconciling mission. In the Old Testament, Israel’s covenant with Yahweh carried responsibility and accountability. Yet even amid failure, Joel and the Psalms proclaim God’s unending mercy where failure abounds (just like in Romans 8!). In the New Testament, Jesus fasts before beginning His public ministry, and the apostles fast when sending out leaders and entrusting churches to the Lord. Fasting, therefore, is consistently tied to mission—to being sent.
     The heart of the message is this: if we fast during Lent, it must not be empty ritual. According to Isaiah 58, the fast God desires results in justice, mercy, generosity, and tangible care for the vulnerable. It prepares us to become instruments through whom God reconciles the world to Himself.Drawing from 2 Corinthians 5, the sermon emphasizes that just as God was in Christ reconciling the world, God now works through His people to continue that ministry of reconciliation. Fasting, then, becomes an offering of ourselves — not simply abstaining from food, but consecrating our lives for the work of ministry.The challenge is direct: Do not fast this Lent unless your fasting prepares you to participate in God’s mission—to feed, to clothe, to love, and to reconcile.
    Cited Scriptures: Isa 58:1–12; Joel 2:12–17; Dan 9:3; Deut 28; Ps 51:16–17; Matt 4:1–2; Matt 6:16–18; Acts 13:1–3; Acts 14:23; 2 Cor 5:17–21.