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Day 1 Eat well

They said to Jesus, ‘John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.’ Jesus answered, ‘Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.’ Luke 5.33–35

Last autumn I found myself in conversation with a friend who is a Muslim. We were sharing a train journey during Ramadan, the month during which Muslims observe a strict fast between sunrise and sunset. Half way to our destination the train came to a standstill, so the journey was longer than we expected. I was fidgety, hungry and longing for a cup of coffee; she was completely tranquil. There are some questions one can only ask in circumstances such as these, so I found out some things I had always wanted to know. During Ramadan do young children go without food as well as adults? Is the day paced differently to compensate? Are the rules in the northern hemisphere (where days are getting shorter) different from those in the south? Do people who live in areas where the community is already poor and hungry resent an additional burden?

It was the answer to the last question that took me most by surprise. ‘It is those who have least who value Ramadan most,’ my friend told me, ‘because during the fast rich people know what it feels like to be poor.’

Suddenly I saw Ramadan in a new light. There are discoveries to be made during it that seem too good to be owned by Islam alone. I heard myself saying, ‘Christians don’t have anything which compares with that.’ But I suppose we do!

Traditionally Christians have marked the weeks before Easter with fasting, self-discipline, and denying oneself casual luxuries. Lent lasts 40 days (not counting Sundays), the same length of time Jesus spent fasting in the desert that is now southern Israel in preparation for the most significant phase of the work God had called him to do.

I have to confess that I have grown up with the attitude that this kind of self-denial is unnecessary – or at least that a particular period of the year for a disciplined way of life is not needed, because that kind of behaviour should be a feature of Christian life every day. In fact, to my shame, I remember lecturing a school friend who had given up chocolate for Lent about how unhelpful such superstitions were. I don’t plan to make that mistake again!

Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10.31

In fact, Lent as we know it is not as ancient as it seems. In the years immediately after the resurrection of Jesus, his followers used to observe a strict fast, without food or drink of any kind, from Good Friday until dawn on Easter Sunday. They were recalling the words of Jesus who, when accused of feasting when he should have been fasting, told his followers, ‘The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from you; in those days you will fast.’ Time went by, those who had known Jesus personally died, and Christians became more relaxed about the fervour with which they observed holy days. In the fifth century, church leaders were keen to establish a more focused time of devotion in preparation for Easter. The churches of different countries used different ideas to make that part of the year distinctive. It was not until 900 years after Jesus died that there was international agreement that a season of penitence should begin on Ash Wednesday, lasting just over six weeks, during which Christians had a chance to reflect on their lives and seek God’s forgiveness for all they wanted to be rid of. It was (as this book is) a chance to go through a spiritual detox. A disciplined attitude to eating and drinking was regarded as essential to that process. It took a very short time for the Christian population to discover for themselves the joy of using up all the forbidden foods of Lent in one big, now-or-never party on the day before, Shrove Tuesday.

To fast is to learn to love and appreciate food, and one’s own good fortune in having it. Monica Furlong, writer, born 1930

Only those who speak English know the season as Lent. In France it is Carême and in Italy Quaresima – both of which are based on the Latin word for forty. Our word Lent is from the Anglo-Saxon word for ‘lengthen’ or ‘swell’. That is, of course, precisely what the hours of daylight are doing at this time of year, by about five minutes each day.

By the time our train reached the station evening was closing in, and my friend and I found an Indian restaurant close by. Looking at the dal dish on our table, I suddenly wondered whether the lentils that are one of my favourite foods share a meaning with Lent. In fact, I subsequently discovered, they do not. But dal, the word used for lentils in Indian languages, is full of meaning. It means ‘utterly pulverized’, which is what happens to the lentils to make them into the curry that is a highlight of an Indian meal.

It cannot be a coincidence that when the poorest people of India chose a name for themselves to replace ‘untouchables’, to which so much stigma was attached, they chose to be known as dalits.-They are part of a caste system which means that people who are born into poverty find it very difficult to escape. So dalit people get the worst jobs, like cleaning sewers by hand, and are paid the least money. Poor, scorned, and with limited access to education and health care, it is easy to understand why they would describe themselves as utterly pulverized.

Do not limit the benefit of fasting merely to abstinence from food, for a true fast means abstaining from evil. You do not eat meat, but you gobble up your brother. Loose every unjust bond, put away resentment against your neighbours, forgive them their offences. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, 340–97

I am planning to eat carefully for the next 40 days. I may even try not to eat between sunrise and sundown on a couple of the days. And I plan to eat some simple foods, like lentils (which will not be a hardship because they are delicious). I am going to do it so that the dalit people of India stay in my mind. So that, as a relatively rich person, I am reminded of those who are poor – just as some of my friends do during Ramadan.

May I suggest that you try thinking about how you eat for the next 40 days? Don’t think of it as eating less; think of it as eating well.

Detox: Try to recall everything you have eaten during the past week – the meals, the snacks, the treats. Think about the speed, the company, the nourishment, and the habits you have got into. Is God trying to tell you anything about your life through your attitude to food?

God of my life, as the days swell, so may my heart. Help me to appreciate every moment, every mouthful, every meeting. Amen.