Until 1549, the Collect, Epistle and Gospel in use in England [and the Western Church] for the beginning of the Forty Day Fast called Lent each specifically referred to fasting as a duty and good work offered to the Father through the Son by the Holy Ghost.
The Epistle was Joel 2:12-17 & the Gospel was Matthew 6:16-21. The Collect, true to the theme of fasting, prayed: “Grant, O Lord, that thy faithful people may enter on this solemn fast with suitable piety and go through it with unmolested devotion…”
In 1549, and in revisions of The Book of Common Prayer since then, the reformed Church of England has retained the reading from Joel 2 for the Epistle. It begins, “Turn to me [the LORD] with all your heart and with fasting…” Likewise the Church retained the Gospel reading from Matthew 6 where our Lord teaches the true approach to fasting as a duty unto God. “When ye fast, be not as the hypocrites…”
However, the Collect for the day was changed. The new Collect drafted by Archbishop Cranmer made no specific reference to Fasting but rather concentrated upon the need for internal cleansing of the soul through proper self-examination and repentance for sin. In fact the new Collect makes use of phrases from the old Latin Collect used on this day for the blessing of the ashes [from which practice the day was called “Ash Wednesday”], which when imposed upon the head of the penitent was intended to point to his humbling himself before the Holy Majesty of the Righteous Lord God, who hates sin and looks for penitence in his sinful people.
It would be a mistake to think that because the new Collect in 1549 makes no specific reference to fasting that the reformed English Church was down-playing the spiritual duty of fasting. Certainly there was a down-playing of external ceremonies – thus there is no provision in The Book of Common Prayer for the blessing of ashes – but the duty of fasting was always maintained. What is provided in the Collect is what the Reformers referred to as the internal aspect of fasting.
In the official Elizabethan Second Book of Homilies of the C. of E., there is a homily devoted to explaining the nature and duty of fasting. Fasting is presented in the Homily as a good work before God. Yet it is not a good work that earns or achieves God’s salvation, but a good work that is the fruit of salvation, a sign of a soul that is conscious of its great sin, is repentant and desires to love God and seek his will and glory.
There are two kinds of fasts, the public fast when a whole people are called by public authority to join together to seek the face of the LORD for his blessing upon a nation, and a private fast when an individual person chooses to wait upon the LORD for a particular purpose as he works out his own salvation in fear and trembling. Examples of such are provided from both the Old and the New Testaments.
It is important to note that there is both an outward and an inward dimension to all fasting.
The outward fast relates to the body and is “an abstinence from meat, drink, and all natural food, yea from all delicious pleasures and worldly delectations.” A normal day’s fast is said to be an abstaining from all food and drink from dawn until after Evening Prayer.
The inward fast relates to the heart, mind and will and pertains to their sanctification.
Of the two the inward is the most important for God looks upon and into the heart of man where the truth about him resides.
Fasting to be profitable to those who fast and to be accepted of God. must be directed to three basic ends.
“The first is to chastise the flesh that it be not too wanton, but tamed and brought into subjection to the spirit…The second that the spirit be more fervent and earnest in prayer…The third that our fast be a testimony and witness with us before God of our humble submission to his high Majesty, when we confess and acknowledge our sins unto him, and are inwardly touched with sorrowfulness of heart, bewailing the same in the affliction of our bodies.”
This Collect for Ash Wednesday – and for every day in Lent – rightly and importantly focuses on the inward fast, that is on what God looks for in the souls of men as a result of their outward fasting.
Let us all begin holy Lent on Ash Wednesday with a true fast, both outward and inward in scope, for the glory of God and the salvation of our souls and let us maintain such discipline for the forty days, with minor relief on the Sundays and especially on Mothering Sunday.
P.S. Why not read the Homily on Fasting in the Book of Homilies?
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.),
Christ Church, Biddulph Moor & St Anne's, Brown Edge
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