To fast amid famine

Ash Wednesday.

We have begun another Lenten season in Venezuela, at a time when talking about fasting is a challenge. For more and more Venezuelans, eating less food is not a choice. Many families eat only one or two meals per day, and malnutrition is a growing problem, especially in the poorer sections of Caracas, the capital and largest city. Venezuela used to produce more than two-thirds of its food, and import the rest, but those proportions are now reversed, as the result of runaway inflation and government-imposed price controls that have decreased profit margins for Venezuelan farmers and ranchers.

That he who by a tree overcame...

Nevertheless, our appointed texts for Ash Wednesday talk about fasting. In the Old Testament lesson, Joel 2:12-19, we find this: “Yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.”

And our Gospel lesson, Matthew 6 16-21, says this: “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, *xvanoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. *xwAnd your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Furthermore, the Gospel for the first Sunday in Lent, Matthew 4:1-11, speaks of Jesus fasting for 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness.

So what do you say? First that people, from Old Testament times to the present, have practiced fasting and covering the head in ashes (for example, in Jonah, chapter 3) to express sorrow and repentance, these are not required to gain God’s forgiveness for sin. Our Lutheran Confessions teach that fasting in itself is not obligatory, nor forbidden by God, but the correct fast is the fruit of repentance in the same way as correct prayer and the correct giving of alms; that fasting is useful for self-discipline; and that it is an excellent external training in preparation to receive the Lord’s Supper (Apology to the Augsburg Confession XII 139, 143; XV 47; Small Catechism VI 10). For the rest of Matthew 6 deals with prayer and giving of alms (it is where we find Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer) and the Lord discusses fasting in that context.

Carnival costumes.

Venezuelans are familiar with a legalistic approach to fasting. They inherited from the Spaniards the tradition of Carnival. In the Middle Ages in Europe, strict fasting was mandatory. So, the purpose of the Carnival parties was to clear the cupboards and pantries of meat, butter and any food and drink that would not keep for 40 days. However, since Spanish colonial times, Venezuelans have had a papal dispensation to eat the meat of the capybara during Lent. The capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris; known in Venezuela as the chiguire) is the world’s largest rodent. Because it has webbed feet and is semi-aquatic, Roman Catholic missionaries successfully petitioned the Pope to classify it as fish for the purpose of the Lenten fast. Today the capybara is regarded as a seasonal delicacy.

The problem is that, if the Lenten fast is upheld as a rule that must be kept, then people will look for ways to cheat. In a recent Issues Etc. interview with Terry Mattingly about current media coverage of Lent, there was much discussion of “veggie-burgers” (plant material engineered to look and allegedly taste like a hamburger) as an exemption to the “requirement” to abstain from meat during Lent.

Matthew 6 teaches us a different perspective as do the words of Psalm 51, which we recite in their entirety on Ash Wednesday and in part every Sunday. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right*n1 spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit...O Lord, open my lips,

and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

The Law given by God through Moses did command propiciatory sacrifices, but even under the old covenant of the Law, the Lord did not look for mere outward compliance with the letter of the Law, but contritition and repentance in the heart. Now, under the new covenant in Christ’s perfect sacrifice, God still pleased to have the true faith of the heart shown in outward acts of worship. But what matters most of all is what God has done for us, not what we do for God.

Prayers for China

In my last newsletter, I requested prayers for Venezuela in view of the potential threat of what they now are calling the COVID-19 virus. It is widely thought that Venezuela at this time does not have the resources to track and contain an outbreak of this new disease. As I write this, there have been confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Chile, but the virus has not yet reached Venezuela. On our first Sunday in Lent, we remembered in prayer the Christians of China, who are trying to help their neighbors by distributing inhalation masks amid increased persecution.

Repairing the playhouse

The wooden playhouse for our preschool was badly damaged by termites this past year. We purchased wood and started repairs, thanks to your continuing contribuitons. Please consider donating online at Global Lutheran Outreach.

Repairing the playhouse.