It is no secret that Italians love food. Even growing up in an Italian-American family, it doesn’t take long for you to realize that your family looks at food a little differently from everybody else. You know, when I was a little boy, I thought that everybody had vats of spaghetti and meatballs at their family reunions. I once went with a friend of mine to his family reunion and all they had was hamburgers and hot dogs, and they ran out of those. I was in shock. How could this be? Why weren’t his aunts fighting over who made the best manicotti? Why weren’t there more pies and cakes than there were people? Where was the homemade wine and grappa? At our Italian family reunions, if we didn’t have food to eat and to talk about, what would we talk about? For Italians and Italian Americans, food is essential. For us a big meal with family and friends isn’t just another feeding- it is an event! I have enough friends of mine, who are Hispanic, and Greek, and German, and even Vietnamese, to know that Italians aren’t the only ones who really like food.

So what’s the scariest thing that you can say to an Italian? The scariest thing is when you tell an Italian that they have to fast. It throws them all off. What are we going to do if we can’t eat? What are we going to talk about? What are we going to spend our time working on? How can we go on living IF we can’t eat? I know, I know, it’s a little dramatic. But you don’t know any Italians who are a little dramatic, do you? All of this comes up at this time because this Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, the Church is asking all of us, Italians and non-Italians, to fast. Our Gospel is even talking about it this week. Fasting is an ancient way of showing our love for God.

Now, let’s be clear here about something. Fasting is not dieting. We’re not fasting more during our upcoming season of Lent to look good in a bathing suit. And if you are, you’ve got it wrong. Not eating to lose weight, to fit into that special pair of jeans, to look better this summer, that’s called a diet. And some of us need to go on diets. But that’s not what we’re talking about today. Fasting is a form of prayer. In fasting, we don’t eat so that we realize that what we most need is God. Fasting purifies us. Fasting is a sacrifice on our part, so that we can realize what God did for all of us. Fasting, done in the form of prayer and along with prayer, leads us closer to God. To not pray when we fast, is to lose the whole point. In fasting we pass on the food, to fill ourselves up with God. If we’re not going to pray when we fast, we might as well just be going on a diet. And diets don’t help the soul.

In our Gospel, Jesus’ disciples are not fasting, when the disciples of John the Baptist and even the disciples of the Pharisees are. At that time, Jesus said it was because He was still with them. But Jesus also indicates that after He is gone, that then it would be time for His disciples to fast. Guess what? We are in that time. We are to control our appetites and fill our hearts and our lives with God. Our sacrifices are important opportunities for this to happen, especially our fasting from food. You know, as Americans, Italian Americans and non-Italian Americans, we ALL love food. We are eating machines. Some of us are more than others. Fasting reminds us that food is not our God. But as we fast, we do well to remember that money is not our God either. And that sex is not our God. And that popularity and power are not our gods either. We need to keep our minds and our hearts and our lives set on the one, true God. And fasting and all of the sacrifices that we make for God, helps us to remember that.

Lent is coming up. It is a little late this year, but it’s still forty days and forty nights to show our love for God. We know what God did to show His love for us. We see it every time we look at a crucifix. What are we going to do this year to show our love of Him? We’re all going to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and we’re going to abstain from meat on the Fridays of Lent. That’s the minimum that all of us commit to by being Catholic. What more can you do? We have forty days to show our love of God. The possibilities are endless. The time to decide is right now. We can’t wait until Ash Wednesday and then choose. We’ve got to be ready to start first thing Wednesday morning. Pray about this these next couple of days. We’ve all got to decide.

All of us like food. Some of us love food. Fasting is not only difficult for Italians, it is difficult for all of us, all of our sacrifices are, or else they wouldn’t be sacrifices. Let’s make this a great Lent. Let’s give God every chance this year in our lives. He’s got something new planned for all of us this year.

God bless us this week in our lives, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti… Pray for us !!!