Why do we Fast.

Explain that Lent is the 40 days before Easter in
which Catholics pray, fast, contemplate, and
engage in acts of spiritual self-discipline.
Catholics do these things because Easter, which
celebrates the Resurrection of Christ, is the
greatest holy day of the Christian year (even
above Christmas) and Catholics have recognized
that it is appropriate to prepare for such a holy
day by engaging in such disciplines.

(Archbishop Fulton Sheen noted that the
Protestant attitude is summarized by the line,
"First comes the feast, then comes the hangover,"
while the Catholic attitude is "First comes the fast,
then comes the feast.")

The reason Lent lasts 40 days is that 40 is the
traditional number of judgment and spiritual
testing in the Bible (Gn 7:4, Ex 24:18, 34:28, Nm
13:25, 14:33, Jon 3:4). Lent bears particular
relationship to the 40 days Christ spent fasting in
the desert before entering into his public ministry
(Mt 4:1-11).
Catholics imitate Christ by spending
40 days in spiritual discipline before the
celebration of Christ's triumph over sin and death.
Fasting is a biblical discipline that can be
defended from both the Old and the New
Testament. Christ expected his disciples to fast
(Mt 9:14-15) and issued instructions for how they
should do so (Mt 6:16-18). Catholics follow this
pattern by holding a partial fast on Ash
Wednesday and Good Friday.

Abstinence from certain foods is also a biblical
discipline. In Daniel 10:2-3 we read, "In those days
I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. I ate no
delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth,
nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three
weeks." Catholics use a practice similar to
Daniel's when, as a way of commemorating
Christ's Crucifixion on a Friday, they abstain from
eating meat on that day of the week during Lent.
The only kind of flesh they eat on Friday is fish,
which is a symbol of Christ.

Even the Ash Wednesday practice of having one's
forehead signed with ashes has a biblical parallel.
Putting ashes on one's head was a common
biblical expression of mourning (1 Sm 13:19, Est
4:1, Is 61:3; see also Est 4:3, Jer 6:26, Ez 27:30,
Dn 9:3, Mt 11:21, Lk 10:13). By having the sign of
the cross made with ashes on their foreheads,
Catholics mourn Christ's suffering on the cross
and their own sins, which made that suffering
necessary.