The visible deceives, despite that it appears so substantial and trustworthy. Our eyes are not as reliable as they seem, even if they are the natural sense that we tend to trust most of all.
This uncomfortable fact presents us with a dilemma, because what we cannot see, the invisible and mysterious things of God, are what is actually real and true. All that is visible, as Plato asserts in his cave analogy, are mere shadows of the true realities. In theological terms, the invisible God creates the visible world and sustains it. Though created things are more tangible in sensory terms, the unseen source is the deeper reality.
Since the dawning of the modern age, humanity has made a shift that puts far more trust in our five senses than in previous centuries. With regard to the invisible, skepticism reigns. If it can’t be proven empirically, why should we think it more than fantasy or superstition?
Though this modern change has led to progress in material and technological areas, and in exploring and understanding our physical world, we have also been generally impoverished in our appreciation and connection with metaphysical realities. The tragedy is that these are actually more important to profound self-awareness, and to perceiving meaning, purpose, and our place within the world.
What use is there in mastering theoretical mathematical equations, chemistry on a molecular level, or the physics of the universe, if we do not know how to be compassionate? We might be able to achieve some marvelous technological advancements, but without compassion we don’t know how to be human.
The matters which we associate with the heart, such as compassion, are metaphysical, and vital. Love, without which we cannot flourish or even survive, is not itself visible to any eyes except those of the heart. A world of technology without love would be hell.
So what does this have to do with Lent? One reason to fast is for us to give up, at least temporarily, something very physical and tangible, for the sake of what is spiritual and intangible. We stop fixating on the visible in search of the invisible. We abstain from food for prayer. We replace the urge to accumulate money with generosity, expressed through the act of giving. Lent reminds us of the primacy of the metaphysical.
In our present world we easily see the physical realities and have become masters of that domain, but we are often blind to truly human values, which are indicative of union with the divine. We need to be blind to the lure of the shiny, obvious things, in order to see the subtle, yet all surpassing, significance of what is not physical. Life without material luxury might be wearisome, but life without love is unthinkable.
Fast not from love, but for love. Let go of the inferior love of the things of this world, in order to find and strengthen the love which transcends all its lesser manifestations, and which connects us to God, the ground of our being.