I meet many people who practice different forms of fasting and for different, but related reasons. Some fast to make themselves conscious of those who lack food and clean drinking water in many parts of the world. Fasting, they say, sensitizes them to the realities of the thousands who die each day from hunger and from diseases contracted from an unhealthy environment. This cannot be what the bridegroom wants in his reign, they reason. So, until things change, and to fortify their work to bring about change, they fast.
Fasts can take many forms.
We fast from a particular food or drink, for a day or an indefinite period. I feel hungry this day, the hunger makes me aware of my hunger for justice, for peace or for family harmony. We can give up something we like doing, such as going to a movie, watching tv. The change in routine makes us aware of what is of even more concern for us. Fasting not only reminds us, it may strengthen a person's resolve to do something about the gross inequalities in our world.