Fr. Franco's Letters

The Flame: March/April 2025

Dear Readers of the Flame,

I came across this quote in a book by the historian David McCullough.

“When you’re at war you think about a better life; when you are at peace you think about a more comfortable one,” said a character in Thorton Wilder’s play The Skin of our Teeth. (in Brave Companions, page 215)

I have often pondered this quote. Most people in the United States live in peaceful areas. Our prosperity almost instinctively moves us to seek greater comfort and security. However, are we really at peace? The truth is that while on earth we are engaged in spiritual warfare. Paragraph 409 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: This dramatic situation of “the whole world [which] is in the power of the evil one” (I John 5:19) makes man’s life a battle:

The whole of man’s history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God’s grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity. (Gaudium et Spes #37, par. 2)

The truth is that we are at battle. However, our prosperity almost blinds us to that fact. Our comforts anesthetize us, dulling us to the real drama of life. We forget why we have been created, to Whom we really belong and what our ultimate destiny is. We can live for the things of the earth and neglect and even forget the things of heaven! This is why we need to welcome Lent! It truly is a wakeup call. Our first reading on Ash Wednesday shouts this:

Blow the trumpet in Zion! Proclaim a fast, call an assembly; gather the people, notify the congregation; assemble the elders, gather the children and the infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom quit his room and the bride her chamber. Between the porch and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep, and say, "Spare, O LORD, your people, and make not your heritage a reproach…” (Joel 2:15-17a)

Lent is the liturgical season that rouses us out of our spiritual stupor and awakens us to Jesus Christ and what He is about. Based on the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 6, the Church proposes three primary ways of entering into the season of Lent: Almsgiving, Prayer and Fasting. Though these three practices are not quite as tight as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, they are connected and work in concert with each other. I strongly encourage you to give to the needy and to pray. However, I want to elaborate a bit on the third ascetical practice-fasting. How can we fast in our time?

First, we fast by making better use of our time.

1. St. Josemaria Escriva said, Conquer yourself each day from the very first moment, getting up on the dot, at a fixed time, without yielding a single minute to laziness. If, with God’s help, you conquer yourself, you will be well ahead for the rest of the day.” (The Way, #191)
2. Read instead of watch TV or view video content
3. Get to bed on time.

Second, we can watch our intake of food and drink. From Catholic Gentleman.com (Spiritual Weapons: Fasting, posted April 29, 2014)

1. Skip one meal extra a week, like breakfast or lunch. In addition to Fridays, Wednesdays are traditional days of fasting, so that might be a good day to start with.
2. Deny yourself dessert on set days. Most of us eat too much sugar anyway.
3. Skip salt on your food.
4. Fast from soda. It’s terrible for you!
5. Skip the beer or other alcoholic drinks when going out to eat.
6. Don’t eat between meals. This sounds easy but try it. You’ll find it’s quite hard since most of us snack frequently and don’t even realize it.
7. Include things besides food. For example, fast from all technology one day a week.
8. Fast (one main meal with two small snacks) one day a week.
9. Drink only water

Thirdly, we fast by guarding our senses and speech.

1. Unless you are really looking up something, do not surf the net.
2. Guard what you view. Jesus said, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be. (Matthew 6:22-23)
3. Turn off the radio/streaming services while driving. Instead think good thoughts (Philippians 4:8) and pray.
4. Limit news input. A little goes a long way.
5. Listen to others more than share your opinion.
6. Change the topic when conversations become gossipy or are filled with detraction.
7. Replace any complaining with gratitude.

If these and any other ascetical practices are to be effective, they must be practiced with great humility. With humility, they can be transformative. Without humility, ascetical practices are deformative, leading us away from God and other people. Lent is not only a wakeup call. It is a season of transformation. These words of St. Fulgentius (+527) of Ruspe (in modern Tunisia, northern Africa) capture this drift.

Here on earth, they are changed by the first resurrection, in which they are enlightened and converted, thus passing from death to life, sinfulness to holiness, unbelief to faith, and evil actions to holy life. For this reason, the second death has no power over them. It is of such men that the Book of Revelation says: Happy the man who shares in the first resurrection; over such as he the second death has no power. Elsewhere the same book says: He who overcomes shall not be harmed by the second death. As the first resurrection consists of the conversion of the heart, the second death consists of unending torment.

Let us embrace the “first resurrection” and flee from those things that lead us to the “second death”! My prayer for you and me is that this special season makes us into “new wineskins”. If we are going to be ever-filled vessels of the Holy Spirit, the new wine promised by Jesus, then we need to be transformed into those new wineskins. May our Lenten practices keep us awake to Jesus Christ and his plan.

Happy Lent!

In Christ,
Fr. Bob Franco