大象传媒

From Rev鈥檇 Richard Coles, cleric and broadcaster:

Last week, seeing Lent coming with its five weeks of fasting, a generous friend took me out for a magnificent dinner. 聽She chose a posh restaurant in the West End and when the menu I arrived happened to notice there was caviar among the starters. It was unbelievably good value, just a few quid rather than a king鈥檚 ransom; 鈥淕o on,鈥� she said, 鈥渢ry some鈥�. 聽I ordered a generous dollop and then another but noticed a slightly fixed smile appear on my friend鈥檚 face and the unmistakable look of someone doing urgent mental arithmetic. 聽It was only when I glanced at the menu again I saw that the caviar was actually priced by the gram and my two dollops were equivalent in price to a heritage handbag. 鈥淏on appetit!鈥�, she said, weakly.

Bad Vicar, I thought, not only impoverishing my friend, but feasting on luxuries while half the world starves. An appetite suppressing thought, and perhaps you want me to say that the caviar suddenly tasted like ashes in my mouth.

But it didn鈥檛. I relished every overpriced morsel, so overpriced I worked out the blob the waiter wiped off the tabletop cost as much as my cab fare home.

Because the truth is, no matter how frugally I try to live I will never be poor like those who are a pound-per-day poor. The gap between caviar and a fish finger sandwich is nowhere near as wide as the gap between the fish finger sandwich and the handful of grain the hungry millions will have to make do with. 聽We live, whether we like it or not, in a world of such inequality that even our saintliest efforts are tainted by collusion.

I think this is why Jesus said do not fast for show: do not merely wring your hands and eat gruel, virtue-signalling with gestures that nod to justice without changing anything.

The real fast is not one of the stomach, but of the heart and the mind, to stand with caviar-stained chins in front of the God who forgives us, and wants to remake us, not for this world but for his kingdom, where no one goes hungry, and all at last feast.