Dear Friends,

I wonder if you are going to make any special effort during the forthcoming season of Lent which is thought of as a time of fasting, when Christians prepare themselves for the great festival of Easter. Fasting traditionally involved abstaining from eating, or at least from eating certain meals or certain foods. Today, many Christians choose to fast simply by giving up something that is not essential for them; something such as chocolate or alcohol. The secular world seems to have taken over the idea of fasting. Dieting of one kind or another seems to be the life-style choice of many people, while disciplining the body by putting it through all kinds of rigorous exercise is practiced by those who want to stay in peak condition or improve their appearance. But, there are other ways of fasting as well as giving something up. We can put extra effort into doing God's will. St Paul asks us to discipline ourselves in order to become fellow workers with Jesus Christ.

Students studying law were asked why they had chosen that particular subject. The majority replied that their choice had been determined by the amount of money they could earn. Others spoke of the prestige that their future profession would give them; and some said that they studied law because they were interested in a more righteous world. Of course, we all work — or have worked — for our daily bread, but that shouldn't be the defining characteristic of our work. We are engaged in something much broader than simply working to achieve a decent standard of living for ourselves. We are co-workers of Jesus Christ, which means that we should work at establishing God's kingdom here on Earth. We should carry out everything we do in the true spirit of one of Jesus' labourers.

How do we become active co-workers of Jesus Christ, working for the justice and righteousness of God's kingdom? For centuries many Christians have adopted the early morning custom of dedicating all the work they are going to do that day to the greater glory of God. This is a good and time-honoured practice but, in our day, perhaps we should be taking this further. Everything we do has some affect on those around us and the world in which we live. In today's society it's not always easy to choose which course of action will contribute most to a more righteous world.

The good news is that whenever we make the right choices, we become Jesus' co-workers and, in this way, our lives and what we do with them, not only get an ultimate meaning, but we are also prepared for Easter, when we celebrate that the salvation Jesus worked among us will be with us for ever and ever.

Fr Antony