The Fast and Its Spirituality
The Fast and Its Spirituality
Fasting is not merely a bodily virtue.
It is not merely abstaining from food for a period of time, followed by abstaining from foods containing animal fat. Rather, there is a spiritual element in it.
The first spiritual element is the training of the will.
With the same will that has controlled food, one can also control speech by refraining from every improper word. Likewise, one can control thoughts and emotions.
Mar Isaac said: The fast of the tongue is better than the fast of the mouth. And the fast of the heart from lusts is better than both.
The second element of spiritual fasting is repentance.
We notice in the fast of the people of Nineveh that they did not only fast, but also, “Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.” And the Lord looked at this repentance more than He looked at the fasting: “Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it” (Jonah 3:8–10).
Thus, fasting is also accompanied by humility and contrition before God.
This is evident in the fast of Nineveh, as they put on sackcloth and sat in ashes. It is also clear in the Book of Joel: “Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly… Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, and the bride from her dressing room. Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, ‘Spare Your people, O Lord’” (Joel 2:15–17).
Fasting is not limited to depriving the body of food; rather, on the positive side, nourishment must be provided for the soul.
Thus, fasting is connected with prayer, as mentioned in the prayers of the Church, and as occurred in all the well-known fasts in the Scriptures, such as the fasts of Nehemiah, Ezra, Daniel, and the people of Nineveh.
This is also indicated by the phrase, “Call a sacred assembly.”
It is a spiritual opportunity in which the body is humbled so that the spirit may be exalted.
The humbling of the body is only a means. The purpose is the elevation of the spirit, so that it may have its opportunity in prayer, meditation, reading, and all the means of grace, away from the hindrances of the body.
We also notice that non-spiritual fasting is rejected by God.
Just as He rejected the fasting of the hypocrites (Matt. 6), the fasting of the Pharisee (Luke 18:9), and the sinful fasting described in the Book of Isaiah (Isa. 58:3–7).
