Fasting

Having just gone from Thanksgiving right into the Nativity (Advent) season, it's time to say a thing or two about fasting.

Fasting is very big in the Orthodox Church. Every single Orthodox Christian is expected to fast. They believe that, in order to develop the discipline to conquer sin, Christians must learn to control their most basic and primitive impulse: hunger. Without being able to control that, they reason, how can we hope to win out over more pressing temptations? (Christ set the example for this in Matthew 4.1-11 and Luke 4.1-13)

Generally speaking, fasting is an essential element of the Christian Life. Christ fasted and taught men to fast. (oca.org)

Fasting is not about attempting to atone for one's sins; it's not about earning favor with God; it's not about working one's way into heaven; it's not pietism; it's not works-righteousness; it's not legalism. It is simply about training our wills to say "no" to ourselves so we can learn to say "yes" to God. Fasting is never an end in itself, but is--like everything else in Orthodoxy--intended for the ultimate purpose of bringing us into union with God. It never occurs by itself, but is combined with prayer and repentance and a more intense focus on refraining from sin.

The Didache, a first-century church manual, instructed Christians that their "fasts must not be identical with those of the hypocrites [i.e., the Jews. Cf. Matt. 6:16]. They fast on Mondays and Thursdays; but you should fast on Wednesdays and Fridays." Orthodox Christians, therefore, fast on Wednesdays to remember Christ's betrayal and on Fridays to remember His crucifixion. They also fast during the periods leading up to important Feasts of the Church, for example Great Lent, which is the forty days prior to Easter, and the Nativity Fast, which occurs during the forty days before Christmas. I have been told that, when all the days of fasting are added up, they equal approximately half the year!

Fasting in the Orthodox tradition is not necessarily a complete lack of food (although it can be, for example, in the hours before receiving Communion Orthodox Christians are expected to eat nothing), but involves abstaining from certain foods, like wine, oil, and animal products. This practice, if I'm not mistaken, is from the Nazorite tradition.

The precise selection of foods from which to abstain has nothing to do with the notion that these foods are "unclean" in the traditional Jewish sense...or in any sense, really. The New Testament is clear that Christians need no longer be concerned with what foods are "clean" and "unclean" (Mk 7.18-20, Rom 14.14, Acts 10.10-15). The idea here is to say "no" to foods that are otherwise perfectly legitimate and acceptable, not because we're commanded to by Law, but because we choose to. So, then why these particular foods? I really don't know. Yet. But, in Orthodoxy, one learns by doing: "a good understanding have all they that do His commandments" (Ps 111.10).

The purpose of fasting is to learn discipline, to gain control of those things that are indeed within our control but that we so often allow to control us. (oca.org)

Growing up, I heard as much about fasting as I did about Mary. That is, I heard next to nothing about it. Neither the Baptist nor the Lutheran churches I attended placed any emphasis whatsoever on fasting. All my christian life I had no idea it was of any importance at all. I certainly didn't know how to fast, or when, or for how long, or to what end.

Fasting is clearly not optional inasmuch as Our Lord said, regarding fasting When you fast (Matt. 6:16), rather than If you fast. Our Lord, speaking of His disciples, said that after His departure, they would fast: when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then they shall fast" (Father Alexander Lebedeff)

I wonder now why it is that during more than thirty years as a Protestant, during which time I heard somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand sermons, I don't once recall hearing the pastor encourage his flock to fast. Nearly every sermon I heard exhorted me to be like Christ, and to put Him at the very center of my life, and to deny myself, and live the way God wants me to live, and to be holy, and to treat my body as the temple of the Holy Spirit. And yet I never heard any mention of fasting as a means by which this is accomplished. My former churches never failed to remind me to pray and read my Bible, but for some reason they left out this important element of the Christian life.

"Fasting gradually disperses and drives away spiritual darkness and the veil of sin that lies on the soul, just as the sun dispels the mist. Fasting enables us spiritually to see that spiritual air in which Christ, the Sun who knows no setting, does not rise, but shines without ceasing. Fasting, aided by vigil, penetrates and softens hardness of heart. where once were the vapors of drunkenness it causes fountains of compunction to spring forth" (St Symeon the New Theologian: the Discourses).

"From the time of the Apostles, Prophets and Fathers till our own day, it is evident from the life of the Church that fasting is part of our "armor of light"; it is a mighty weapon against the enemy given into our hands by the Saviour Himself, Who is a type and example for us in all things and Who fasted in the flesh in order to teach us to fast" (On Fasting).

"The Orthodox Church, regarding the human person as a unity of soul and body, has always insisted that the body must be trained and disciplined as well as the soul. 'Fasting and self-control are the first virtue, the mother, root, source, and foundation of all good'" (Ware, The Orthodox Chruch, p.300).

For more information:
The Fasting Rule of the Orthodox Church
Fasting (St Spyridon Cathedral website)
The True Nature of Fasting (Kallistos Ware)
Eastern Orthodox Fasting (Wikipedia)

Examples of Fasting in the Bible
Moses fasted for forty days and forty nights while he was on the mountain with God. (Ex 34.28)
King David fasted when his son with Bathsheba became sick (2Sm 12.15-25).
King Jehosaphat proclaimed a fast throughout Judah for victory over the Moabites and Ammonites who were attacking them (2Ch 20.3).
The prophet Isaiah scolded the Israelites for the unrighteous motives of their fasting (Is 58.3-13).
The prophet Joel called for a fast to avert the judgement of God. (Joel 1.14)
The people of Nineveh in response to Jonah's prophecy, fasted to avert the judgement of God (Jon 3.7).
The Jews of Persia, following Mordechai's example, fasted due to the genocidal decree of Haman. Queen Esther declared a three-day fast for all the Jews prior to risking her life in visiting King Ahasuerus uninvited (Est 4).
Christ told the Pharisees that His disciples would fast when he left them (Lk 5.33-39, Mt 9.14-15, Mk 2.18-20).
Jesus described the attitude one should take when fasting (Mt 6.16–18).
Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights while in the desert (Mt 4.2, Lk 4.2).
Christ says that victory in spiritual warfare requires faith, prayer, and fasting (Mt 17.15-21, Mk 9.29)
The prophetess Anna, who proclaimed the birth of Jesus in the Temple, fasted regularly (Lk 2.36-37).