What is true fasting? Is it abstaining from non-fasting food, from surfing the net for hours, or is it more concentrated prayer? There are the following words in Psalm 50: A sacrifice unto God is a broken spirit; a heart that is broken and humbled God will not despise (Ps. 50:19). Our fasting must become a sacrifice to God. But what lies behind these words? Just before the beginning of the Nativity Fast we asked some Russian priests to reflect on this subject.
Priest Maxim Brazhnikov, rector of the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in the city of Orsk (the Orenburg region):
When we say that fasting can be considered as a sacrifice to God, many people who have read the Gospel may argue: Why are we speaking about fasting as a sacrifice, if the Lord stated: I will have mercy, and not sacrifice (Mt. 9:13)? Does He really need this sacrifice? How does this agree with the Holy Scriptures? But the Lord also said through the Psalmist David in Psalm 50: A sacrifice unto God is a broken spirit; a heart that is broken and humbled God will not despise. It follows that already in the Old Testament and then, confirming this, in the New Testament the Lord says that a real sacrifice to God is not offering Him a calf, or the blood of a goat, or a sacrifice from the earthly fruits that the Lord gives to people. The most important sacrifice is a contrite and humble heart. And during the fast we must make even greater efforts to acquire humility.
Priest Maxim Brazhnikov
In the Garden of Eden the Lord established for Adam this commandment: to not eat from one tree, although many other paradisiacal trees and the tree of life were given to him to eat from. It was important for Adam not to become proud and fall into a state where he would decide to become not just equal to God, but higher than Him.
It was then that this commandment, a kind of first fast, was ordained for man who was still sinless. It controlled the humility of his heart. Not the contrite spirit that modern Christians who fast should have, but the paradisal spirit of Adam, which would thus joyfully obey God. Accordingly, now, when we abstain from fruits of the earth—meat and milk products and other things—on the one hand, we limit our pleasures. But, on the other hand, we need fasting so that we can gradually get closer to our spirit, which should be contrite and humble.
Fasting is not only bodily, but also spiritual, in which we abstain from annoying sources of information that disturb our spirit, from watching the stream of news so as not to entrust our will to the media. In this way we call on our spirit to remember that it is dedicated to God. During the fast we must turn to the Lord all the time, and we take this time away from our pleasures and give it to God. Time is needed for intensive reading the Holy Scriptures, which is prescribed during fasting, for attending church services, and for abstaining from sources of information. Finally, a contrite and humble spirit is also distinguished by humbling our pride.
In some ways all this can be compared to a training process. An athlete trains a lot in his usual regime, but moments come when he must prepare for competitions, and then he trains more intensively and controls his nutrition.
Likewise, in our lives we must always be obedient to God and rooted in God, in spiritual life, in prayer, in reading the Holy Scriptures, and in our mind’s obedience to God. But there is a time of fasting, which we offer as a sacrifice to the Lord from all we do. And our spirit, created by God, must be healed of passions in order to spiritually celebrate the upcoming feast of the Nativity of Christ. So that on the feast we can think about why the Savior was born into the world and not about what delicious dishes we will enjoy. Thus, during the Nativity Fast, especially when winter comes in the European part of our country, it gets dark earlier and life becomes harder, we still keep our spirit joyfully rooted near God. Fasting becomes joy for us, like training for an athlete.
If we lived according to the worldly spirit, we would succumb to this autumn-winter gloom and only wait for the New Year (a very popular holiday in Russia), but we would not gain anything special from it. However, we are joyfully moving towards the feast of the Nativity. And a person who has fasted more than once and knows this feeling of joy receives a reward from the Lord. We offer our spirit as a sacrifice to the Lord and for this we are rewarded with the joy of the Savior’s coming into the world.
Archpriest Vladimir Sergeyev, Rector of St. John the Baptist’s Church in the city of Orel:
I believe that in Orthodoxy there should not be such a thing as “must do something”. Of course, God does not need our fasts—we need them. But I think the current system of fasting, which developed in the Church over the centuries, helps us identify ourselves. It shows that we belong to a certain religious tradition.
Archpriest Vladimir Sergeyev
Once there was a different system of fasts in the Church of Christ; Christians fasted in a different way, and they were no less ascetical than we are now, observing all these fasts. Fasting is a time when we can really understand that the spirit is greater than the flesh, that we are not just a set of biological characteristics, and that we live not only according to the laws of biology, but that man is a spiritual being. And self-discipline, which is trained by fasting, when we can really show our will and abstain from something, is not needed by God, but by ourselves. We should perform a little feat for God’s sake. Fasting should not be an end in itself. An ancient rule says that during fasting we should spend less on food and give the saved amounts to those in need—this will be a true fast. And if we order lobsters… It is said that they are a kind of fasting food, but such a fast is definitely not pleasing to God. If we do charity work and help people, it’s another matter—this fasting is pleasing to God.
And we should also keep in mind that fasting without prayer is just a diet—it is useless in the spiritual sense. Satan does not eat or drink at all, but this does not bring him closer to God. The most important thing is a combination so that you can have harmony and integrity in your spiritual life. And what does it consist of? Of prayer, fasting and good deeds. In general, I think there should be some happy medium in spiritual life; there should be no leaps, like, “Today we fast to the point of self–torture, and tomorrow we will overeat.” It is no wonder that the royal, middle way leads to the Heavenly Kingdom. Therefore, fasting coupled with prayer and good deeds is what a Christian’s soul (and not only his body) will really benefit from. Although the body needs fasting as well. After all, the Lord gave us this fast, and through it He sometimes gives us some relief in illness. And fasting is contra-indicated for those who are seriously ill, for example, for diabetics. Such people need not sacrifice themselves. Sacrifice is not needed where it is not needed. So everything should be done wisely, with spiritual discernment.
Surely, fasting presupposes efforts, and we do not always look forward to it with joy as we should, but the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence (Mt. 11:12). The most important thing is to attune yourself for such a spiritual wavelength. In general, it’s not as hard to abstain from some kinds of food as sometimes it is from using your smartphone in order to kill time in the evening. By the way, you could add such a rule to your fasting regime with the blessing of your father-confessor. It will be a sacrifice to God if we do not scroll through the newsfeed, but will instead use this time to help our neighbors: bring food to elderly people, for instance.
Priest Roman Bamburov, rector of the Church in honor of the Renewal of the Temple of the Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem, Smolensk:
It is important to realize that fasting is obedience to our Mother Church, of which Christ is the Head. There is no fasting outside the Church. Fasting is within church life. The Apostle Paul said that he bore the wounds of the Lord Jesus Christ on his body and boasted of these wounds and His cross. So we also bear the labor of fasting for the sake of Christ, for the sake of His Passion. We do not live by ourselves, but by His Cross having put on Christ, and fasting helps us in this. Without fasting a person is clothed in various extremes of sensual pleasures, entertainment, and a lax life. The path is too broad without holy fasting.
Priest Roman Bamburov
Let’s not pity ourselves. The grace of God covers a multitude of infirmities and makes an old man into a new one. Let him who is able, get through the fasting period with only a cup of tea instead of his dinner or without breakfast. Fasting is not only about changing the quality of food, but also about reducing the number of meals. But, most importantly, everything must be done with humility, with repentance for your sins, with a gentle look at your neighbors, and with compassion.
Those who are quarrelsome, resentful, too judgmental, easily irritable and “toxic”, as they say now, have no fasting, even if they do not eat anything for days. Let’s not pity ourselves—let’s take pity on others so that fasting will not be for our condemnation.
Priest John Privalov, rector of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Vorga (Roslavl Diocese, Smolensk region):
There is a wonderful word—humility. It is easy to understand and very difficult to put into practice. Humility means to accept all the tests of our faith with peace in our hearts [in Russian the words “peace and “humility” are cognates: compare “mir” and “smireniye”.—Trans.]; to react with peace of mind to troubles that our dear ones are faced with; to abstain with peace in our hearts from something that is not good for us, and, conversely, add something our souls will benefit from. This is true fasting: to “complicate” our lives humbly, voluntarily and with awareness of the need for these restrictions.
Why “complicate”? Because that’s how fasting seems to be at first glance. But this is not the case at all. We don’t feed a baby or a young child only on what is easiest to cook or only on what he wants to eat. We try to give him what is necessary and the best. But it’s not always as sweet as candy. In the Garden of Eden everything was perfect for Adam and Eve: complete abundance, no pain-filled labor for food, and just one rule that separated them from the fall.
Priest John Privalov
So it comes from this that fasting is our small investment in the future of our soul, a sacrifice in the name of our salvation. A sacrifice to God is only in the very fact of our humility, patience and as proof that we are reasonable people who know how to restrict ourselves. A sacrifice unto God is a broken spirit; a heart that is broken and humbled God will not despise (Ps. 50:19).
