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Fast Disappearing?As the Church moves into the heart of Great Lent the unusual quality of her witness becomes increasingly apparent. The Roman Catholic Church has largely abandoned fasting in ordinary parish life although it still features in stricter monastic observance and in some "specialised" lay societies. Independent evangelicals still fast with prayer but can hardly be said to consider Lent as a special time for this practice. None of this should cause Orthodox to indulge in pharisaic pride. Fasting is a secret thing, a tryst between God and Man whereby we prioritise His jealous love for us in the totality of a surrendered life. If we step back and admire our zeal in keeping the commandments then we have already broken all of them by a single act of pride. So is the Fast disappearing in Orthodoxy? Well, that must depend partly on the individual state of each soul upon which only God may judge. However, we must rightly ask whether or not fasting is not succumbing to a narrow minded legalism on the one hand and an extreme laxity on the other. The legalists would have us debate endlessly the difference between vegetable oil and olive oil; whether it is proper to eat caviar on Lazarus Saturday and so on. Those sliding into non-observance are also legalists in that they still think of a "duty" to be somehow "argued around." In order that the spirit of our actual fasting might match the ideals of the season we perhaps need to take stock again of the primary reason for fasting. Raising money for the poor, knowing what it feels like to be hungry and such are only secondary and derivative effects. The primary focus must be the redemption of whole personality, body and soul. A measure of self discipline in my life enables my will to be strengthened and my passions to be rendered subject to the work of the Holy Spirit for salvation. Fasting is the key which opens up my God-given potentiality to be His servant without any other competing claim. Fasting purifies my soul and my body so that my entire personality becomes radiant with the presence of the Living Christ. This is my entrance into the joyous victory of Pascha which is my liberation from the tyranny of death, evil and sin. This is why we fast. Fr Gregory |
