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Fasting

FASTING
By the Rev. Emmett Jarrett, TSSF

A young friend asked me about the practice of fasting. When I told him one abstained from food for a defined period of time – a day, three days, a week – his eyes widened in disbelief. “Won’t you starve to death? Or do permanent damage to your body?” This healthy young American believed that he would die without three large meals every day!

Fasting got a bad name from excesses of self-mortification in the medieval period of Christian history. It became associated with rejection of the body, sexuality, and pleasure in life, and was gradually abandoned.

Few Episcopalians remember that “all Fridays of the year” were fast days in the 1928 Prayer Book. Even Roman Catholics reduced the required fast days. The intention of the reforms was to get away from a legalistic attitude and encourage personal devotion, but the result was the complete abandonment of an ancient spiritual discipline.
But fasting is making a comeback. Edward Farrell observes that “what the parents throw away as useless, the children bring back as newfound treasure.” Now that fasting is no longer an obligation, many Christians are finding it a worthwhile practice that can lead to clear thinking and generous sentiments. It can indeed become a means of grace for those who choose, as St. Benedict advised, “to love fasting.”

A brief history of the practice

Among ancient peoples, fasting was used to prepare for an encounter with the deity, or as part of a young person’s “vision quest” upon entering adulthood. Buddhist monks fast regularly, Hindu sadhus are admired for their frequent personal fasts. Muslims fast during the daylight hours of the month of Ramadan.

Communal fasting as a way of repentance is found in the Hebrew Scriptures, and is reflected in contemporary Judaism at the Yom Kippur fast.

Jesus assumed that his disciples would continue the practice of fasting. In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:16-18) he says When you fast, don’t look dismal and disfigure your faces so people can know you are fasting, but anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret.

Not “if you fast,” but when.

More important is Jesus’ own practice. His forty-day fast was not miraculous, but the time a healthy adult can go without solid food before suffering physical damage. Jesus’ fast was part of his preparation for ministry. The three “temptations” reflect the benefits of fasting: the ability to clear the body of toxins and the mind of distractions, clarity about the challenges he will face, and an experience of God’s presence in worship.

Since fasting in the Biblical tradition is associated with God’s justice, the practice has been revived in recent times as a means of solidarity with the poor throughout the world. Isaiah condemned the religious practices of his time and asserted that the fast that pleases God is to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke . . . to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh” (58:6-7).
Gandhi called fasting “the sincerest form of prayer.” He fasted not, as is commonly thought, to “blackmail” the British oppressors but to chastise his own followers for their violence. Like nonviolence, fasting was incorporated into the spirituality of the Civil Rights and anti-war movements in the United States. It continues to be a practice of Christian peacemakers, and the Episcopal Peace Fellowship has called for fasting to resist the spirit of war in our time.

Practical matters
How does one go about fasting today? It is a freely chosen discipline, not an institutional requirement of the Church. If you want to experiment with fasting, you choose your own time and your own way to do it. Fasting is abstention from food for a definite period of time. You can go without solid food only, or try a juice fast, or go without everything but water. You can abstain from meat or rich fare or sweets. And you can determine for yourself the context and motivation of your fast.

It’s best to start slowly, and learn about the practice of fasting, and about yourself. People are often surprised to discover how food-centered their lives are, and decide to take control of their appetites. One student reported walking through a mall and being “assaulted” by the variety of foods and their odors from every corner!

But why fast at all? If it is not a religious obligation, why do it? Different people will have different motives at different times. I fast in order to become a disciplined person, to gain what Gandhi called swaraj, self-mastery. If I am to offer my life to God, I must not be a slave to my appetites. The Lord who sees my inmost thoughts desires me as a friend. I fast to make myself available to God.

Some resources:
Thomas Ryan, Fasting Rediscovered: A Guide to Health and Wholeness for Your Body-Spirit, New York: Paulist Press, 1981.

Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, San Francisco: Harper, 1988.

Adalbert de Vogue, To Love Fasting: The Monastic Experience, Peterson, MA: St. Bede’s Publications, 1989.

The Rev. Emmett Jarrett, TSSF, lives and works at St. Francis House, a ministry of prayer, hospitality and social justice in New London. He is also priest associate at St. James’, New London, and with his wife Anne Scheibner is national coordinator for the Episcopal Urban Caucus. Contact him at St. Francis House, (860) 437-8890 or by email at stfrancishouse@mindspring.com.