Fasting heals selfishness
What is asked of anyone who wants to love is, first, to put others before himself, to love others and not himself, to prefer them to himself. This means he must be able to rise above his selfishness and be able to say “no” to his cravings and desires. Someone who chases after the satisfaction of his desires and cravings not only becomes unable to love the other; often he exploits the other, treating him either as a commodity or as an enemy competing with him for commodities.
Such a person cannot see God, and his life becomes a life without paradise. On the last Sunday before the fast, we commemorated Adam’s expulsion from paradise because he did not keep the fast there. The closed, selfish movement is destructive. The selfish movement of the passions means bending them to individual interests and pleasures, and so disobeying the divine will and commandment. Selfishness separates a person from God and neighbour. Christ, by fasting forty days, that is, by refusing to give in to the craving for food, affirms his “no” to the human will and his “yes” to the divine will, and shows us the way back, the opposite of the way of Adam’s children in general. That is why fasting was established in the Church: to give everyone the chance to say “no” to his ego, and so overcome inclinations and cravings, and to lead instead of being led. Fasting is, in the end, training in love: it strengthens our capacity to love by tearing down the barriers of selfishness, trains a person in the movement of love towards God and neighbour, and makes him sensitive to them; that is why fasting goes hand in hand with almsgiving.
Fasting trains a person to go beyond his selfish gratification and frees him from this slavery. This is how the devil tempted Adam: he offered him selfish gratification, possession and deification through his own powers and the satisfaction of pleasure. And in the end the taste of that fruit became bitter. Moreover, he made this gratification something at God’s expense, accusing God of envy, as if God did not want people to become gods. Selfish gratification always comes at someone else’s expense, which means moving away from them, and that is truly hell, because it is separation and isolation. That is why all selfish gratification ends in bitterness. When a person gives in to his selfishness over and over, it becomes a habit. That habit kills his spirit of discernment and judgment, and selfishness becomes his law; and that is exactly spiritual death, and the killing of what makes each person unique.
Such a person no longer takes the divine will into account in his life, and that is nothing but a life expelled from paradise. Here is where fasting and asceticism come in, at the heart of this movement, to stop it and to stir up longing for the life of paradise. Fasting is nothing but a return to this lost paradise: a time of weeping at its gates and of longing for the land we yearn for. So fasting and asceticism truly become a means of return, not a goal. Otherwise this virtue would turn back on itself and become a selfish movement that keeps us from seeing the face of Christ and makes us feel self-righteous. Fasting is a reversal of desires: moving from gratifying the self to disciplining it, and thinking of the Lord and others. It is turning love away from the self towards the outside (God and neighbour). So it is not just a matter of strengthening the will: it is an act of love, a flourishing of the person and a release from the chains of selfishness. The fight against these selfish impulses begins with the passions and bodily, sensual inclinations; the inclinations of the intellect are harder to fight and to recognize. And slackness also begins with the body.
That is why the Fathers link licence of the body with corruption of thoughts. Too much food brings the spirit of fornication and the other passions, so this is where a person begins to master himself. The measure of the struggle in fasting differs from person to person. Fasting is a natural method that heals selfishness, so it is relative, not legalistic. That is why its rule is “Fast as much as you can”, instead of the common custom “Eat as much as you can”. Chastity and fasting give boldness before God; through them Moses came to speak with God (doxastikon of Cheesefare Sunday). Fasting is the beginning of all virtues: controlling the appetite for food corrects the selfish movement. The power to master the appetite for food makes it easy for a person to enter the field of the other virtues. That is why today we can understand the need for fasting more than ever. In our age, saturated with pleasures and permitting every selfish gratification without limit, fasting has become a more pressing need… So where are those who claim it should be abolished or changed? We live in a time when man has become entirely a slave to himself and needs more fasting than before.
We live in a time when individualism has become the law, and so it needs more fasting than past days when brotherhood was the rule. The young people of the age of affluence need fasting more than the young people of times of hunger. Fasting is not a ritual to justify ourselves, nor a chance to become “good” people; that is why some ask for it to be lightened, so they can stay “good”. Fasting is simplicity in food, the putting right of our powers of love and turning them from cravings towards the other. So fasting is a cleansing of the inner self from the idol of selfishness, the pursuit of pleasure and the false gratification of the self. Fasting opens the eyes to God and neighbour. In this way fasting becomes a means of turning towards God and a place of meeting him. Breaking the fast took God out of Adam’s sight; through fasting Moses saw God, once he had purified his inner eye.
Amen.
Fr. Gerard Abi Saab
