In vain do you rejoice in not eating, O soul! For you abstain from food, but from passions you are not purified. If you have no desire for improvement, you will be despised as a lie in the eyes of God, you will be likened to evil demons who never eat! If you persevere in sin, you will perform a useless fast; therefore, remain in constant striving so as to stand before the Crucified Savior, or rather to be crucified with the One who was crucified for your sake. (First hymn of the aposticha of the Praises, Matins of Cheesefare Wednesday) 2
A FEW DAYS BEFORE LENT BEGINS, we hear this stern warning from the Triodion. Again we are reminded that fasting is not the be-all and end-all of Lent. If the fast is not a means to improving our spiritual lives, if we fast from food but not from sin, then we are no better than devils! The demons do not eat, but they are no closer to God for it. This is why, on Meatfare Sunday, we hear the lesson from St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, “food does not commend us to God” (1 Cor. 8:8). This is echoed in the Triodion:
The Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and abstinence with holiness: and so the rich shall not enter, it, but those who entrust their treasures to the hands of the poor. This is what David the Prophet teaches us, saying: The righteous man shows mercy all the day long; his delight is in the Lord, and walking in the light he shall not stumble. All this was written for our admonition, that we should fast and do good; and in exchange for earthly things may the Lord reward us with the things of heaven. (Eothinon, Matins of the Fifth Sunday of Lent) 3
Being aimed at the devout practicing Christian, the hymns of Lent never cease to reiterate the warning Christ gave to His apostles: “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20). We are not to fast for the sake of fasting. If our fasting is not aimed at making us better Christians, if it does not exceed physical abstinence, it is useless.
Fasting can help us to be better Christians: we deprive ourselves to give to others. But Lenten fasting is not simply fasting from food. We must fast also from criticizing and judging others, from slander and gossip, from pride and vanity. Physical fasting is a reminder of and an aid to spiritual fasting. The Triodion spells this out quite plainly:
While fasting physically, brethren, let us also fast spiritually. Let us loose every knot of iniquity. Let us tear up every unrighteous bond. Let us distribute bread to the hungry and welcome to our homes those who have no roof over their heads, so that we may receive great mercy from Christ our God. (First troparion of Vespers, Wednesday of the first week of Lent)
Let us observe a fast acceptable and pleasing to the Lord. True fasting is to put away all evil to control the tongue, to forbear from anger, to abstain from lust, slander, falsehood, and perjury. If we renounce these things, then is our fasting true and acceptable to God. (First hymn of the aposticha, Vespers of Clean Monday) 4
Come, O faithful and in the light let us perform the works of God; let us walk honestly as in the day. Let us cast away every unjust accusation against our neighbor, not placing any cause of stumbling in his path. Let us lay aside the pleasures of the flesh and increase the spiritual gifts of our soul. Let us give bread to those in need, and let us draw near to Christ, crying in penitence, “O our God, have mercy on, us.” (First troparion of Vespers, Friday of the first week of Lent)
The season of the holy Fast is now at hand. Let us begin it with good actions; for it is said, fast not for strife and debate. (Second canon of Clean Monday) 5
These hymns are inspired by a stern warning given to us in the Old Testament:
“Indeed you fast for strife and debate.
And to strike with the fist of wickedness.
You will not fast as you do this day,
To make your voice heard on high.
Is it a fast that I have chosen,
A day for a man to afflict his soul?
Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush,
And to spread out sackcloth and ashes?
Would you call this a fast,
And an acceptable day to the Lord?
“Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?”
(Isaiah 58:4-7)
Thus we must not restrict our abstinence to food alone. In fact, we are better off observing a spiritual fast and not abstaining from food at all than we are observing the physical fast and ignoring the command to abstain from sin. Best of all of course, is to observe both the spiritual and physical fast of Lent. “These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone: (Luke 11:42).
That is what the Triodion invites us to do, that we may offer our whole being, body and soul, to God, that we may be telnples of the Holy Spirit. But above all, we must take care to fast from the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy (Matt. 16:5-12)
~Vassilios Papavassiliou, Meditations for Great Lent: Reflections on the Triodion
2 Translation taken from Great Lent: Journey to Pascha, Alexander Schmemann, SVS Press (New York, 2003), p. 42
3 Translation by Mother Mary and Kallistos Ware, The Lenten Triodion, St. Tikhon’s Seminary Press (South Canaan PA, 2002), p. 461
4 Ibid, p. 198
5 Ibid, p. 194
