Quite different [from the total fast] are the spiritual connotations of the second type of fasting which we defined as ascetical. Here the purpose for fasting is to liberate man from the unlawful tyranny of the flesh, of that surrender of the spirit to the body and its appetites which is the tragic result of sin and the original fall of man. It is only by a slow and patient effort that man discovers that he “does not live by bread alone”—that he restores in himself the primacy of the spirit. It is of necessity and by its very nature a long and sustained effort. The time factor is essential for it takes time to uproot and to heal the common and universal disease which men have come to consider as their “normal” state.
The art of ascetical fasting had been refined and perfected within the monastic tradition and then was accepted by the entire Church. It is the application to man of Christ’s words that the demonic powers which enslave man cannot be overcome but by “prayer and fasting.” It is rooted in the example of Christ Himself who fasted forty days and then met Satan face to face and in this encounter reversed the surrender of man to “bread alone,” thus inaugurating man’s liberation.
The Church has set apart four periods for this ascetical fast: the seasons before Easter, Christmas, the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul, and the Dormition of the Mother of God. Four times a year she invites us to purify and liberate ourselves from the dominion of the flesh by the holy therapy of fasting, and each time the success of the therapy depends precisely on the application of certain basic rules among which the “unbrokenness” of fasting, its continuity in time, is the major one.
It is this distinction between the two modes of fasting that helps us to understand the apparent contradiction between the canons regulating the fast. The canon forbidding fasting on Sundays means literally that on that day fasting is “broken” first of all by the Eucharist itself, which fulfills the expectation, and being the goal of all fasting, is also its end. It means that Sunday, the Lord’s Day, transcends Lent as it transcends time. It means in other terms that Sunday, the Day of the Kingdom, does not belong to that time whose meaning as pilgrimage or journey is expressed precisely in Lent; Sunday thus remains the day not of fasting but of spiritual joy.
But while breaking the total fast, the Eucharist does not break the “ascetical” fast which, as we have explained, requires by its very nature the continuity of effort. This means that the dietary regulations which govern the ascetical fasting remain in force on Lenten Sundays. To put it in concrete terms, meats and fats are forbidden, but only because of the “psycho-somatic” character of ascetical fasting, because the Church knows that the body, if it is to be “subdued,” must undergo a lengthy and patient discipline of abstinence.
In Russia, for example, monks never ate meat; but this did not mean that they fasted on Easter or any other great feast. One can say that a certain degree of ascetical fasting belongs to Christian life as such and should be kept by Christians. But the understanding of Easter, alas so common, as almost an obligation to overeat and over drink is a sad and ugly caricature of the true spirit of Pascha! It is tragic indeed that in some churches people are discouraged from partaking of Holy Communion at Easter and the beautiful words of St. John Chrysostom’s Paschal Sermon—”the table is full-laden, feast ye all sumptuously! The calf is fatted; let no one go hungry away”—are probably understood as referring exclusively to the rich contents of Easter baskets. The Feast is a spiritual reality and to be properly kept it requires as much sobriety and spiritual concentration as the fast.
It must be clearly understood, therefore, that there is no contradiction between the Church’s insistence that we maintain abstinence from certain foods on Lenten Sundays and the condemnation by her of fasting on the day of the Eucharist. It is also clear that only by following both rules; by keeping simultaneously the Eucharistic rhythm of preparation and fulfillment and the sustained effort of the “soul-saving forty clays” can we truly achieve the spiritual goals of Lent.
~Adapted from Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent
