Saint Basil the Great
The prophet Isaiah long ago condemned the Jews' manner of fasting and called us to true fasting, when he said to us: “Fast not for judgments and strife, but loose every bond of iniquity” (Isa. 58:4–6). And the Lord calls us: “Anoint thine head, and wash thy face” (Matt. 6:17), which should be understood thus: wash your soul from sins and anoint your head with the oil of holiness, so that you may partake of Christ, and so enter upon the fast. Do not put on a sorrowful face to show people that you are fasting. No one puts on the crown and adornment of victory by displaying gloom. And why should a man be sad at the time of fasting, that is, the time of healing? On the contrary, we should greet the coming of the fast with joy, for in it the good Physician has given us a medicine that destroys sin; for fasting frees the soul from sins rooted deep within. Let us not try to win glory for ourselves by a sorrow that catches the eye, because neither a fast put on display nor a good deed done to be seen by others will profit us; for we shall receive our praise here and now, and not from the heavenly Father, Who sees even what is hidden.
Fasting comes from the beginning and is older than the Law. The Lord established it in paradise itself, for the first commandment Adam heard was: “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — of it ye shall not eat” (Gen. 2:17). Had Eve not broken this commandment then, and had she fasted, we should not need fasting today, for it is not the healthy who need a physician, but the sick (Matt. 9:12). Since we by our own will came to love the sickness of sin and grew weak, we must now be healed by repentance, and repentance is unthinkable without fasting. To Adam, who broke the commandment, it was said: “Cursed is the ground... thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee” (Gen. 3:17–18); that is, affliction was commanded for us, and not delight. We lost paradise by breaking the fast; let us at least fast now, keeping before our eyes the example of Lazarus, whom fasting brought into paradise (Luke 16:20–31). Do not imitate Eve in disobedience, and do not take as your counsellor the serpent, who urges you always to pamper the body. Sometimes one who does not keep the fast explains his conduct by the weakness and frailty of his body. But we forget that this and other such reasons must be told first of all, not to one another, but to Him Who knows all. Think: you cannot fast, yet you can load your body with a thousand dishes? Do physicians not often advise the sick to fast and abstain from varied food? Can one who is able to eat his fill and bear the weight of many dishes not fast? Which is easier and more profitable for the body — to spend the night lightly after light food, or to sleep a sleep weighed down by a quantity of food? Can it be said that a heavily laden boat will survive the storm at sea better than a lightly laden one? So too with the human body: whoever takes food moderately and lightly will ward off illness with greater success than one who loads his body with all manner of food.
The books of the Old Testament also speak clearly of the purifying power of fasting. The prophet Moses drew near to the holy mountain precisely by virtue of fasting (Exod. 24:18). Had he not been armed with fasting, how would he have dared to go up the mountain into the cloud from which smoke rose? Had he not fasted, he would not have received from God the commandments written on the tablet. But gluttony made his people idolaters: “the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play” (Exod. 32:6). One day of drunkenness and gluttony threw away forty days of fasting and prayer, and drunkenness shattered the tablet received through fasting. Compare the conduct of Moses and of his own people, and you will be convinced that fasting brings a man to God, while luxury and surfeit betray him.
Was it not fasting and prayer that gave Samuel to his parents? (1 Sam. 1:13–20). And did not Samson become invincible through fasting? Fasting gave birth to him, fasting brought him up, and fasting strengthened his might, for his mother was told by the mouth of an angel: “She may not eat of any thing that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink” (Judg. 13:14). Through a forty-day fast the prophet Elijah was made worthy to see the Lord on the holy mount Horeb.
The prophet Daniel neither ate bread nor drank water for three weeks; and so he taught fasting even to the lions. When he was thrown into the den full of lions, the beasts could no more sink their teeth into him than into stone or brass. As we see, fasting shut the lions' mouths; fasting raises prayer to heaven and gives it wings. Fasting is the leader of rest, the mother of health, the tutor of the young, the ornament of the old, the good companion of travellers. A husband does not grow suspicious when he sees his wife fasting; and whose household has fasting ever impoverished? Because of the fast the animals do not wail over their death; no orders are seen issued by the belly; the cooks' knife is at rest; and the house too rests from smoke and steam, from the clatter of pots and pans.
Fasting is also a cause of joy: the more thirsty a man becomes, the sweeter he finds a drink of water. In the same way the breaking of the fast is delightful after fasting. Through unceasing luxury and immoderate eating and drinking a man loses the ability to appreciate tasty food and drink. We see, do we not, that the sun is brighter after the night, waking is sweeter after sleep, and health more desirable after we have been through illness. So too food becomes desirable after fasting, for the rich and the poor alike.
Was it not fasting that gave Lazarus rest in Abraham's bosom? And was not the life of the great John a fast? (Matt. 3:4). He had no bed, no table, no ploughland and oxen, no wheat and no baker; yet among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist. And blessed Paul too boasted of fasting among his other hardships, and so was made worthy to see the third heaven (2 Cor. 11:27; 12:2).
The Lord Himself, when He put on flesh for our sake, restrained it by fasting, to teach us that by fasting we must train and shepherd ourselves (Matt. 4:2). Rather than care for food for the flesh, let us take thought not to deprive the mind of divine teaching; let us remember what the apostle Paul teaches us: as far as our outward man perishes, so much the more the inward is renewed (1 Cor. 12:10). Fasting prepares for us the table of the Kingdom, while gluttony fattens the body, so that the worm that torments it grows prouder still. Who has ever received any divine grace through luxury and indulgence?
Fasting is a weapon against the devil; in the Gospel we read: this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting (Mark 12:10). Much food wraps the mind in fog and smoke and darkens it.
But fasting does not mean abstaining from food alone; true fasting is turning away from evil. For you may not eat meat but devour your brother; you may give up wine but not give up abuse; you may abstain from food until evening but spend the whole day judging your neighbour. Woe unto them that are drunken, but not with wine (Isa. 51:2); for anger, which smothers the mind, and fear roused out of place, are also called drunkenness. It is bad to be drunk with passions, but neither should we be drunk with wine. You can no more keep the fast by drunkenness than attain righteousness by covetousness, purity by defilement, or virtue by wickedness. Even a slave runs away from a master who beats him, yet we cannot get away from wine, which beats us about the head — and this when we ought to receive into ourselves Him Who said: I and the Father will come unto him, and make our abode with him (John 14:23). Shall we shut the door on the King coming in to us by drunkenness? Drunkenness drives away the Holy Spirit as smoke drives away bees.
One who is learning the soldiering of men makes up his lost strength with food, so as to be firm on the battlefield. But those “who wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness” (Eph. 6:12) must, on the contrary, strengthen themselves by fasting; for when the flesh is deprived the spirit shines, and victory over the invisible enemies is won precisely by courage of spirit and endurance of hardship.
Let us remember this too: the soldiers of this world are paid according to their labours, but spiritual soldiers, who greatly constrain the flesh, will have greater honour. Our helmet differs from theirs, for their helmet is of brass and rust eats it, while ours is made of the hope of eternal life (1 Thess. 5:8). Their shield is perishable, but we have been given the shield of faith; we are armed with the breastplate of chastity, and they with a coat of iron mail. We have been given the sword of the Spirit for battle (Eph. 6:7), while they hold a naked iron sword. Nor is our food the same: divine teachings strengthen us, and them the filling of the belly. If we had made fasting the crown of our life, it would not be so full of so many sorrows and torments, for fasting teaches abstinence not only from food but from every wickedness, be it covetousness or anger.
Let us be righteous, for, as the prophet David says, it never goes ill with the righteous: I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread (Ps. 36:25). Of course he does not mean visible bread, for he knows well that the righteous sons of Jacob went down to Egypt to ask for bread. Rather, he has in mind spiritual food, by which our inner world rises little by little up the ladder of perfection.
So let us, by our way of life, escape that famine which is worse than the lack of water and bread — the famine of hearing the word of the Lord (Amos 8:11).
