Fasting is not a diet; it is an act of repentance.
In the Desert Fathers we read, “The devil can imitate everything. As for fasting, he never eats; as for keeping vigil, he never sleeps. But humility and love he cannot imitate. So let us labor to have love within us and to hate pride, through which the devil fell out of heaven.”
In the prophecy of Isaiah we find these words for the Hebrew people who practiced the religious exercise of fasting without repentance. The Lord gives both a rebuke and a promise:
“‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with fists of wickedness. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide shelter to the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you;, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry out, and he will say: Here I am.
“If you take away the yoke of oppression from your midst, the pointing finger and malicious speaking; if you extend your soul to the hungry, then your light will dawn in the darkness, and your darkness will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones. You shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail (Isaiah 58:3-11).
The hymns that are appointed for Lent give us teaching and exhortation to enable us to fast in a way that pleases the Lord and brings healing to our souls.
With joy let us enter upon the beginning of the Fast.
Let us not be of sad countenance…
Let us joyfully begin the all-hallowed season of abstinence;
And let us shine with the bright radiance of the holy commandments…
All mortal life is but one day, so it is said,
To those who labor with love.
There are forty days in the Fast;
Let us keep them all with joy.1
As we fast from food, let us abstain also from every passion.
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.
Let us keep the Fast not only by refraining from food,
But by becoming strangers to all the bodily passions.2
Knowing the commandments of the Lord, let this be our way of life:
Let us feed the hungry, let us give the thirsty drink,
Let us clothe the naked, let us welcome strangers,
Let us visit those in prison and the sick.
Then the Judge of all the earth will say even to us:
“Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you.”3
While fasting with the body, brethren, let us also fast in spirit.
Let us loose every bond of iniquity;
Let us undo the knots of every contract made by violence;
Let us tear up all unjust agreements;
Let us give bread to the hungry
And welcome to our house the poor who have no roof to cover them,
That we may receive great mercy from Christ our God.4
Consider well, my soul: dost thou fast? Then despise not thy neighbor.
Dost thou abstain from food? Condemn not thy brother.
Come, let us cleanse ourselves by almsgiving and acts of mercy to the poor,
Not sounding a trumpet or making a show of our charity.
Let not our left hand know what our right hand is doing;
Let not vainglory scatter the fruit of our almsgiving;
But in secret let us call on Him that knows all secrets:
Father, forgive us our trespasses, for Thou lovest mankind.5
Footnotes
1. Matins for the first Monday in Lent.
2. Vespers for Sunday of Forgiveness; Vespers for Monday and Tuesday in the first week of Lent
3. Vespers for Sunday of the Last Judgement.
4. Vespers for Wednesday in the first week of Lent.
5. Matins for the Sunday of the Last Judgement; Vespers for Sunday of Orthodoxy.