And whenever you fast, do not look dismal…’
It never ceases to amaze me.
Americans will latch on to any fad diet with an almost religious zeal. The rules can be strict or relaxed, obvious or obscure. Give up dairy and meat? No problem. Give up carbs and caffeine? Easy. Cut out wheat, butter, sugar, fat or almost anything else and people are still with you, but suggest that someone might want to give up one of these items for a spiritual reason, and not merely a physical one, and you’ve lost them completely! “Why would I want to do that?” “I don’t want a religion that tells me what I can and can’t eat.” “Why would God care if I eat ________ (fill in the blank)?” The idea that the physical body and the spiritual body are linked can still seem odd and foreign, even to people of faith, despite the fact that most major religions incorporate some type of fasting in their spiritual practice. The Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholics and many Episcopalians refrain from eating certain foods during Lent, particularly on Fridays and on the High Holy Days of Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Jews typically fast on Yom Kippur and also refrain from eating leavened foods during Passover. Muslims fast during the daylight hours during the month of Ramadan. The rules vary from one religion to the next but the principle is the same: we are called periodically to remind ourselves not to put our bodies ahead of our souls.
We all make sacrifices everyday. We refrain from buying the little things that we want, so that we may buy the big things that we want. We avoid foods that we like so that we can be a certain size or look a certain way. We spend more or less time at work so that we can spend more or less time doing the other things of importance in our lives. Life forces us to make choices all the time and many times those choices are made without a great deal of thought. We all get into routines and patterns that are actually taking us further and further away from our ultimate goals, and not closer to them. Sometimes it is good to stop and take a look at our choices and see what end they are actually serving. Which God do we make the most sacrifices to? Work? Vanity? Money? Entertainment? Secular people often scoff at the sacrifices that people of faith make, but at least faith calls you to be intentional about the sacrifices you make, and not to serve the Gods of this world by default.
For many Christians, Lent, which begins this month, is a season of self-sacrifice, reflection and renewal. Contrary to popular opinion, it is not intended to be some punishment or atonement for the sins that we have committed the rest of the year, nor is it meant to be a drudgery. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Lent does not begin on Ash Wednesday as it does in the West, but on Clean Monday and many refer to the first week of Lent as Clean Week. It is a tradition in Greece and in other Orthodox countries for people to clean their entire house either during or before the first week in Lent. This spiritual and physical house cleaning is celebrated with parties and festivities. The season is seen as a gift and not as a burden. Likewise in the West, many Christians are warned on Ash Wednesday not to use their fasting to seek the attention of others, but rather to direct their own attention towards God.
Fasting is not meant to be a weight loss technique. It is not meant to help us fit into our swimsuits in time for Memorial Day. But fasting can, in its own way, help us to reduce some of the weight that we carry around on a daily basis. How much energy and effort do I spend on a daily basis focusing on the food that I put in my body? What if I simplified my diet and spent that time and energy focusing on feeding my soul: praying, reading, meditating, or spending time in nature? What if I spent a little less time worrying about all the other “gods” in my life and spent more focusing on the one that really matters? Fasting may not sound as sexy as the Atkins, the South Beach, the Zone, the Paleo or the 24 hour Celebrity Juice diets, but it has been practiced by people of different faiths for over 5,000 years with sometimes tremendous degrees of success. Now that is anything but a fad.
