Fruits of fasting in lenten season

The Church teaches that all people are obliged by God to perform some penance for their sins, and that these acts of penance are both personal and corporeal. Bodily fasting is meaningless unless it is joined with a spiritual avoidance of sin.

Basil of Caesarea gives the following exhortation regarding fasting: Let us fast an acceptable and very pleasing fast to the Lord. 

True fasting is the estrangement from evil, temperance of tongue, abstinence from anger, separation from desires, slander, falsehood and perjury. Privation of these is true fasting.

Now days, Lent is no longer a mandate but rather an obligation for every Christian. Those who wish to mark this period may choose to give up a certain pleasure, such as sweet things, alcohol or forms of amusement. Fasting outside the religious context is practiced for health and dietary reasons. ‘Detox’ Therapies may replace standard daily food with fruit and vegetable juices, while some clinics offer near total fasting programmes. Sugar and fat may therefore be voluntarily eliminated from diet.

Lent for Christians was and is a time of prayer, fasting, repentance, purification and preparation for Easter celebrations. The restraints of Lent have varied over history. At first, only the evening meal was permitted, then a second light meal was allowed. 

Apart from abstaining from food, other restrictions appeared over the centuries, such as sexual abstinence, a ban on weddings and pleasurable activities, such as the closure of theatres.

Yet why is fasting so important in the life of the Church? And what are the roots of the practice in Scripture? The very first fasting was ordered by God to Adam in the Garden of Eden, when God instructed Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of Knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17). This divine prohibition was not because the tree was bad, it was made good like all the creation, but its fruit was meant to be eaten in the right time and the right way. 

In the same way, we abstain from created goods so we may enjoy them in the right time and the right way.

By fasting from the fruit of the tree, Adam and Eve would have become partakers in the Divine Nature through their obedience to God.

 Instead, they tried to take this knowledge of good and evil to themselves and ate the fruit, disobeying God and bringing original sin, death and illness upon mankind.

At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus abstained from food and water for 40 days and nights in the desert and thus reversed what happens in the Garden of Eden. Like Adam and Eve, Christ was tempted by the devil too but instead remained obedient to God the Father, reversing the disobedience of Adam and Eve and restoring our humanity.

Greater intimacy with God is the reward of sacrifice. His love and salvation are not reliant on denying oneself chocolate or beer.  Idolatry stands in the way of worshiping the one true God. 

These 40 days are set aside to praise and worship the Lord, to read the Bible more, and to pray more often. 

Christians who observe Lent correctly anticipate deeper intimacy with the Lord, which is the blessing; they do not expect rewards such as more favourable answers to prayer or the resolution of health concerns, although many Christians have reported that, following Lent, they experience freedom from long – lasting issues.

It is more important to check one’s motives for observing Lent. Christ told the disciples “when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. 

Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward” (Mtt 6:16). A small personal sacrifice should not be “a badge of pride.” The intent of a Lenten observance is to recognise our need for repentance and our depravity apart from God (1 John 1:19; Ephesians 2: 1-5, Colossians 2:13), to draw closer to God, and to prepare our hearts for the celebration of Easter.

Sem. Robert Bigabwarugaba, Katigondo National Seminary

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