What’s the Point of All That Fasting?

I don’t usually make it a point to share my own religious beliefs on my public offerings, but in this case I feel it’s both appropriate and necessary to do so.

I’m a member of the Orthodox Church, and have been for just over one year. One of the more well-known elements of the Orthodox Church is the 40 day period which precedes Pascha, which you most likely know as Easter Sunday, which we call Great Lent.

One of the things we Orthodox Christians to do commemorate Great Lent is to voluntarily undergo the “lenten fast.” This is not to say we don’t eat for 40 days, but we have certain restrictions on our diet. It’s basically a vegan diet, with some of the restrictions eased on Saturday and Sunday, such as wine and oil.

I was chrismated into the Orthodox Church in March, 2024; the Lenten fast began just a few days later. I was traveling to the East Coast with my wife at the time. This meant that my adherence to the diet standards was spotty at best. I simply did not have the knowledge or the discipline, not to mention the resources to adhere to such a strict diet.

But looking back, I can honestly say I made a solid effort with the knowledge and resources I did have. There are no vegan restaurants in rural Virginia; but I would always choose fish over steak. Load up my plate with veggies, and then add a piece of chicken so I could have some protein.

In hindsight, there were times when I actually hurt myself by not eating meat when it was offered to me, both physically and spiritually. But I’ll get to that in a moment.

Was I perfect? No, far from it. But perfection is never the goal when it comes to the spiritual disciplines.

Progress is what we should strive for.

When the 2024 fast began, I observed the fast because it was what I thought was expected of me. I was “following the rules.”

By the time the fast ended, however, I did it because I truly wanted to do it. I could sense a change in me inwardly.

And that’s really the whole point of fasting.

We began this video with a clip from Chris Nolan’s Batman Begins. Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is trapped underneath a heavy beam inside his mansion which is about to collapse from a massive fire.

Bruce is initially weak and can’t move the beam, but Alfred (Michael Caine) gives his famous line, ‘What’s the point of all those pushups if you can’t lift a bloody log?”

Although this is more or less a challenge to Bruce’s manhood, to which he responds, there are some things we can glean from this as it pertains to fasting.

St. Basil the Great is attributed as saying:

“True fasting lies in rejecting evil, holding one’s tongue, suppressing one’s hatred, and banishing one’s lust, evil words, lying, and betrayal of vows.”

Taking St. Basil’s words to heart, we might ask alongside Alfred: “What’s the point of all that fasting if you still hate your brother?”

During my fast last year, I thought I was being virtuous by politely declining some orange chicken offered to me while visiting a relative’s house. Now I wonder if the fast took precedence over the condition of my heart.

Was my ego getting in the way of showing real virtue? My relative is not a Christian at all; did my refusal sour their perception of me and Christianity in general?

Not likely, but perhaps the truly Christian thing to do would have been to accept a small portion of the orange chicken with gratitude, and then as a bonus I could let the nutrients inside the chicken strengthen my body.

As I understand it, abstaining from meat, cheese and wine is allegorical. The virtue is not in abstaining from those foods just for the sake not eating meat. The meat represents something which our flesh craves, such as envy or malice. By refusing our body what it craves, we’re in effect training our spirit to refuse the vices.

Let’s say you’re fasting, and for whatever reason you go into a restaurant to pick up some food, say for a family gathering. If the smells inside that restaurant make you regret doing the fast, or let’s say you decide the second your fast is over you’re going to hightail it to that restaurant and stuff your face, you’ve missed the whole point.

You may as well just have your calzone and be done with it, because you’ve missed the boat as far as the point of the fast.

Fasting is not a set of rules just for the sake of following rules. It is a journey that brings our spirits into at one ment (atonement) with our Creator.

The fasting rules never supersede the greatest commandment which is to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

It might begin as a set of rules, but the more we engage with it, and allow our spirits to be changed through our physical actions, the more true breakthroughs we will experience.