Food Relationship & the Spirit of Fasting:What does Holy Scripture say?
A few times a year, Orthodox Christians participating in the fasts of the Church change up their diets in a big way. This shift sparks nutrition questions, often a repeated litany of valid concerns: how do I eat enough protein? How do I eat in a balanced way and not eat too many carbs? How do I fast without bloating? How is this food product? Or that food product?
Throughout Lent and other fasting periods, I work hard to offer resources and information around food and nutrition. As a registered dietitian, a food and nutrition expert, I seek to educate and inspire. And yet paradoxically, Lent is about the food, and not about the food at all.
During the Pre-Lenten period (the 3 weeks leading up to Clean Monday), we hear several Epistle and Gospel readings around this topic of food and fasting. Now, a few weeks into Lent, I’m bringing them back, all together in one place, for our reflection. I offer my own thoughts at the end of each passage, and I would love to learn what stirs in your own heart when you read these excerpts from God’s love letter to us.
Luke 18:10-14 (Gospel, Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee)
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Reflection: The Pharisees also fasted. It’s not only about our outward efforts, but how we allow those efforts to change our hearts.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20 (Epistle, Sunday of the Prodigal Son)
“All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
Reflections:
We fast not as rule-followers (what is lawful), but as followers of God’s will (what is helpful).
We fast not to punish our bodies, but to refresh and to nourish them, so that we may GLORIFY GOD in our bodies.
Romans 14:19-23 (Epistle, Saturday before Great Lent)
“Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.”
Reflection:
The “work of God” = each other. Let’s try not to be hangry grumps this Lent, but to be kind to each other! Lent is not just about me & Jesus, but all of us fasting together in community.
Romans 14:1-4 (Cheesefare Epistle)
“Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.”
Reflections:
We fast in weakness, not to prove our strength, or to triumph.
Do not concern yourself with anyone else’s plate.
Matthew 6:16-21 (Cheesefare Gospel)
“Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Reflections:
Fast in secret. Do not make a show of it.
When we fast, we press pause on our earthly desires, and invest in our heavenly treasures.
What are your reflections?
