Why do we have to fast?
The Gospel on Ash Wednesday tells us how we should fast. But why should we fast at all? Can other practices (like giving up sweets) take its place?
The Gospel on Ash Wednesday tells us how we should fast. But why should we fast at all? Can other practices (like giving up sweets) take its place?
Editor’s Notes
The following text occurs within Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, where he teaches about prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Our Lord highlights fasting as an essential form of mortification, and tells us how we should carry it out. For more information on the law itself, see below:
In this piece, Fr. Coleridge tells us…
How fasting restores fallen man: It subdues the flesh, purifies the soul, and satisfies divine justice
That fasting is a duty, not an option: It is a natural law obligation necessary for mortification and salvation—and not fulfilled by “giving up sweets”
Why modern neglect of fasting is dangerous: Many treat it as interchangeable with different sacrifices, weakening its power.
He shows us that fasting is not merely one among many good works but a necessary discipline, appointed by God, for purifying the soul and restoring man’s lost order.
Fasting
The Sermon on the Mount (Part II)
Chapter IV
St. Matt. vi 16—18
Story of the Gospels, § 33
Burns and Oates, London, 1888
Headings and some line breaks added.
Sung on Ash Wednesday
Part I: Why do we have to fast?
Fasting and the natural law
Enough has now been said as to the general law of mortification, and its necessity for the regaining—with all that increase of blessings which may be expected from the ineffable bountifulness of God, Who is the Author of the dispensation in which it is made possible for us to regain it—of that state of order and tranquillity which was lost by the fall of man.
We may now pass on to the particular point at which our Lord touches this general law in His Sermon on the Mount. Fasting, as has been said, is the direct correction and punishment of that appetite, the undue indulgence of which brought about the Fall. It stands in the spiritual and ascetic system for the whole range of the many kinds of external penance and self-chastisement.
Catholic theologians tell us that the obligation of fasting rests upon the natural law, in so far as the mortification of the passions, which is the fruit of fasting, is in general necessary for salvation in our present condition. The time, manner, and degree of fasting are matters which it belongs to the Church to determine. Thus, if the Church had not fixed the times and modes of this holy exercise, we should still be obliged to practise mortification of this kind, in order to gain the ends for which it is the natural and appointed means.
These ends are beautifully expressed by the Church, in the Preface which is used in the Mass during the sacred penitential season of Lent, in which she addresses herself to God, Qui corporali jejunio vitia comprimis, mentem elevas, virtutem largiris et praemia. We find the same classification in one of the sermons known under the name of St. Augustine, wherein fasting is said to purify the soul, to elevate the mind, to make the flesh subject to the spirit, the heart contrite and humble, to scatter the mists of concupiscence, extinguish the fires of lust, and kindle the fair light of chastity.
Mediation on its fruits
The threefold fruits which are mentioned by the Church in her Preface seem to be arranged with reference to the three states or ways in the spiritual life: the way or state of purgation, that of illumination, and that of union or perfection.
St. Bernardine, whom we have before so often followed, draws out, in his usual manner, the fruits of fasting under these three divisions, allotting four fruits to each. It is well to dwell on these from time to time in meditation, especially in days like our own, when, from many various causes, there is so much inclination to excuse ourselves from the ancient discipline of the Church, sanctioned by the authority of so many saints of all ages.
We have already seen the theological ground, as may be said, for the necessity of mortification, and it is well to add to this the consideration of the immense benefits which holy writers connect with the slight penance of which we are speaking.
What is to be desired is, not that fasting and other bodily mortifications should be rated more highly than they deserve, as weapons in the spiritual warfare, or that the practice of them should be forced on persons whose state of health and physical strength does not make it expedient or safe, but that no one should consider the exemption from them as a matter of congratulation, or be indifferent to the duty of compensating to the soul in some other way, as far as may be possible, for the loss which it may sustain by their abandonment, and this quite apart from all question as to the obedience due to the law of the Church and the example of our Lord.
For in this, as in other similar cases, those who do not observe the law because they cannot, and who would observe it if they could, are in a very different state, as to the gaining of the benefits which its observance conveys, from those who account it a great boon to be freed from its observance.
The latter class of persons are not at all likely to think of endeavouring to gain, in any other way, the benefits which fasting ordinarily secures to those who practise it in the true spirit of penance. They will need very much to be freed from the false notions with which the world at large regards this holy observance—notions which are grounded upon an erroneous theology and a false view of the condition of man in his present stage of existence.
For such persons, the truths which set before them the immense blessings which the soul may receive or forfeit by the observance or non-observance of this holy discipline may be of great advantage. The same truths will spur on the courage of the true children of the Church in these practices of penance, and enlighten those whose strength is not equal to these practices, as to the objects at which they should aim in whatever exercises they may adopt as a substitute for them.
It is well then to know that if fasting were not enjoined upon us, as it is, by the Church, it would still be the favourite exercise of all those who truly understood the needs of their souls, the dangers of their present condition, and the great advantages which flow from this simple observance.
And this can hardly be learnt better than by studying the thoughts of such a writer as St. Bernardine in the sermon to which we refer.1
Four fruits in the purgative way
The Saint tells us, in the first place, that fasting restrains the body and its unlawful appetites, and thus performs the great object of the way of purgation, because it sets the superior part of man to rule the lower, and to treat all its seductive promptings with austerity.
The acts of mortification are severe, and their exercise fosters manliness and virtue; it subdues all softness and laziness, as St. Paul speaks of chastising his body and bringing it under subjection. He refers to the direct reason for this of which we have spoken—that by the disobedience of gluttony the flesh first rebelled against the soul, and by the obedience of abstinence the flesh is again brought into subjection to the soul.
He adds that it is ridiculous to speak of not being able to tame the passions of the flesh, when this can certainly be done by fasting. There is no castle so strong that it cannot be reduced by famine, and no fire so violent but that it can be extinguished by want of fuel.
In the second place, fasting has a natural and just power of making satisfaction for sin, which consists in unlawful indulgence, and so may be compensated for by restriction upon what is lawful in the way of pleasure.
The third fruit of fasting under this head is, that it prevents evil, by afflicting the body, and so weakening the concupiscences which are the seed of sin.
And, in the fourth place, it appeases and turns away the anger of God, for He sees the flesh reduced to subjection, the soul humbled in fasting, as David says, and future faults guarded against in the same way, and thus His mercy is turned towards us, and He even forgives us the chastisements which He had prepared to inflict.
The great Scriptural examples of this treatment on the part of God are the wicked King Achab,2 and the heathen Ninevites, of whom it is written that ‘they believed in God and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least,’ their King ordering it, and saying, ‘Who can tell if God will turn and forgive, and will turn away from His fierce anger, and we shall not perish?’3
However, fasting is not merely a weapon against sin—St Bernardine tells us that it is also a path to wisdom and divine union. The saints teach that fasting does not only subdue the flesh but also opens the soul to God’s light.
This will be the subject of Part II.
Fasting
Part I: Why do we have to fast?
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St. Bernardine, Quadr. De Christiana Religione, Sermon v.
3 Kings xxi. 27-29.
Jonas iii. 5-9.