The Christians got to Lent one or two weeks ago and their destination is Pascha (Easter) since Pascha is the Vision; and the goal of Lent is to behold the glory of God shining from the face of Him who has risen from the dead. Asceticism is the human means enabling Man to get to the Light. And, the Light and Man’s efforts, work synergistically so that one receives the power of God. There is no spiritual existence outside the meeting between the Divine Grace and Man’s efforts. And through such struggling your confidence (or daring) before God obtains as well as the wonderful intimacy between you and Him.
Since “Vision” is the goal and since the vision of Pascha is the “Vision”, we have arranged to have this period of fasting before we feast with the Resurrection; and that does not prevent us from having other periods of fasting to prepare us for other feasts which in the final analysis are reflections of the “Great Feast” or “Eid el Kbir” (in Arabic) which is Pascha. And no fast that you choose to do on your own is but a seeking of the face of your Father who is in Heaven. And I have no doubt that fasting Wednesdays and Fridays is none but a preparation for the approaching Sunday which is the Day of Days par excellence. We celebrate the Holy Liturgy on Sunday to declare that it is the “day of glory”. The above meanings are supported from Exodus with what happened with Moses who had been fasting for forty days and nights on the mountain of Sinai where “the Lord was talking to Moses face to face as one talks to a friend”. Yet the glory of the Lord did not appear to Moses as it says “No one sees my face and remains alive”.
Something like a vision took place with Elijah also on Mount Sinai. After having fasted for forty days and nights, as he was fleeing from the Queen Jezebel, God appeared to him in the form of “the sound of soft breeze”. Yet that is different from the event of the Transfiguration when the above mentioned prophets were brought to the Mount by God and they saw God’s light on Christ. The latter event is a direct communication with the Lord while previously, in Sinai, what happened was only a proximity.
The same period of time Moses and Elijah spent fasting, Jesus also spent fasting after his baptism. The number (40) was considered as sacred, as other numbers also, in the Old Testament. The number 40 for those fathers (in the OT) meant going back to one’s self and as such holds in it meanings of repentance. Except that the period of fasting in the Church was not defined at the beginning since each church used to fast the number of days they chose; until the number 40 was set as universal in the First Ecumenical Council in the year 325 AD and in that of Latakia in the year 365 AD.
I mention that to affirm that the number of days we implement in Lent came to us from the spiritual heritage of the Fathers.
What was Lent like in the old times? A testimony comes from the sayings of St. Epiphanius of Cyprus in the fourth century; he says that the monks used to have one vegetarian meal which has no meat of any kind in it. And it appears to me that the above saint received this from a former tradition which kept that practice till the Council of Trullo when eating meat and all its derivatives like eggs and cheese was banned (cannon 56). And this tradition still goes on in the Orthodox Church till now.
At this we have to mention that there are other churches that have freed themselves partially or totally from these rulings in the consideration that these are Church orders or arrangements that change with the changes of the times. The Orthodox have since a long time been looking into the possibility of making adjustments in the above mentioned rule of fasting, and perhaps the Orthodox Council might be looking into this matter.
Here also we need to mention that for us fasting is a Divine call spoken of in both Testaments, the Old and the New. Yet that Divine call does not contain any form or manner of diet. There is a flexibility here of a pastoral nature. Also it is understood that drinking alcoholic beverages is not favored during Lent.
Fasting Lent does not revolve around abstaining from eating meat and its derivatives but hinges also on asceticism; that is staying away from what we find pleasure in including food allowed during Lent. The idea goes beyond abstinence in order for us to get closer to those who are poor and their style of food; also it is meant that you do not remain spendthrift in your expenditures so that some money can be given to those who are in need. Such people were at the top of the concerns of the Christians at the beginning; one of them wrote in his apologetics (defense of the Faith) to one of the Roman Emperors of the second century, saying: “Why do you persecute us when we are a people who would abstain from food in order to give what it costs us of money to those needy among us?” Such communion was so at the beginning of the Christian Church. And until now, almsgiving is a practice that is one of the pillars of fasting. The almsgiver does that for God and so he does not reveal himself. In the same way the one who fasts does so for God who sees the hearts, and He who sees the hearts rewards him openly.
This view of fasting makes it a path for humility, that is to see one’s self as nothing but seeking and receiving everything from God; in that he grows to become one who is poor in Spirit, that is in need of God. He who by grace reaches this status becomes ready to do without much of what is around him. Finally, fasting is exercising one’s self in following Jesus’ words: “Do not treasure for yourselves treasures on this earth………….but treasure for yourselves treasures in Heaven.” He who trains himself to identify with the status of the poor and suffers from need like they do will have his heart become a dwelling for God. And when he does so during Lent and the other fasts of the Church, he would acquire the poorness in Spirit which is a state of being in need of God perennially.
There remains an essential matter of doctrine. What is in us that fasts? Is it the soul or is it the body? The body does not sin and so it does not fast. It is a place for the soul that desires to be sanctified. It is an appearance for the self which is whole, wise and loving; but it is not a machine. It is part of the individual person existing in both the body and the soul together which also together express the “I” or self on which Grace is poured down to purify it of pride and self-fullness.
The self can be arrogant, authoritative and grabbing, but also can be open to the Divine in its heavenly generosity. And when the body becomes whole, it is not due to a diet or so but primarily because of its surrender to the “human being” (one’s Person) who is united in itself in love and self-giving. The body as such is bound with the giving soul which has tasted effacement in the presence God. And God’s Face is always revealed to those who love Him to give them New Life.
And that New Life reveals itself in the approaching Pascha in the hope that it comes back again for us before the Lord receives us to His mercy.
Translated by Riad Moufarrij
Original Text: “الصيام” – An Nahar – 03.03.2012
