Many years ago within the first 10 or so years of my life as a priest, I happened to overhear what I would consider a disturbing conversation during the fellowship hour in the hall. A parishioner had mentioned that they had not participated in the typical Lenten fasting. Needless to say, there was a great deal of judging of the parishioner that ensued in the hall that day.
I was not as perturbed about the lack of the parishioner’s fasting as I was about the judging and gossip that I overheard that day. Fasting is certainly an important part of our preparations for anything regarding our receiving the Lord. We fast to prepare for Christ’s incarnation and we fast in preparation for death and resurrection of Christ. The judgmental discussions I heard really made me question why we fast and what should we expect out of this annual ritual. A trip through the Scriptures may help us to sort out the dynamics between the non-fasting parishioner and the rest of the people in the fellowship hall.
The first question in my mind is what business does anyone have to judge whether anyone fasts or not? The question of whether we fast or not is: Who are we to judge?
Let’s begin our journey with a harlot who was convicted of prostitution and was about to be stoned to death as was the Jewish custom in New Testament times. A mob of Jews brings the woman to Christ. “So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (John 8:7) A judge must be perfect and impartial. Who are we to judge as we are far from perfect? We also see from this passage that forgiveness is more important than judging.
The point of the whole matter is summarized in this passage: “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven:” (Lk. 6:37) I am continually amazed at how the purple meanies come during a time when we should be focusing not on others’ ascetic efforts or lack thereof, but on our own spiritual struggles. If this is not enough to convince us of what is really important during this time of repentance, this passage should convince us: “For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged, and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again.” (Matt. 7:2)
The bottom line is that fasting is a means to an ends and we should not judge the person who fasts or the person who does not fast. Fasting is an ascetic process that is useful only when we do it with the end result in mind. We must ask the question point-blank: What results are we getting by doing this process if it does not result in a positive behavior change? That is, if we still judge others, and if we still castigate others who don’t do the process perfectly, are we no better than the Pharisees that Christ condemned when he said to those Pharisees, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.” (Matt. 23:13)
We so easily forget that “it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” (Matt. 15:11) It is not what you abstain from eating or choose to eat that defile a person. Fasting makes no difference if what comes out of our mouths is gossip or judgmental speech. We are not getting the expected results and we are just going through a mere process that has been handed down form generation to generation.
The goal is to live and practice the natural law that comes from having a relationship with Jesus Christ. To show the importance getting proper results, that is, rising to a higher level of holiness, we encounter yet one more passage: “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.” (Rom. 2:14) This passage is really clear: if one gets the desired results of the law and follows the principles of the golden rule and natural law, the process they used to get to that desirable higher of level of holiness is not important at all.
Father John Behr mentioned in a webinar last Friday evening that we Orthodox Christians spend almost half a year preparing for and celebrating Pascha. It is the most important thing we do in the Church’s and our lives. When I did the math, it turns out that he’s right! We have 21 days of preparing to begin the full arduous Lenten fast: first with a fast-free week to clean out our kitchens of all meat and get ready, then we have a week of abstinence of meat to clear out all our dairy products. Then we have 40 days of Great Lent. That’s 61 days and we haven’t counted Holy week. Add another 7 days of fasting during in Holy Week and we are at 67 days. Then we have 40 days of celebration of Pascha and we arrive at Pentecost. That’s a total of 107 days. Add the Apostles fast, which can vary from none if Pascha falls in May to as much as 30 days if Pascha falls in the first week of April, and you’re at almost 140 days!
Given this arduous regimen we follow year after year to help us rise to a higher level of holiness, we need to focus more on getting the intended results in our lives than whether the process is 100% accurate. If exactness was the most important thing, the Pharisees would have gotten the intended results. If you don’t believe that, please review that Gospel reading for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee that we read a couple of weeks ago.
Let’s remember the Publican who beat his breast in the temple and did not even look heavenward as he prayed the Jesus prayer: “God have mercy on me the sinner!” Let us also remember the Prodigal Son who came to his senses and returned to his father seeking his father’s forgiveness reminding us of how important it is to have a humble and contrite heart, a broken spirit, these God will not despise, which we recognize from Psalm 50.
Let us then understand the Scriptural purpose and desired outcomes of our Lenten exercises and focus on what comes out of our mouths and how we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ. Then our ascetic activities will lead to that higher level of holiness we seek regardless of how much we are able to do. It’s about being more than doing. If we are not being holy, we are merely doing or going through the motions for the sake of doing a process as the Pharisees of old.