FASTING: WHY AND HOW

This is adapted for ease of reading from a work called, "The Art of Dying Well," by Robert Bellarmine. Written in the 13th century, you will quickly realize that Bellarmine is different from today's Christian. He is not trying appease the world, he backs up his claims with clear instruction from numerous sources, and he references writing and commentary that was known in his day, but which is lost to post-Reformation Christendom... Such is our sadness at the forgotten history of our faith.

CHAPTER VIII. THE EIGHTH PRECEPT: ON FASTING.

ACCORDING to the order given by the angel, we will now briefly speak on fasting. Omitting many of the theological questions, we will confine ourselves only to our subject.
Our intention is to explain the Art of Living Well, not in the worldly sense, but as our preparation for Dying Well in Christ. For this Art, three things seem sufficient where PRAYER is concerned :

1. Its necessity
2. Its fruit
3. The proper method

Insofar as the necessity for fasting is concerned, this is two-fold, derived from both divine and human law.

Of the divine law, the prophet Joel speaks:
"Be converted to me with your whole heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning."
The same language does the prophet Jona use, who testifies that the Ninivites, in order to appease the anger of God, proclaimed a fast in sackcloth; and yet, there was not then any positive law on fasting.

The same may be learned from the words of our Lord, as found in St.

Matthew:

"But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret, will repay thee." (Ch 6: 17-18)

We will also add the words of one or two of the early Church Fathers, to this obvious instruction of Our Lord.

St. Augustine thus speaks on the matter of fasting in his Epistle to Casulanus:

"In the gospels and epistles, and in the whole of the New Testament, I see fasting is a precept. But on certain days we are not commanded to fast; and on what particular days we must, is not defined by our Lord, Himself, or the apostles."

St. Leo also says in his sermon on fasting:

"Those which were figures of future things, have passed away, what they signified being accomplished. But the utility of fasting is not done away with in the New Testament; rather, it is piously observed, that fasting is always profitable both to the soul and body. And because the words, 'Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and serve Him alone,' etc.... were given for the knowledge of Christians; so in the same scripture, the precept concerning fasting is not without an interpretation."

St. Leo does not here mean to say that Christians must fast at the same times the Jews were accustomed to do. But the precept of fasting given to the Jews, is to be observed by Christians according to the determination of the pastors of the church, as to time and manner.

What this is, all of us know; and therefore it is unnecessary for me to mention it.

As to the fruits and advantages of fasting, these can easily be proved.

First, fasting is most useful in preparing the soul for prayer, and the contemplation of divine things, as the angel Raphael saith: " Prayer is good with fasting."

- Thus Moses for forty days prepared his soul by fasting, before he presumed to speak with God.
- Also, Elias fasted forty days, that thus he, too, might be able, as far as human nature would permit, to hold converse with God.
- Daniel, by a fast of three weeks, was prepared for receiving the revelations of God.

So the Church has appointed "fasts" on the vigil of great festivals, that Christians might be more fit for celebrating the divine solemnities.

The holy fathers also everywhere speak of the utility of fasting. I cannot omit quoting the words of St. Chrysostom: "Fasting is the support of our

soul; it gives us wings to ascend on high, and to enjoy the

highest contemplation.”

A second advantage of fasting is that it tames our worldly flesh. Such a fast must be particularly pleasing to God, too, because He is pleased when we crucify the flesh with its vices and concupiscence, as St. Paul teaches in his Epistle to the Galatians:

"But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a cast away."

(1 Corinthians 9:27)

Third among the virtues of fasting is that we honor God by our fasts, because when we fast for His sake, we honor Him.

Thus the apostle Paul speaks in his Epistle to the Romans:
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service." (Chap, 12.)

In the Greek, "reasonable service," means reasonable worship.

And of this worship, St. Luke speaks, when mentioning the prophetess Anna: "And she was a widow until fourscore and four years; who departed not from the temple, by fastings and prayers serving night and day." (Chap. 2:37.)

The great Council of Nice in the Vatican Canon, calls the fast of Lent, "a clean and solemn gift, offered by the Church to God."
In the same manner doth Tertullian speak in his book, on the "Resurrection of the Flesh," where he calls dry, unsavory food taken late as, "sacrifices pleasing to God."

St. Leo, in his second sermon on fasting says, "For the sure reception of all its fruits, the sacrifice of abstinence is most worthily offered to God, the giver of them all."

A fourth advantage of fasting is its satisfaction for sin. Many examples in holy Writ prove this. 

- The Ninivites appeased God by fasting, as Jonas testifies. 

- The Jews did the same; for by fasting with Samuel they appeased God, and gained the victory over their enemies. 

- The wicked king Achab, by fasting and sackcloth, partly satisfied God.

- In the times of Judith and Esther, the Hebrews obtained mercy from God by no other sacrifice than that of fasting, weeping, and mourning.

This is also the constant doctrine of the Holy Church Fathers.
- Tertullian says...
"As we refrain from the use of food, so our fasting satisfies God."

- St. Cyprian notes...

"Let us appease the anger of an offended God, by fasting and weeping, as he admonishes us."

- St. Basil adds this... "Penance, without fasting, is useless and vain; by fasting, satisfy God."

- St. Chrysostom observed: "God, like an indulgent father, offers us a cure by fasting."

- St. Ambrose also says: "Fasting is the death of sin, the destruction of our crimes, and the remedy of our salvation."

- St. Jerome, in his Commentary on the third chapter of Jonas, remarks: "Fasting and sackcloth are the arms of penance, the help of sinners."

- St. Austin likewise says: "No one fasts for human praise, but for the pardon of his sins."

- So also St. Bernard in his 66th Sermon on the Canticles: "I often fast, and my fasting is a satisfaction for sin, not a superstition for impiety."

Need I go on? I think not.

Lastly, fasting is meritorious, and is very powerful in obtaining divine favor. Anna, the wife of Eleanor, although she was barren, deserved by fasting to have a son.

So St. Jerome, in his second book against Jovinian, thus interprets these words of Scripture: "She wept and did not take food, and thus Anna by her abstinence deserved to bring forth a son."
Sara, by a three days fast, was delivered from a devil, as we read in the book of Tobias.
And there is, again, that remarkable passage in the Gospel of St. Matthew on fasting:

"But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face. That thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret, will repay thee." (Chap. 6; 17-18.)

The words "will repay thee," signify will give thee a reward. They are the opposite of these other words, describing the Pharisees at their fasting - "For they DISFIGURE their faces, that they may appear to men to fast. Amen, I say to you. that they have received their reward."
Wherefore, hypocrites by such forms of fasting, may receive the reward that is human praise; however, the just, by fasting, receive their reward also: Divine Praise.

Many are the testimonies of the Holy Fathers on this point. When St. John was about to write his gospel, he underwent a solemn fast, that he might deserve to receive the grace of writing well, as St. Jerome tells us in his preface to his commentary on St. Matthew.
The Venerable Bede is also of the same opinion.
Tertullian says: "Fasting obtains of God a knowledge even of His mysteries."

St. Ambrose, St. Athanasius, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Chrysostom, St. Jerome, and St. Augustine might also be quoted on the same subject.

Here, then, we have seen the necessity and the fruits of fasting.
I will now briefly explain the manner in which we must fast, so that our fasting may be useful in enabling us to lead a Good Life, and by this means, to die a Good Death.

Many fast on all the days appointed by the Church, such as the vigils, the ember-days, and Lent. And some also fast of their own accord during Advent, that they may piously prepare themselves for the nativity of our Lord.

Still others follow the most ancient acts of Christian fasting by doing so on Wednesdays and Fridays, in memory of our Lords betrayal and crucifixion death.
Saturday is another fasting day for some, in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mother of God.

But whether one undertakes fasting to derive advantages from it is what one must reasonably question.

Let us review for a moment what we are doing by fasting:

The chief end of fasting, is the mortification of the flesh, such that the spirit may be more strengthened.

For this purpose, we must use only a spare and unsavory diet. And this our mother the Church points out since she commands us to take only one, "full" meal in the day, and then not to eat flesh or white meats (dairy and eggs), but only herbs or fruit.
This, Tertullian expresses by two words, in his book on the "Resurrection of the Flesh," where he calls the food of those that fast, "late, and dry meats."

Now, there are many NOT observing this, who, on their fasting-days, eat as much in one meal, as their dinner and supper together on other days.

These same folks, at that one meal, prepare so many dishes of different fishes and other things to please their palate, that it seems to be a dinner intended, not for weepers and fasters, but for a nuptial banquet that is to continue throughout most of the night!

Those who fast in such a manner certainly do not derive the least benefit from their fasting.

Nor do those derive any fruit who, although they may eat more moderately, yet on fasting-days do not abstain from games, parties, quarrels, dissensions, lascivious songs, and immoderate laughter; and what is still worse, commit the same sins and crimes as they would on ordinary days.

Hear what the prophet Isaiah says of such people: "Behold, in the day of your fast your own will is found, and you exact of all your debtors. Behold you fast for debates and strife, and strike with the fist wickedly. Do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry to be heard on. high." (Chap. 58)

Thus does the Almighty blame the Jews, because on the days of their fasting, which were intended as days of penance, they wished to do their own will and not the will of God.
They were not willing to forgive their debtors, (as they prayed to be forgiven by God), and they would not even give them any time to collect their money.

They also spent that time which ought to have been devoted to prayer in profane quarrels, and even in contentions. In fact, they were so far from attending to spiritual things, as they ought to have done on the fasting-days, that they added sin to sin, and impiously attacked their neighbors.

These and other such sins ought those pious people to avoid, who wish their fasting to be pleasing unto God, and useful to themselves... they may then hope to Live Well, and die a Holy Death.