Elder Sofian Boghiu: “Is this not the fast that I have chosen?” (Isaiah 58:6-9)

A complete fast, a Christian fast well-pleasing to God, is always accompanied by prayer and almsgiving, these being considered two wings of prayer by the Holy Fathers.

Lent, in general, is restraint and temperance. Temperance in food, drink, and idle and superfluous talk; self control and restraint from every harmful thing. Both in the Old and in the New Testament, the Prophets, Apostles, and all the Holy Fathers put a very great price on the practice of fasting for body and soul, seeking to overcome the evil within us. In practice, it is not at all easy to always watch yourself, to resist the temptations from within and without, to cut your will, to humble your body and soul with a true desire of defeating the evil within you and conforming yourself to the will of God. Thus, the toil of fasting is considered a sacrifice of soul and body brought to God, and at the same time, it is proof that we truly love God, fulfilling this ancient command given by our ancestors from the very beginning of the world. 

A complete fast, a Christian fast well-pleasing to God, is always accompanied by prayer and almsgiving, these being considered by the Holy Fathers as two wings of prayer. The emphasis must fall especially on fasting for the soul. If we leave ourselves enslaved by ugly desires, by passions, then with all the bodily fasting we do, we drive away from us the grace of God and lose the reward of fasting.  

Because look: one fasts, but argues with and judges his brother, or in order to wrongfully steal his goods. Another fasts with the body, but becomes angry, speaks poorly, reproaches, and defames his fellow human being. Another has a stomach empty of food, but his heart is full of evil, of egoism, of envy, and of impure thoughts. He eats neither meat nor dairy, but he kills the honor and good name of his fellow man through slander, through lies, and through condemnation. 

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen?”

  “‘Is this not the fast that I have chosen?’”, asks the Lord through the Prophet Isaiah. “To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’” (Isa 58:6-9)

Therefore, if you truly fast, your egotistical heart opens to the needy, and just as you restrain your mouth from food, so too do you restrain it from lying, from cursing, from condemnation, from gossiping, and from all the other sins which enter through the mouth. 

The Holy Fathers, great teachers and ascetics of the world, highly praised fasting and recommended it with persistence. Look at some of their words: “Fasting is health and peace of soul and body”; “Fasting is the quenching of bodily lusts, freedom from evil dreams. Purity of prayer, guarding of the mind, the door to lowliness, humble sorrow for sins, the beginning and foundation of every spiritual work that is well-pleasing to God.” And Saint Basil the Great adds: “If people took fasting as a guide for all of their deeds, there would no longer be any obstacle to  deep peace reigning in all the world; nations would no longer rise up against one another, armies would no longer fight. If fasting reigned, weapons would no longer be stolen, tribunals would no longer convene, there would be no one left to fill prisons; forests and deserts would no longer have robbers, towns denouncers, and seas pirates. If people were disciples of fasting, then as Job says, the voice of the one asking for tribute would not be heard. If fasting ruled our life, then life would not be as full of tears and sorrow. Fasting would have taught everyone to restrain themselves not only from food, but als to banish from themselves love of money, greed, and any other passion. If these sins were driven away, nothing would stop us from living a life of full peace and spiritual equanimity.”

These are only a part of the blessings and fruits of fasting, which we too can acquire with the help of divine grace and our steadfast effort. 

Blessed are the Christians who diligently follow the ordinances of the four fasts during the year, together with Wednesdays and Fridays, as our fathers and grandfathers did, in order to renew the body, illuminate the soul, and to change our entire life for the better. God bless!

Article published in “Transfiguration,” edited by ASCOR Bucharest, nr. 2, 1997