Welcome to answers from an apostolic faith.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.
Why is fasting so essential within the Orthodox Church? Now it's very interesting, because for us to be able to understand fasting, we must be able to turn to the Church and ask her: Why do you ask us to fast so much?
Now within the Coptic Orthodox reality, the Coptic Church will ask all of her believers to fast almost 2/3 of the year. 2/3 of the year when you start counting the weekly fast of Wednesdays and Fridays, when you start counting the minor and the major feasts where we fast constantly before them, when you start casting all of these notions of personal fasting where you withhold yourself from being able to break your fast in the morning up to a certain point, all of these things add up and we find ourselves fasting almost 200 days of the year, if not more. Why is this so essential? Why did the Church put this as a standard for the Orthodox Christian? It's extremely important for us to be able to answer this question and when we do answer it, we have to be able to answer the question: what is different from our fasting versus any other fasting that we will see within other religious realities? If you were to search out the religions of the world, you will see that in one shape or form or another, you will always see people fasting.
Now some may fast to be able to reconcile with God. Others might be able to fast for the simple reason of being able to build up their spirit and their spiritual life. Some fast for the good reason of being able to relate to the rest of humanity. Whatever the reasoning might be, our answer has to be different, because if it is not different, then why is it that we fast and how is it that the Church will explain to you and me that the fasting that we are called to is greater than things we might see elsewhere in the world? So we ask the question: why is fasting so essential?
Fasting is essential simply because of the fact that we see it happen in the perfect human being who is God the Word incarnate, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Now this might seem like a very simple answer. However, we have to explore it in order to understand why that answer is so complete. In order for us to understand it, let us go ahead and turn to Scripture. Let us open together the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 4.
In Matthew 4:1-2, we see the Lord Jesus Christ right before He begins His ministry. The evangelist Matthew says the following:
'' 1 And then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, 2 and He fasted 40 days and 40 nights and afterwards He was hungry.'' (Matthew 4:1-2)
We then see very shortly after that that very popular story of the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ by the devil and how He has overcome that temptation. Now many of us might be able to take this and say: well, we already see a notion of why fasting is so important because it allows us to be able to overcome temptation. But first, we must answer the question: Did Christ fast because He needed to fast or is there a greater reason?
Now we know that our belief in our Lord Jesus Christ is that He is perfectly divine and He is perfectly human. And we know that the nature that He has taken is one where His humanity and His divinity did not mingle and there was no confusion, but we do know that He has taken on our nature, in order for us to be able to look at Him and say that we as humanity have potential because He has taken on the form of man. For us to be able to understand this, we turn to the Fathers of the Church.
Now this is very interesting, because St. Augustine, for instance, will teach you and me that inside and in the Word of God incarnate himself, Jesus Christ, the Church was hidden in Him. What does this mean to say that the Church was hidden in Jesus Christ? Our Lord God and Saviour did not need to fast. In reality, He was capable of overcoming anything and everything simply by the fact that He was already the perfect human being and perfectly divine. But because the Church was hidden in Him, this means that the Church (you and I) were already in His form because He became like us. And when He became like us, we needed victory, we were fallen and we were broken and we were surrounded by death.
But in order to raise us, what did He do? He did what we need to learn to do, which is what? He fasted. He took something that is divine, which is fasting, an attribute that is something that allows the human being to say that I do not belong to this world, that I am not tempted by this world. I am not one who is subdued by the world but I have dominion over the world. And He has done that through fasting. And by doing it, we then can do it. Why? Because He has taken on our form.
So what does this mean for you and I? What it means ultimately is that when we turn to the person of Jesus Christ, He went and fasted and was tempted by the devil in order for all of humanity that was found in Him to be able to also fast, in order to also be able to grow and overcome sin, in order for His victory to be our victory.
The victory that we have received in Christ is something that cannot be taken lightly. You see, my beloved, when we say that we want to be part of Christ and that we say that we want to be members in Him for He is the head of the body and we are members of that body, which is the Church, the Church truly believes this. This is not something that is symbolic. We say that we have a part in Him. He fasted in order for all of his members to be able to be edified through that fasting. Therefore, what do we do? We do like the one who is our head has done. We fast because we have seen that He has overcome through this fasting. Therefore we fast like Him. We see that He has conquered death and the world through this fasting. Therefore we fast like Him. Our fasting is therefore a calling that raises us to the level where we can be like our Lord God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
It is not merely something that is fasting for the purpose of a moral standard to be able to just simply raise our spiritual life, but rather because we are called to be like Him. Therefore we understand that fasting is therefore something that is almost considered to be like a weapon that, at the spiritual level, allows us to be able to conquer within the spiritual warfare that surrounds us.
Christ, in the Gospel of St. John 16:33 tells His disciples:
'' 33 ...be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.'' (John 16:33)
St. Cyril the Great, St. Cyril of Alexandria, has a very interesting comment on this. Let us look at it together. St. Cyril says the following on his commentary of the Gospel of St. John 16; he says:
''For He is to us the second Adam come from heaven, according to the Scripture. [And] just as then we have borne the image of the earthly, according to its likeness falling under the yoke of sin, so likewise also shall we bear the image of the heavenly, that is Christ, overcoming the power of sin and triumphing over all the tribulation of the world; for Christ has overcome the world.'' (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John 16:33)
We are therefore called to be like Christ because in Him He has conquered and He has conquered through everything He has shown us. Therefore, our fasting is not merely a notion of avoiding certain foods but rather our fasting is to be able to say I choose to be like Christ and my Christ has died and has risen and has overcame the world, so I also can rise again in Him and can overcome the world through my fasting in Him and through Him.
Now that we know this, let us call ourselves to be able to understand how essential fasting truly is for us to be like Christ.
Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith. And to God be the Glory now and forever and unto the ages of all ages. Amen.