DISCLAIMER! – Before attempting any form of fasting please seek the advice of a medical doctor. Fasting may not be a safe spiritual exercise for all people.
I started this to be one blog post. It ended up to be very long. I thought it would be better to release this as part of a series in preparation for Lent. Fasting is something that I have a passion for, and that has become an important part of my spiritual life. I am sharing some of my research and interest in this topic, which I have gathered over several years.
Not long ago I had the opportunity to write a thesis on the Christian practice of fasting. This blog post is a result of my research and experience in practice.
Theology
Fasting is a practice that Jesus called all Christians to, but we will concentrate on Catholics.
During the time of Jesus, the only people that might wander into a desert to fast would be prophets. John the baptist did that very thing. He went into the wilderness (desert) to fast and prepare himself for his ministry work.
Jesus was also led to go into the dessert and exercise a devotion to fasting, prayer, and contemplation. This would strengthen him and prepare him for his ministry road.
In the early church people would fast and give up doing something that was sinful. The hope was that by giving it up, they could brake a habit that separated them from God. After the fast was over they would continue the practice indefinitely.
The Catechism of the church teaches that the Holy Spirit gives us fruit. These Fruits are Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control.
Self-control does not indicate in any way that we become possessed by the Holy Spirit. That would be a violation of our own free will. Self-control is more the opposite of possession. It is the ability for a person to make a reasonable, moral decision, without the influence of desire.
The Catechism also states that the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth, inspiration, and revelation. The Holy Spirit can inspire us, led us. It is up to our own mind to listen to the call of the Holy Spirit and follow.
Jesus made a self-conscious decision to enter the desert and prepare himself for his ministry. A fasting to prepare for a great task would have been a custom of the Jewish people and has roots in scripture.
In the Gospel story of the temptation of Jesus, Matthew makes the connection of going into the desert to the time of Exodus. The time when Moses led the people into the desert. This connection to Exodus plays an important role in the temptations of Jesus and the message that Matthew is presenting to the Jewish people.
We each have a natural instinct to be in harmony with things that are absolute moral obligations. This sense of obligation to love is something characterized as a duty. This moral obligation is at the heart of all things good and evil. This nature of good and evil leads many away from, or towards, temptation and sin. It is the heart of our concupiscence.
By our very nature of concupiscence we are inclined towards those things that have intent, or nature, of being evil. Perhaps, a better term than evil, is sin which separates of us from the graces of God.
Our obligation to love and serve is particularly important, because anything that serves love is good, and anything that does not is bad. Fasting is good, if the intent of the fast is out of love of God. Fasting is bad if the intent of the fast is personal gain, popularity, or to diet. Not that dieting is a bad thing. If we lie and say that we fast for God, but internally are committed to losing weight, then the act is a lie and thus not out of Love.
These are important aspects to understand about fasting and temptation. When we fast with the intentions to love and server God, it is good and will increase our spiritual relationship with Him. Through Fasting we train our minds, spirit, and body to withstand temptation and help to create a conscience that can make good moral decisions.
Benefits
From fasting we can obtain some rewards:
- Spiritual Growth
- Receive Guidance from God
- Receive Grace from God
- Increase our Faith life
- Strengthen our resistance to evil and temptation
- Inspiration of the Holy Spirit
- Physical well being
- Strengthen our ability for coping with Crisis
Spiritual Dangers
As with anything that can bring benefit, there are also dangers in fasting. These dangers we must always be aware of and try to avoid.
- Ritualism – fasting becomes a habit and not about God, or our relationship with God.
- Asceticism – using a discipline, or punishment on ourselves as a religious practice.
- False Fast – a hunger strike, or other act that brings attention to our act of fasting, or a cause.
- Hypocrisy – As Jesus says, to bring attention to ourself or our act of fasting is hypocrisy.
- Selfishness – an act of fasting that does not have a spiritual intent but personal interest. This selfish act lacks prayer and spiritual development.
- Extremism – the use of fasting to an extreme. Prolonged periods of fasting, or regular daily, or weekly fasting.
- Psychic Rapture – Daniel fasted and experienced moments of bliss. This can happen to anyone on a true fast intended for God. The danger is that this blissful moment is really intense. It absorbs our mind and heart because we want to feel that presence again. That desire to return to that state of mind becomes an obsession and alters the intent of fasting. In many cases, when this happens the rapture is never felt again, and the person runs the risk of physical harm trying to achieve it.
- Condemning others – to place judgement on others for not sharing our own practice of fasting. To judge others harshly for not fasting the way we believe it should be done.
Physical Dangers
Above are mentioned the spiritual dangers of fasting, but let us also realize the very real presence of a physical danger.
Prolonged periods of fasting drains the body of needed resources. After about three days without water the body will shutdown and the person could die.
After about three days with plenty of fluids and without food, the body will enter into a state of ketosis. In this state the body starts to eat into the fat reserves and muscle tissue to survive. After about 40-50 days without food the body will begin to eat the organs. Once that process starts the person will slowly die.
Do not be lured by the myth that we can lose a ton of weight by fasting, or starving ourselves. There may be some weight loss. However, almost all the weight lost initially, through fasting, will be from bodily waist. The body can reserve up to twenty pounds of body waist. Once that bodily waist is removed, we will have the impression that we lost a lot of weight.
Once we start to eat regular again that body weight will return. The body will process the food and will start to store waist again. During prolonged fasting I have lost as much as 30 – 60 pounds. In every case, I have gained almost all the weight back.
Remember that fasting is not about weight loss. The fasting we are talking about is meant for communion with God. To offer our own suffering for the forgiveness of our sins, the sins of others, or another worthy spiritual exercise.
DISCLAIMER! – Before attempting any form of fasting please seek the advice of a medical doctor. Fasting may not be a safe spiritual exercise for all people.
Summary
In this blog post we have learned about the nature of fasting. We learned that fasting is a practice identified in the bible.
We also learned that our act of fasting must always originate from our Love of God. It must always be a selfless act.
We also learned that through fasting we can gain spiritual strength. We also learned that in-spite of the strengths, there are dangers. These dangers are both spiritual and physical.
I hope that this information was of interest. If there is something I missed let me know. If there are questions please ask. I could have added a lot more information, but I wanted it to be a reasonable length for the readers.
Thanks for reading. May God shine a light on the path before you and may all roads lead to Jesus.
Metaphysical Ruminations 