Fasting With The Church
What's the deal about fasting within the church community? Don't we already do that? Maybe, but from my experience I would have to say that we don't. I have never fasted along with a whole church full of people. My observations of community fasting could only really be based on the knowledge that some scattered brothers and sisters are fasting at the same time I am. I suppose that skews my observations then, doesn't it? But why should fasting with the Church be so much better? I began to get a peek at it from an apophatic experience.
The church fasts may be well advertised on confessional blogs, still I haven't run across many fellow average church-goers that specifically have fasting in their Lenten mindset. They were for at least some part unaware of the fast and even more so that others among them might be fasting. That in itself causes problems. For one example; my parents sent us some Valentine's Day candy. It was very nice and we appreciated the gift. The next time we talked on the phone, they wanted to know whether we've eaten it and whether we liked it - which is not a problem except that we were trying to keep the fast in our home and now I had to explain that we didn't eat it and why (and that seemingly spoils the "so that you do not appear to men to be fasting" part) and we were left with a double-layer box of chocolates to hang around our house - a lurking temptation.
In contrast, the time I felt most encouraged in fasting was when I was able to talk about fasting for a short time with some Catholic friends who could really, truly sympathize. It was wildly reassuring that they were fasting and that they even just knew about it. I say "wildly" because while encouragement is good, it came by the mouths of those who were not in my church body, with whom I have absolutely no fellowship. Meanwhile some in my church body were, albeit unknowingly, laying stumbling blocks for those who chose to fast. Shouldn't it have been the other way around - with the help coming from those within my church body and the hindrance coming from those outside my church body? This is where I can begin to imagine how fasting together with the whole church may be helpful and of great encouragement...
The church fasts may be well advertised on confessional blogs, still I haven't run across many fellow average church-goers that specifically have fasting in their Lenten mindset. They were for at least some part unaware of the fast and even more so that others among them might be fasting. That in itself causes problems. For one example; my parents sent us some Valentine's Day candy. It was very nice and we appreciated the gift. The next time we talked on the phone, they wanted to know whether we've eaten it and whether we liked it - which is not a problem except that we were trying to keep the fast in our home and now I had to explain that we didn't eat it and why (and that seemingly spoils the "so that you do not appear to men to be fasting" part) and we were left with a double-layer box of chocolates to hang around our house - a lurking temptation.
In contrast, the time I felt most encouraged in fasting was when I was able to talk about fasting for a short time with some Catholic friends who could really, truly sympathize. It was wildly reassuring that they were fasting and that they even just knew about it. I say "wildly" because while encouragement is good, it came by the mouths of those who were not in my church body, with whom I have absolutely no fellowship. Meanwhile some in my church body were, albeit unknowingly, laying stumbling blocks for those who chose to fast. Shouldn't it have been the other way around - with the help coming from those within my church body and the hindrance coming from those outside my church body? This is where I can begin to imagine how fasting together with the whole church may be helpful and of great encouragement...
Comments
I think the problem comes if there is not a clear expectation of fasting which comes from the body - at least at the local parish level, but more than this, from the whole church level - from the traditions of the Church. If there is not a tradition in place, then it's easy for those who don't fast to assume that no one else is, either.
I do not pretend to know much about the traditions of the LCMS, but in my former ELCA tradition, fasting was really never talked about (though I know my own parish pastor had a rule of his own and likely kept it). My own confessional ELCA parish DID say, "now it's Lent, let's remember the three big disciplines: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving." But I was acutely aware that these were not held up or even mentioned in 99.9% of ELCA parishes anymore.
I wonder if perhaps fasting was not looked upon by my former compatriots as "works righteousness" - the great Lutheran no-no. But of course this comes from a lack of understanding about what fasting is and what it's for. As a younger Lutheran, I had no knowledge of the fast except that it is something that Orthodox Christians do and that Catholics used to do (of course, this isn't quite right) - but as such, because I was then neither catholic nor Orthodox, all I knew is that I was excluded from it. Exempt. Period.
What I will say is that fasting is easier if it is done in community - with others who are also fasting. There's a sort of accountability there. But if it is a personal rule, observed by only a few, the expectation of fasting as "normal" for those in the church goes out the window. But that doesn't make it any less important, as I know now.
I know very few Lutherans who fast from anything ever - just a couple. But I have immense respect for them, because the task is so much more difficult for them, doing it alone, than it is for me.
I am encouraged in my own fasting by the knowledge that there are many, many others who are fasting, too. It's helpful at least for me.
Today, however, when we have meals in the parish they are served at appropriate times and are suitably "Lenten" (which is what we call all fasting meals in our parish--even if they are during another time of year and a different fast). And my priest doesn't give me grief for fasting...so it is easier in that respect.
I also think the community fast helps to keep us a healthy distance from that slippery slope of making the Christian life an individual thing--just me and Jesus, instead of the communion in Christ that it is. (I am not at all suggesting Lutheranism is like that...I know it is not.)
Anyway...I hope you found the fast profitable and you are enjoying these days of feasting as you celebrate during your Eastertide. And how about them chocolates? Worth the wait? :D
Thank you -C. I don't know why, but I expected something along the lines of - you're not Church, so what do you expect? - from the Orthodox. But you're always gentle and thoughtful and understanding and I love you all the more for it. (I'm reminded of your post back in Feb. on Speaking the Truth in Love.)
"I also think the community fast helps to keep us a healthy distance from that slippery slope of making the Christian life an individual thing--just me and Jesus, instead of the communion in Christ that it is."
Dixie, you touch on a point that I've been thinking about lately - individuality verses the Body of Christ. Matthew 6;17,18 talks about fasting so that "you do not appear to men to be fasting". For one thing, I have always thought the emphasis of that verse is on keeping it a secret. If you are supposed to keep it a secret, then how could that possibly mesh with the idea of corporate fasting where everyone would know that you are fasting? It seemed like an oxymoron. Until I realized that I was being far too individualistic in my approach. I was reading that verse like it was given only to me, but it was given to the whole Church. If fasting is to be a secret, then the Church is already in on the secret. Secondly, I realized that the main emphasis in Mat.6 is that you should fast to God, not to men. Fasting to men means that you fast to get attention from the people around you, your thoughts are on them and not on God. I wonder for myself how much time I spent on thinking about other people's reactions, ect. when my thoughts should be on God instead. Lord have mercy on me, a sinner. It would seem to me that it would be easier to fast appropriately when everyone around you is doing the same, focused in the same direction. It would seem to make fasting less of a personal novelty and reveal it as the functioning of the Body of Christ (and in that, who can boast?).
If I can't get some thoughts together there, I'll come back and add a couple here!
Is fasting required only during Lent?
A: No, it's more than just Lent. We also fast most Wednesdays and Fridays, and during the weeks that we prepare for other feasts of the church year. Probably more information than you want to know about fasting can be found here: http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/pr_fasting.aspx
And we do observe a strict fast (we don't eat or drink anything)before receiving Holy Communion - ideally, from Midnight on Saturday until after Sunday liturgy. Of course modifications and even exceptions are made for young children and the elderly and also those with medical conditions or other mitigating circumstances. You work out your rule with your priest. But this is the norm.
Hope this is helpful.