Fasting 004: “He was afterward an hungered.” (Matt 4:2)

We have previously discussed an idea that relevant chapters of the Typikon, rather than giving a rule on how to fast, presume fasting as a default state of a Christian life, and instead give us rules on how feast. Indeed, if we were to add up the 14 days of the Dormition Fast, 40 days of the Nativity Fast, 49 days of Lent, a conservative estimate of 14 days of the Apostles’ Fast, and 104 Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year, we get 221 fasting days. For those who also fast on Mondays, this number goes up to 273 - more than two thirds of the entire year. Thus, it often seems that one fasting period ended only recently, while the next one is fast approaching.

With this in mind, I have browsed the internet in search of something profound on the subject of fasting to edify myself, but found more of the same. To be sure, this, at least in part, likely points to some of my own “life’s persistent questions,” as Garrison Keillor might put it, rather than a lack of homiletic talent on the part of the various authors who toil in the virtual vineyard (or soy field, as it were, on days when wine is not allowed). And yet, since the esteemed pastors and theologians find it necessary to continue to write and speak on this matter, two thousand years of tradition and voluminous patristic exhortations notwithstanding, perhaps someone else is struggling with the same questions, answers to which I find sorely lacking in the contemporary pastoral approach to fasting.

Fasting from Facebook

One of the most puzzling phenomena in the modern pastoral approach to fasting is the seeming minimization of the role of fasting from food and an ever-increasing focus on fasting from smartphones, Facebook, Twitter and the like. Such advice certainly makes some sense, although it should be obvious to anyone that this is not fasting in any traditional form whatsoever. Moreover, no Father of the Church has ever dealt with anything remotely close to this modern phenomenon, which is qualitatively different from any theatre, marketplace, or library of antiquity, or all of them combined. Thus, there is both a real need to address this new vice and a complete lack of guidance in patristic thought, prompting creating interpretations of some mentions of entertainment or gossip that one can find.

First, it is not at all clear from what one is fasting when the same is fasting from his smartphone or social media. Is it from communicating with other people? This could be likened to a temporary vow of silence, of course, but it does not appear that the good shepherds of the Church are necessarily advising their flock to take on the vow of silence when they preach against smartphones. Although, surely, a pastor advising his flock to practice more silence and heeding his own advice may do very well indeed.