Does God expect us to destroy the body when we fast?

Fasting is the bowing down of the whole human being before the Holy Spirit that He may sanctify him. God does not desire the destruction of the body, but its sanctification. Thus, in addition to bodily fasting, the believer practices holy spiritual fasting, through which the soul is liberated from all impurities and becomes able to ascend freely towards heaven. St. John

423 St. John of Dalyatha, The Letters of John of Dalyatha , trans., Mary T. Hansbury (Gorgias Press, 2006) 20.2: p. 104.

424 St. Cyril of Alexandria, A Commentary upon the Gospel According to St. Luke , trans. R. Payne Smith (Oxford University Press, 1859) 12: p. 53.

425 St. Isaac of Nineveh, Mystic Treatises by Isaac of Nineveh , trans., A. J. Wensinck (Amsterdam: Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, 1923) 35 (238): p. 160.

426 St. Isaac of Nineveh, Mystic Treatises by Isaac of Nineveh , trans., A. J. Wensinck (Amsterdam: Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, 1923) 35 (240): p. 161–162.

427 St. Jerome, Letters 130.10 (NPNF II/6:266).

Cassian writes, “We ought therefore, whenever the outward man fasts, to restrain the inner man as well from food which is bad for him: that inner man, namely, which the blessed Apostle above all urges us to present pure before God, that it may be found worthy to receive Christ within.”⁴²⁸