What is the purpose of fasting?

First. Acquisition of virtues : St. Jerome says, “Fasting is not itself an absolute virtue, but the foundation of virtues.”

443 St. Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) 2.1 (ANF 2:237).

444 St. Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) 2.1 (ANF 2:239).

445

See al-Mukhlessy, Elias Koyter, St. Basil the Great (Arabic) (Publications of the Pauline Library in Beirut, 1989): p. 289.

446 See al-Mukhlessy, Elias Koyter, St. Basil the Great (Arabic) (Publications of the Pauline Library in Beirut, 1989): p. 290.

Second. Motivation to give thanks : St. Evagrius believes that the person who fasts becomes aware of the grace of God at work within him: “Those who excessively feed their bodies to fulfil their desires (Rom. 13:14) … when they become no longer lustful, although they remain in the same body; and when they become active in their contemplation of the One God, the true Being, as much as possible; such people confess the Creator’s graciousness to them, for He granted them this body.”

Third. Appreciation of food as a blessing : St. Basil believes that while fasting is an opportunity to abstain from food, then end of fasting is an opportunity for rejoicing in food — not with excessive indulgence, but with a sense of the blessedness of food. “After all, just as thirst makes drinking pleasurable and hunger before a meal makes eating pleasurable, so too fasting enhances the enjoyment of food when it is partaken … Don’t you realize that … health is more appreciated after the experience of the contrary? So too is the table more charming after fasting.”⁴⁴⁷

Fourth. Freedom from enslavement to one’s belly : Abba Theonas says, “We never read that anyone is condemned simply for taking food, but only when something was joined with it or followed afterwards, for which he deserved condemnation.”⁴⁴⁸ And St. John Climacus says, “Master your stomach before it masters you.”⁴⁴⁹