Fasting - from bondage to things ... to better love for God

The goal of fasting is simple. We fast so that we may better love, know, reveal, and enjoy God. It is crucial that even in fasting our focus be on the perfect good at which we aim, and not on the evils and partial goods that we deny.

Fasting is primarily affirmative, but it does have a negative aspect. The purpose of its denials is to free us from our bondage to finite things, which detract from our love of God:

(1) Compulsive desire for finite, created things.

(2) Compulsive fear of finite, created things.

(3) Definition of oneself primarily by relations to finite, created things, or one’s place in the world.

(4) Delusion concerning one’s power over finite, created things, and delight in this delusional power.

(taken from Richard McCombs, Fasting and Feasting: Balanced Diets, Balanced Souls, Ukrainian Orthodox Word, March-April 2011)

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