As
I hope everyone knows by now, we are currently in the Apostles Fast, one of the
most ancient fasting periods in the Church that extends from the Monday after
All Saints until the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul on June 29. The Sunday of All Saints comes a week after
Pentecost, which reminds us that we are all enabled to share in the holiness of
God by the active presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Yes, the very purpose of our lives is to
acquire the Holy Spirit. But in order to
do that, we have to become like our Lord’s apostles, who left behind their nets
in order to become fishers of men. Sts.
Peter and Paul, along with all the disciples except John the evangelist, died
as martyrs, making the ultimate witness for the Savior’s victory over
death. They were prepared to do so by
decades of self-denial in putting God first in their lives. They left all that was comfortable and
familiar to obey the command of the Lord “Come follow Me.” And if we are to develop the spiritual
strength and maturity necessary to respond faithfully to His will for us, we
must also die to self and gain a measure of freedom from the nets in which we
are entangled, whatever they may be.
The
Apostles Fast fulfills what the Lord said in response to the question about why
His disciples did not fast during His earthly ministry: “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is
with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then
they will fast.” (Matt. 9:15) Christ ascended into heaven forty days
after Hi s resurrection, but then sent the Holy Spirit to His followers at
Pentecost. Now, after celebrating Pentecost,
is when we fast in order to humble ourselves before God and to fight our
passions so that we will gain the spiritual strength that we see so clearly in
Sts. Peter and Paul, as well as in all the apostles. Like them, we want to hear and respond to
Christ’s command to us, whatever it may be.
We want to be able to turn aside from distractions, obsessions, and
habits that hold us back from living the lives to which our Savior calls us.
For Orthodox Christians, fasting is
not reserved only for special seasons of the year, for outside of a few
celebratory exceptions, Wednesdays and
Fridays are fast days on which those who are physically able abstain from meat,
dairy products, fish, wine, and olive oil.
We fast on Fridays in commemoration of our Lord’s crucifixion and on
Wednesdays in commemoration of His betrayal.
In the prayers and hymns of the Church, Wednesdays and Fridays are both
associated with the cross, so it makes perfect sense that these are days on
which we deny ourselves just a bit by taking up the cross of self-denial and humility in
remembrance of the unbelievably profound sacrificial offering made by our Lord
Himself for our salvation.
Just as we should not resist
temptation only during Lent, we should not attempt to reserve fasting only for
penitential periods, such as Lent, Advent (the Nativity Fast), the Dormition, or the
Apostles Fast. If we do so, we may find it
impossibly hard to fast then from anything at all for several days or weeks at
a time. Likewise, may find it impossibly
hard to reject any self-centered desire if we are used to making a god out of
our taste buds, stomachs, and self-centered desires. If we want to be faithful disciples, we have
to leave our nets behind every day. We
have to take up our crosses all the time, often when we least expect to have to
do so. So we must always be
prepared. Two thousand years of
experience has taught Orthodox Christians that regular fasting is a source of
great strength for doing so. This is
not, of course, because God is impressed by hunger or dietary changes. It is, however, because we all need to grow
in humility and to turn aside from anything that weakens our ability to say “yes”
to the Lord. Especially if we find
fasting difficult and frustrating, we must persevere in it every fast day. It is precisely through struggles that reveal
our weakness and spiritual sickness that we are able like all the repentant
sinners who have become saints to open ourselves to the mercy and healing of
Jesus Christ from the depths of our hearts and souls.
Too often in our culture, we think
that we have done our religious duty simply by being present in a church
service on Sunday. If the service lasts
more than an hour, we may think that we have really impressed God. As Orthodox
Christians, we know that we should attend the Divine Liturgy on Sundays and
major feast days whenever possible. (Of
course, it is also beneficial to pray with the Church at vespers and orthros.) Doing
so is the very first step of Christian faithfulness, for corporate worship
constitutes the Body of Christ and enables us to enter into heavenly worship
even now. But coming to services is only
the beginning of our journey. God calls
us to participate fully in the heavenly liturgy every day, every moment, with
every thought, word, and deed, regardless of where we are. That is why we must all devote time and
energy each day of our lives to prayer in a regular, disciplined way if we want
to become faithful Christians. It is why
even a few minutes of Bible reading, studying the life of a saint, other
spiritual reading, or listening to recordings of Orthodox chant is so important
for us all. We are bombarded constantly
by messages from our culture, as well as by our own thoughts and the words and
actions of others, that are usually not spiritually beneficial. Unless we
cultivate a regular habit of prayer and of focusing on the things of God in our
daily lives, we will have little of hope of hearing, let alone responding
faithfully to, our Lord’s calling.
Let us all take advantage of the remaining
week of the Apostles Fast to humble ourselves before the Lord as we devote
ourselves to prayer and fasting in ways appropriate to our health, age, and
life circumstance. Let us all leave the
nets of our spiritual laziness and other excuses behind in order to cultivate
just a bit of that spiritual clarity and devotion that shines so brightly in
Sts. Peter and Paul and all the other apostles, saints, and martyrs who heard
and obeyed the calling of our Lord. He is
surely calling each and every one of us to serve Him in some way. The only the question is whether we have the
ears to hear and the spiritual strength to leave behind all that keeps us from
following Him. 
No comments:
Post a Comment