The Necessity of Fasting

Traditionally, there are three ways to practice mortification: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.  All are helpful in the fight against sin and growing in virtue.  Yet, for growth in natural virtue and the fight against sins against temperance, fasting is especially necessary.

            Why is this?  There are two parts in the fight against sins of intemperance and the growth of temperance.  First, one needs to stop sinning.  Second, one needs to gradually grow in virtue.  To do the first, we need to become stronger in the face of temptation – we need to get better at saying “No!” to temptation.  To do the second, we need to practice temperance, do temperate acts many times.  We are able to take the initiative and begin practicing temperance.  But how can we become stronger in the face of temptation?  How can we practice saying “No!” to temptation? 

            In reality, these are not two different things.  Merely two sides of the same coin.  Practicing temperance is precisely how we become better at denying temptation.  But, the best way to grow in temperance is traditionally by fasting.  Further, fasting has the added benefit of simulating the precise act of the will that one makes when one refuses to give in to temptation.

            Temptations of intemperance present themselves as a desire.  We find ourselves wanting some pleasant, enjoyable, or fun thing.  This desire drives us to give in to the temptation, to commit the sin.  Now, simply refusing the temptation, choosing not to give in to it, does not necessarily remove the temptation.  Even after we decide “I’m not going to do it,” the desire to do it often remains.  Eventually it fades, but that can take hours.  So, victory over any temptation of intemperance is actually an ongoing process that continues until the desire urging us towards that sin subsides. It is not a single act at one instant, but an ongoing act extended through time, perhaps for hours or even days. 

            Fasting mimics this.  When we fast, when we choose not to eat and we go hungry for a time, we create in ourselves a desire to eat – we create a pseudo-temptation.  We must continuously stick to our initial decision to not eat until a certain time.  But, the mere decision to fast in the first place does not remove or lessen our hunger.  The mere decision to continue fasting does not make it easier to endure.  Instead, as we continue to fast throughout the day, we get hungrier.  So, when we fast, we mimic the precise act of the will that we need to resist real temptation.  We need to continually choose to avoid the bad thing (the real temptation or breaking our fast), but this does not necessarily get easier by that decision. 

            Both as the primary means to grow in temperance, and as the best way to practice resisting temptations of intemperance, fasting is necessary for the moral life.  Especially for growth in the virtue of temperance, fasting is an essential practice.  Given how rampant lust is in the culture, not to mention gluttony which is universally forgotten, fasting needs to become commonplace again.  And, it cannot be reduced to merely lent, much less a few days in lent.  Fasting needs to become a common and regular practice in the Church.