By tradition, fasting is a part of that process. We speak of the Lenten Fast, and some of us speak as though Lent was the fast and little more. Long ago, the question of what to give up for Lent morphed into a humorous reversal: many of us claimed to have given up giving things up for Lent.
Fasting has a long history in many religious traditions, and almost certainly developed independently in communities across the world. It is practised in traditional Indigenous communities of the Americas, in Asia, in Christian traditions, and in Judaism and Islam. Form of fasting vary widely, from the Islamic Ramadan fast in which participants refrain from eating or drinking anything from sunrise to sunset, to the Christian Lenten fast, in which participants discipline both eating and food variety over the forty days leading up to Easter. Just as the practice of fasting has many forms, it has multiple goals, from the specific goal of directly invoking a spiritual state by changing the state of the body, to the less direct path of raising up the spiritual by disciplining physical appetites.
Fasting has evolved, in tension between different social, physical, and spiritual realities. The common traits all human beings share mean that one person's physical and spiritual experiences can provide an effective guide to others. This explains why we have pastors, elders, and teachers. Yet similarity does not equal identity. The spiritual path of every soul is different. Every human body is unique. Imposing a single practice of fasting can mean that some participants may reap no benefit, while others risk active harm. In addition, fasting is performed, which means its performance can inspire others or discourage them. Accounts of fasting can be offered in humility or in pride.
6 Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,(oremus Bible Browser)
As I read it, this passage shows God elevating the hard work of building a just world over the performance of fasting and other religious rituals. The Greek bible affirms this as well: in the first epistle of John, the author tells us we cannot keep the great commandment of Deuteronomy 6 without loving other people, for:
20Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. (obb)
Thus the Christian tradition pretty clearly elevates justice and mercy for the poor over religious performance. Yet fasting may still have a part to play, because the Christian tradition of fasting for Lent in the forty days before Easter coincides with the end of winter. In the late Roman Empire and the Middle Ages, before the development of modern food storage methods, and before the transport of food over great distances was possible, the late winter time, when harvest stocks from the previous harvest were most likely to be depleted, was the most likely time for serious shortages of food.
The response of classical neo-liberal economic theory to shortages is "price signals". In a shortage, people with money bid up the price of the scarce commodity; this signals producers to increase their efforts, importers to acquire more, and in theory, the system reaches equilibrium. In practice, for most of human history, communities have had very little ability to store food over long stretches of time, or to produce food during a Northern European winter, so allowing those with money to bid up the price of scarce food would mean the poor going hungry. The revelation of St. John the Divine famously speaks of this in chapter 6:
5 When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature call out, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there was a black horse! Its rider held a pair of scales in his hand, 6and I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a day’s pay, and three quarts of barley for a day’s pay, but do not damage the olive oil and the wine!’ (obb)
The rider of the black horse is sometimes described in popular culture as famine, but the words describe the economic injustice of a day's pay not purchasing enough food to live on.
The solution of the Lenten season to late winter dearth is not price signals but a shared community fast; a ritual requirement to refrain from excess or indulgence, which holds out the hope that everyone may have enough. In this way, the ritual, the performance of devotion and statement of faith also serves to comply with the command to love your neighbour as yourself.
In today's world, of course, food shortages are less unlikely to be seasonal, more likely to come about through shifting weather patterns than the rhythms of the seasons. The lesson remains: true worship includes care for the poor; at its best, worship shows God's love for all people and all creation.
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