Two reasons for fasting

We are taught to fast regularly as part of our Christian discipline.  Why should we fast?  How do we serve God by going hungry?  Surely we need adequate food each day in order to work hard in God’s service.  Jesus criticized most vehemently those who drew attention to their fasting, urging us to fast in secret; so clearly fasting is not a matter for personal pride. 

There are two reasons to fast.  The first is to break our attachment to material things, of which food is the most central, and so compel us to depend on spiritual things.  When we are eating regularly, food not only sustains our bodies, but provides pleasure and satisfaction.  In itself there is nothing wrong with such pleasure.  But when we do without food, we are reminded that the only true and lasting source of joy is spiritual. The second is to express solidarity with those whose poverty forces them to go hungry.  We may fast from time to time as a discipline; but many people fast continually because they have no money to buy food.  If we are truly to show compassion to the poor, we must experience within our own bodies the consequences of poverty. Fasting is thus an incentive toward generosity. And the money saved during a fast can readily be given to relieve the enforced hunger of others.  St. John Chrysostom