On Fasting, a Counsel from John Chrysostom, and the Transformation of Desire

A Note from Me

One of the practices in my Rule of Life is called Looking Back: One Day and One Year. It goes like this:

Every morning I read two of my past diary entries, one from exactly a year ago and one from a day ago. It’s a quick way of tracing where I’ve been long-term and short-term, noticing growth and change I might otherwise miss. Sometimes it surprises me. Sometimes it humbles me. And it always reminds me that I am on a journey.

This morning, the entry I came across was from the start of Lent last year. It was a note to myself about fasting:

“Why do I do it? Not to perform, not to prove, not even mainly to train my appetite. At its heart, fasting is about love…it’s about cultivating God’s kind of love within me. It’s a way of saying no to something small, so that my yes to God’s transforming work inside me can deepen and mature.”

What does God’s kind of love look like?: Patience, kindness, gentleness—to name a few.

And what does that look like in real life? For me, patience is listening to my teenager's whole story without jumping in to fix it. Kindness is noticing my wife looks tired and handling the dishes without being asked. Gentleness is correcting my daughter without raising my voice.

So that’s what I keep reminding myself during this lenten season of fasting. I’m doing this because I want to become a more loving person, I want to love like God loves.

For Lent this year I’m fasting seconds—only one plate of food for me and no more!

One plate. One small no. Making room for a deeper yes.

A Voice from the Christian Tradition

“Don’t say to me: ‘I have fasted for so many days! I have not eaten! I have not drunk wine! I have gone without bathing!’ Show me instead that, being wrathful, you became meek; and being cruel, you became compassionate. If you are intoxicated with wrath, to what end do you afflict your flesh? If you are filled with envy and covetousness, what benefit is there in drinking only water? I am not concerned with what is on your table, but whether your evil disposition has been transformed.”

—John Chrysostom, On Fasting and Almsgiving

A Question to Carry

What small fast can you train with this Lent?

Keep it simple and easy (Remember modest practices nurture humility, grand practices can breed pride).

A blessed Lent to you,

—Jon