Fasting on Good Friday
As is customary in our household, only one full meal is eaten on Good Friday, normally in-between the two services I normally play the keyboard/organ at over the course of the day. Because of my mostly-vegan diet and my relatively high activity levels on the day (rushing to church and back several times, directing choirs, maintaining mental alertness through a fair number of fairly challenging musical items, etc.) it's always reasonably challenging - by midnight I'm really fairly hungry and find myself having to eat some fruit to fill me up enough to go to sleep!
The practical challenges of fasting aside, I can see a lot of benefits in the exercise. For me, fasting has a remarkable ability to focus the mind (despite early evidence in the literature to the contrary!), making prayer and meditation far more straightforward. The physical discomfort of fasting means that I feel myself identifying far more acutely with many religious topics that are commonly subjects of meditation during Lent, especially the sorrowful events of Good Friday, but also tragedies of vastly diverse nature that take place continuously around the world. I feel my petitions to God becoming more thoughtful and heartfelt during this time in which I feel that I am suffering in the immediate term.
Relatedly, the physical sacrifice made in fasting echoes the sacrifice made by Jesus on the cross, particularly the physical (and mental!) suffering he endured. The Easter story is remembered every year, and so the story of the Last Supper, the Way of the Cross and the Resurrection are narrated, sung in hymns and discussed in sermons. The act fasting, however, causes us to feel the emotions of Jesus as he underwent his great challenge (to fulfil Scripture and die in agony) in a more visceral way.
The practice of fasting itself is much neglected in the modern church; Roman Catholics are only told to fast on two days of the year, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. This sparing use of fasting allows it to mark out a particular day as special in the Church's calendar. We fast on days when we remember important events that led to the death (and eventually, the resurrection) of Jesus; the sacrifice of fasting, which is so different to other penances which are commonly performed (e.g. saying extra prayers or rosaries, giving charity to the sick or poor, or even abstaining from a particular food/behaviour) because it necessitates the suffering of corporeal hunger, thus allows us to mark such days in a unique way. As Christians, we are taught that suffering (often spoken off through the metaphor of the Cross) is a necessary part of following God's will. Luke says (14:27) "whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple", and the importance of sacrifice is reflected time and time again in the teachings of the Church and in the stories of the Bible. However, much modern-day worship does not focus on sacrifice, and corporeal sacrifice in particular is neglected. This surely narrows our focus in important liturgical seasons such as Lent, and causes us to lose touch with such important concepts as salvation and penance in their entirety.
However, there are also important non-religious benefits from fasting, which I think are even more important than the religious benefits I get from it. The experience of fasting has given me considerable food for thought about what I eat, and when I eat it. I have been a casual vegan / flexitarian for several months now, so I have daily cause to think about my food and what I think it right to eat. The experience of fasting (and the meal I consume on my fast days is always vegetarian/vegan) reminds me of the importance of compassion in deciding what is moral to eat, becuase when I fast, I am forced to make choices about what I can eat in a similar way to when I restrict my diet by limiting animal products.
Also, the hunger I experience during my day of fasting always makes me grateful for the food which I have, and keen to remember those in the world who remain hungry. It also strengthens my resolve to help them in some way in the future, either by donating to charity or by working for charities abroad (hopefully in the future I can do both!). In the words of Pope Francis, "greed looking for easy gain" has created a world of gross inequalities, and I feel it my responsibility as someone with the fortune to grow up in a safe and prosperous environment, to use my knowledge and skills to make it possible for other children to do so as well in the future. Therefore, when I choose to break my fast on Good Friday, I am forced to not only remember that animals suffer on a daily basis for much of our food, but that for many people around the world (as many as 1 in 7) that basic, life-giving choice to eat is simply not available to them.
The practical challenges of fasting aside, I can see a lot of benefits in the exercise. For me, fasting has a remarkable ability to focus the mind (despite early evidence in the literature to the contrary!), making prayer and meditation far more straightforward. The physical discomfort of fasting means that I feel myself identifying far more acutely with many religious topics that are commonly subjects of meditation during Lent, especially the sorrowful events of Good Friday, but also tragedies of vastly diverse nature that take place continuously around the world. I feel my petitions to God becoming more thoughtful and heartfelt during this time in which I feel that I am suffering in the immediate term.
Relatedly, the physical sacrifice made in fasting echoes the sacrifice made by Jesus on the cross, particularly the physical (and mental!) suffering he endured. The Easter story is remembered every year, and so the story of the Last Supper, the Way of the Cross and the Resurrection are narrated, sung in hymns and discussed in sermons. The act fasting, however, causes us to feel the emotions of Jesus as he underwent his great challenge (to fulfil Scripture and die in agony) in a more visceral way.
The practice of fasting itself is much neglected in the modern church; Roman Catholics are only told to fast on two days of the year, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. This sparing use of fasting allows it to mark out a particular day as special in the Church's calendar. We fast on days when we remember important events that led to the death (and eventually, the resurrection) of Jesus; the sacrifice of fasting, which is so different to other penances which are commonly performed (e.g. saying extra prayers or rosaries, giving charity to the sick or poor, or even abstaining from a particular food/behaviour) because it necessitates the suffering of corporeal hunger, thus allows us to mark such days in a unique way. As Christians, we are taught that suffering (often spoken off through the metaphor of the Cross) is a necessary part of following God's will. Luke says (14:27) "whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple", and the importance of sacrifice is reflected time and time again in the teachings of the Church and in the stories of the Bible. However, much modern-day worship does not focus on sacrifice, and corporeal sacrifice in particular is neglected. This surely narrows our focus in important liturgical seasons such as Lent, and causes us to lose touch with such important concepts as salvation and penance in their entirety.
However, there are also important non-religious benefits from fasting, which I think are even more important than the religious benefits I get from it. The experience of fasting has given me considerable food for thought about what I eat, and when I eat it. I have been a casual vegan / flexitarian for several months now, so I have daily cause to think about my food and what I think it right to eat. The experience of fasting (and the meal I consume on my fast days is always vegetarian/vegan) reminds me of the importance of compassion in deciding what is moral to eat, becuase when I fast, I am forced to make choices about what I can eat in a similar way to when I restrict my diet by limiting animal products.
Also, the hunger I experience during my day of fasting always makes me grateful for the food which I have, and keen to remember those in the world who remain hungry. It also strengthens my resolve to help them in some way in the future, either by donating to charity or by working for charities abroad (hopefully in the future I can do both!). In the words of Pope Francis, "greed looking for easy gain" has created a world of gross inequalities, and I feel it my responsibility as someone with the fortune to grow up in a safe and prosperous environment, to use my knowledge and skills to make it possible for other children to do so as well in the future. Therefore, when I choose to break my fast on Good Friday, I am forced to not only remember that animals suffer on a daily basis for much of our food, but that for many people around the world (as many as 1 in 7) that basic, life-giving choice to eat is simply not available to them.
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