Fasting is necessary in spiritual combat, as the Scriptures, the Church, and the example of the saints teach. Yet today it is more neglected than ever. Its practice, in union with Jesus, has not only a personal value, but affects the plan of salvation.
In two thousand years of Christian history, fasting has probably never been in such a crisis as it is today. For some decades now, this penitential practice has been reduced to a trifle, even within the Catholic Church, both among the laity and the consecrated, with a few exceptions. Yet, the Holy Bible, the Church’s two-thousand-year-old tradition, and the example of the saints tell us that fasting is a necessary weapon in spiritual combat. It does not only have a personal dimension, but has implications for the entire economy of salvation. While it facilitates our path of purification, it helps us grow in inner freedom and, therefore, in love for God and neighbour.
Fasting, experienced in union with Christ, is of great help in keeping the devil away. Commenting on the famous verse in Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 17:21: This race of demons cannot be driven out except by prayer and fasting), saint John Chrysostom explains that these are “words that refer not only to the kind of lunatic demons, but to every class of demons. Fasting indeed gives much wisdom, makes man like an angel from heaven, and fights the incorporeal powers. But prayer is also necessary as the main element; and he who prays properly and fasts, does not need many things, and thus does not become miserly, and is ready for almsgiving. He who fasts is then light-footed, prays with vigilance, extinguishes harmful lusts, makes God propitious, and humbles the proud soul. Therefore he who prays with fasting has two wings, even lighter than the winds themselves”.
Fasting thus not only favours the conversion of the individual, but can obtain – accompanied by a solid Christian practice – the greatest graces within a family, in the Church, in the world. Graces of a spiritual order above all, but also material ones, including peace among nations. Our Lady also reminds us of this in various apparitions of contemporary times, in which she recommends prayer (especially the Holy Rosary), fasting, and other sacrifices as indispensable supernatural means to even stop or avert wars.
The necessity of fasting has its basis in the fact that it, Christianly understood, involves man in his totality of body and soul. While other works of charity – while good and clearly not to be neglected – may be part of what is superfluous to us, fasting implies a donation of ourselves to God. “Why is Satan so weakened when we fast? When we offer God something that touches our body, it can be said that we truly offer ourselves”, explains Sister Emmanuel Maillard – who has been established in Medjugorje since the late 1980s – in a profound catechesis entitled Liberarsi e guarire per mezzo del digiuno[Freeing and healing oneself through fasting]. “As Father Slavko [S. Barbarić, † 2000] said very well”, adds the French nun, “fasting reveals our addictions. When we fast on bread and water, there are ‘mirages’ that call us: Coffee? Cigarettes? Wine? Chocolate? Ice cream? Grappa? Liqueurs? They point us to the things to which we are most attached. But Our Lady does not come to point out our attachments, she comes so that we can be free. […] Fasting creates, in a way, an emptiness, a space in our soul, in our body, and also in our heart”.
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