Fasting Is Not Good in Itself

That it is a thing indifferent is shown very clearly from this as well: just as keeping it brings justification, so breaking it does not bring condemnation, unless perhaps it is the breaking of a command, rather than the taking of food, that brings punishment. But nothing that is good in its own nature should ever be absent at any time, as though a man could do without it; for if it stops, the man who neglects it is sure to come to harm. Nor is any time ever allowed for what is bad in its own nature, because what is harmful cannot help harming if it is indulged, and it can never become praiseworthy. It is clear, further, that the things for which we see conditions and times appointed, which make us holy when they are kept without corrupting us when they are neglected, are things indifferent: for example, marriage, farming, riches, withdrawal into the desert, vigils, the reading of Holy Scripture and meditation on it, and fasting itself, from which our discussion began. The divine commands and the authority of Holy Scripture decreed that none of these should be pursued so unceasingly, or kept so constantly, that it would be wrong to set them aside for a time. [a]

For anything that is absolutely commanded brings death if it is not fulfilled; but whatever we are urged toward rather than commanded is useful when it is done, and brings no punishment when it is left undone. That is why our predecessors commanded us, in the case of all or some of these things, either to do them with careful thought, or to keep them carefully with regard to reason, place, manner, and time. If any of them is done suitably, it is fitting and proper; but if it is done unsuitably, it becomes foolish and harmful. Suppose a brother arrives, in whose person a man ought to refresh Christ with courtesy and embrace him with the kindest welcome, and the man chooses to keep a strict fast. Would he not be guilty of rudeness rather than earn the praise or reward of devotion? Or if the failure or weakness of the flesh requires its strength to be restored by food, and a man will not consent to relax the rigor of his abstinence, is he not to be regarded as a cruel murderer of his own body rather than as one who cares for his salvation? So too, when a festival season allows a fitting indulgence in food and a meal that must be generous, if a man insists on clinging to the strict keeping of a fast, he must be considered not so much devout as boorish and unreasonable.

But these things will also be found bad for those who look for the praise of men by their fasts, and win a reputation for holiness by a foolish show of paleness. Of them the word of the gospel tells us that they have received their reward in this life, and the Lord curses their fast through the prophet. Speaking in their person, he first raises the objection against himself: “Why have we fasted, and you have not regarded it? Why have we humbled our souls, and you have not known it?” Then at once he answers, and explains why they did not deserve to be heard: “Look,” he says, “in the days of your fast your own will is found, and you demand payment from all your debtors. Look, you fast for quarrels and strife, and strike with the fist wickedly. Do not fast as you have done to this day, to make your cry heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, for a man to afflict his soul for a day? Is it this, to wind his head around like a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?” Then he goes on to teach how the abstinence of one who fasts may become acceptable, and lays down clearly that fasting cannot be good by itself alone, but only when it has the reasons that are added next: “Is not this,” he says, “the fast that I have chosen? Loose the bonds of wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress, let those who are broken go free, and break apart every burden. Share your bread with the hungry, and bring the needy and the homeless into your house. When you see someone naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh. Then your light will break out like the morning, and your health will spring up quickly; your righteousness will go before your face, and the glory of the Lord will gather you up. Then you will call, and the Lord will hear; you will cry, and he will say, Here I am.” You see, then, that the Lord certainly does not regard fasting as something good in its own nature, because it becomes good and pleasing to God not by itself but by other works. And again, because of the circumstances around it, it may be regarded as not merely useless but actually hateful, as the Lord says: “When they fast, I will not hear their prayers.”