A Lecture Given by His Eminence, Metropolitan Archbishop Laurus
We give very little attention to fasting, considering this to be something that the Church has laid down which is of no importance. But it is divinely established. The commandment to fast is as old as the world. It was the first commandment given by God to man. Because we did not fast, we have been banished from Paradise. Therefore we must fast in order to gain entrance again to Paradise (St. Basil the Great).
Not to fast is to be like animals to which such a thing is unknown. Abstinence for the body is food for the soul (St. John Chrysostom). We do not live in order to eat, but we eat in order to live and fulfill our duties. Our Lord Himself fasted, as recounted in the Gospel. Often you and I see someone in need but go past without responding and without helping as we consider that there are no really poor people and no one who has genuine need. But according to the Lord’s commandments, we have to help, we are obliged to show mercy. St. John Chrysostom says this about mercifulness:
Consider mercifulness not for what you give but for what you get, not as a loss but a gain, because through it you receive more than you give. If you give bread, you will receive eternal life. You give clothing and receive the robe of immortality; you give shelter under your roof and you receive the heavenly kingdom. You give perishable joys and receive eternal blessings.
Thus we see that in accordance with Scripture, in accordance with the teachings of the Church and the holy fathers, we must struggle in order to go by the Orthodox path to salvation. The holy apostles taught their disciples and instruct us as well: “We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). The Lord also says to us: “Enter ye in at the straight gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at” (Matt. 7:13, 14).
No doubt many of you will say or think: “There they go, they want us to live like monks or hermits. But look at our friends and acquaintances, and everyone around us, they live for their own pleasure, do what they want, and none of them ever think about what is being said here. They do not think about the heavenly kingdom, the future life; they do not spoil their mood by such considerations.”
Yes, it’s true—they live and pay no attention to the spiritual life. They do not believe in that or in the future life. Therefore there is nothing spiritual in them, they have no peace of soul, or spiritual joy. So they have no restraining center, nothing has any moral or spiritual value for which they might restrain themselves, or for which they might strive. Therefore they are connected with debauchery and lasciviousness, crime, spiritual suicide, and spiritual bankruptcy.
We children of the Orthodox Church have to beware of this and be careful and run away from all this as though from fire.
~Orthodox Christian Information Center, Metropolitan Archbishop Laurus, The Podvig of Living in the World, http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/podvig.aspx. This lecture was given at the Eighth Annual St. Herman Pilgrimage at Holy Trinity Monastery, December 25, 1985 (n.s.). Printed in Orthodox Life, vol. 36, no. 1 (Jan.-Feb., 1986), pp. 40-47.
