Adam was driven out of Paradise, because in disobedience he had eaten food; but Moses was granted the vision of God, because he had cleansed the eyes of his soul by fasting. If then we long to dwell in Paradise, let us abstain from all needless food; and if we desire to see God, let us like Moses fast for forty days. (Third Troparion of the Praises, Matins of Forgiveness Sunday) 8
ANOTHER THEME OF CHEESEFARE SUNDAY is the expulsion of Adam from Paradise. The Triodion now brings us to the theme of food as a means of communion with or separation from God. Man’s condition before the Fall was one of abstinence: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).
Man lost Paradise by breaking this abstinence. Furthermore, man’s diet before the Fall did not include animals: “And God said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food’” (Genesis 1:29).
Thus fasting is an invitation to return to Paradise, to man’s condition before the Fall.
Fasting is also presented as a means of cleansing the eyes of the soul to enable us to see God:
Moses was granted the vision of God, because he had cleansed the eyes of his soul by fasting.
This refers to Moses’ forty days and nights of fasting on Mount Sinai: “So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments” (Exodus 34:28).
We are reminded of this every week in Lent at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts:
Almighty Master, who have fashioned all creation, in wisdom, who through Your ineffable providence and great goodness have led us to these hallowed days for purification of soul and body, for restraint of the passions, and for hope of resurrection; who during the forty days put into the hands of Your servant Moses the tablets inscribed with divine letters; grant to us also, O Good One, to fight the good fight, to complete the course of the fast, to preserve the faith undivided, to crush the heads of invisible serpents, to be shown to be conquerors of sin, and without condemnation to arrive at and to worship the holy Resurrection. (Prayer behind the Ambo)
The purpose of our fasting is spiritual. Spirituality must not be viewed as something that does not concern the body, but as something that is made possible through and within the body. We all too often find within ourselves a conflict between body and soul. The desires and needs of the flesh can all too often overpower the spirit. Fasting is a means of restoring the balance between soul and body, a means of bringing the flesh under the control and will of the mind and spirit. In restoring this balance, we turn back to Paradise, to the life of Eden. Then we can have hope that, like Moses, we too may see God.
~Vassilios Papavassiliou, Meditations for Great Lent: Reflections on the Triodion
8 Translation by Mother Mary and Kallistos Ware, The Lenten Triodion, St. Tikhon’s Seminary Press (South Canaan PA, 2002), p. 178.
