Page 67 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 10
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Fasting and to begin to acquire a bodily knowledge of
We are, however, not simply spiritual beings; we God and His love.
are embodied creatures. Because of sin, we are
not in harmony with ourselves and indeed of- Almsgiving
ten find ourselves carried away our own desires. Through prayer and fasting I reshape my heart
The Apostle Paul puts the matter this way: “For and make it more sensitive and responsive to
the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit God’s grace. The ascetical disciplines of alms-
against the flesh; and these are contrary to one giving and manual labor allow me to shape the
another, so that you do not do the things that world around me and my relationship with
you wish” (Galatians 5:17, NKJV). We suffer others— including the poor— in a manner that
than a real lack of freedom rooted in the dis- reflects Christ. Just as prayer and fasting sanc-
connect between flesh and spirit. Building on tify soul and body, almsgiving and manual la-
prayer, the three other ascetical disciplines of bor are the means by which I sanctify the mate-
fasting, almsgiving and manual labor are bodily rial world and therefore human society as well.
practices meant to help us bring our behavior This two-fold social sanctification is necessary
into conformity to Christ (see Colossians 3:1- because since we are bodily creatures we are
17). also social and traditional creatures.
In the beginning, eating was part of humanity’s Shaped as we are, almost unconsciously, by po-
experience of communion with the Holy Trini- pular preaching on “salvation by faith alone,”
ty. When God establishes the human family in St. Cyprian of Carthage comment that “prayer
the Garden He turns to the Man and the Wo- alone is ‘fruitless’ and ‘ineffectual’ unless it is
man and says: “See, I have given you every herb accompanied by almsgiving” is shocking. And
that yields seed which is on the face of all the yet, like all the church fathers Cyprian says that
earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to “Only prayers with almsgiving ‘quickly ascend
you it shall be for food (Genesis 1:29, NKJV). to God which the merits of our labours urge
God does, however, make one, demand of us. upon God” (Rhee, 2012, p. 99 ). An even ear-
We are not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of lier teaching found in the second epistle of Cle-
good and evil. ment (130-160 AD). Reminding his readers of
We hear about this prohibition in Genesis 2:17 the last Judgment, Clement writes that “Alms-
and again in the conversation between Satan giving therefore is a good thing, even as repen-
and Eve (Genesis 3: 1-7). According to a hymn tance from sin” He then says that while “Fasting
from the last Sunday before Lent “Through ea- is better than prayer, … almsgiving better than
ting Adam was cast out of Paradise. And so, as both” (Lightfoot, p. 92).
he sat in front of it, he wept, lamenting with a
pitiful voice and saying, ‘Woe is me, what have Manual Labor
I suffered, wretch that I am! I transgressed one Why manual labor? Because it teaches me that
commandment of the Master, and now I am de- through my own efforts and creativity I’m able
prived of every good thing’ (Aposticha, Doxa- to shape the world around me. I can create
tikon, Sunday of the Expulsion of Adam from something beautiful and of value to others. The-
Paradise). The refusal to fast (to not eat of the re is an interesting story from the desert fathers
tree of the knowledge of good and evil) is where that can help us understand this a bit better.
humanity’s troubles begin. Adam’s troubles— A brother said to Abba Pistamon: “What am
and my own—are the fruit of his refusal (and I to do? I find it painful to sell what I make.”
mine!) to accept a life of ascetical struggle. Abba Pistamon replied: “Abba Sisois and others
Fasting, and indeed asceticism in general, is not used to sell what they made. There is no harm
something added on to human life as an aftert- in this. When you sell anything, say straight out
hought; it is not a response (much less a reac- the price of the goods. If you want to lower the
tion!) to sin. No, it is there from the beginning. price a little, you may and so you will find rest.”
To fast is to return, however faltering my at- The brother said: “I have enough for my needs
tempt, to human life as it “was in the beginning” from other sources, do you think I need worry
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