By Padre Mike Nsikak Umoh
I have many times heard people say we should FAST FROM SINS, and I am forced to ask: CAN ONE REALLY FAST FROM SIN? The answer is emphatic NO.
WE DON’T AND WE CAN’T FAST FROM SIN. Instead we avoid sin and train ourselves to be able to do so. Come to think of is: fasting means denying oneself of what is ordinarily good, legitimate and available. By this I mean that fasting entails abstaining or giving up of something good and right which I would have ordinarily taken (consumed) or engaged in for some pleasure or which would have given me some satisfaction. I cannot fast from killing or gossip, for instance. This thing I give up may be a meal or a particular delicacy, ice cream or pizza or some type of food I enjoy so much or seem addicted to; it may be a preferred drink or visit to a nice eating or drinking joint.
The thing I give up may even be partying, a programme I love to watch on TV, a film or a recreational practice I indulge in. It can be the use of my phone; so today we can properly talk of PHONE FAST. The point here is that the thing I give up…fast from… must in itself be good.
I only consciously give it up in order to discipline my body, conscious that as long as the body is allowed everything it desires, the spirit suffers. To renew the spirit, we need to mortify the flesh. What I fast from must be something I can legitimately return to without committing sins.
The idea of fasting from sins or vices is hypocritical and an abuse of God’s grace and mercy because it means that I only pretend to give it up for a short while knowing that I will soon return to it. One of the fruits of fasting is the strength to overcome sins, because every sin is a form of selfishness, self-centeredness and a revolution against God based on bloated or distorted self-image. By the way, I also noted that what I fast from must be available. I can’t fast from what I don’t have or what I can’t afford.
So, if I say I fast from ice cream, it means I either have it there in my fridge or I have the money to buy it and that where I am I can go out to buy it or order for it and it will come. If I am in a remote desert or village where no one sells ice cream or the ice cream is sold next door but I don’t have the money, I cannot say I am fasting from Ice cream. Thus, what I fast from must be good, legitimate and available. Finally, the fruit of my fasting, what I give up, must benefit another person materially so that the spiritual gain can come to me. If I give up time I spend outside drinking, it means I channel that time to being available to my wife and children at home or for a charity visit for instance or a work of mercy. If I give up some meals or drinks I usually enjoy, it means I channel such funds saved from there to charity.
WE DONT FAST FROM SIN, WE AVOID SIN!!! God bless you.