Today begins the Dormition Fast, where, for the next fourteen days, Orthodox Christians engage in a strict fast (no meat, dairy products or eggs) in preparation for the feast of the death and assumption into heaven of our Lady. It is one of the principal fasts of the Church, which include the Nativity fast, the fast of Great Lent, and the Apostles fast.
These fasts highlight the distinct difference between a dualistic understanding of the body and a wholistic one.
Perhaps the greatest example of dualism is found in Plato's Phaedo, where Socrates' last hours are recorded in dramatic form. In this dialogue, Socrates notes the distinct differences between body and soul, and how it is that a philospher prepares for death all through his life by purging his soul of any contact with bodily pleasures, pains, and sensory knowledge. Thus, at death, the philosopher is finally free of the cage that is his body, and can contemplate the invisible forms without hindrance. By contrast, a soul not purged of this bodily contagion, is forced, through a cycle of rebirth, to go back through bodily existence and learn there to purge himself of these taints.
It is arguable that this view was Socrates' or even Plato's understanding of the soul. The dialogue contains many Pythagorean elements, and other Platonic dialogues, such as the Republic, are more friendly to the soul-body relationship.
But this dualism lives on in our own day, largely through our Cartesian inheritance. It lives in the notion that, as Christians, we are primarily what we believe, rather than an accumulation of what we do. Aided and abetted by the "faith only" paradigm of salvation, it is not surprising that we find polls of evangelical Christians who say they believe in the inerrancy of God's written Word, but also find sexual behavior outside the marital bond acceptable as well.
Orthodoxy, on the other hand, being a devoutly incarnate religion, does not go to either extreme. Orthodoxy maintains the balance between a legalistic faith of works and a careless inattention to moral behaviors. The body is both the field of battle, and the place of sanctification in the Christian life. Christians purge themselves not of their bodies, but of the passions which have infected the flesh. The body is not subjected to fasting as a form of punishment or hatred of the flesh, but as an attack on the passions which not only war against the soul but also attack the body itself. Christians know that their resurrection, like their Lord's, will include the bodies they now inhabit. There is no sense in mutilating the body.
Orthodoxy knows that faith must be fulfilled in actions. And she also knows that actions apart from faith have no value. So when the Orthodox Church fasts, she is calling all her members to make war on the passions, to purify soul and body of these deadly contaminants. But the act of fasting in itself is nothing. Many a spiritual father has forbade his son or daughter to fast, knowing that the act will do harm, coming as it does either from a lack of faith, or from an unwise lack of concern for the body.
For my brothers and sisters who've begun the fast: May the Lord bless your works for the glory of his name, and your sanctification.
For those of us forbidden to fast: pray for us that our faith will be made stronger and our sanctification would be found in the holy balance of grace.
Posted by Clifton at August 1, 2004 06:00 PM | TrackBack