February: Day 28: Blessed Nicholas the Fool for Christ

February: Day 28:
Blessed Nicholas the Fool for Christ
 
(Fasting in Connection With Other Works of Piety)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Blessed Nicholas the Fool for Christ, whose memory is now being celebrated, attained the Kingdom of Heaven by the path of foolishness for the sake of Christ. Saint Nicholas lived in the city of Pskov, in a special hut, three hundred years ago, and spent his life in prayer and fasting. Performing feats of foolishness for Christ, he, under the guise of a joke or a fable, and often directly, told everyone the truth, fearing no one. Thus, when Tsar Ivan the Terrible came to Pskov, the inhabitants greeted him with trembling on their knees. But the blessed one was not afraid and met the Terrible Tsar with words of reproach: "Do not touch us, passerby," he said to him, "go away from us, or you will have nothing to run on." The Tsar executed many residents of Pskov, but when he left the city, his best horse died, as Blessed Nicholas predicted. They say that the Holy Fool offered the Terrible Tsar a piece of raw meat and when he said that he was no longer eating meat because it was Lent, he objected: “You are doing worse, you are feeding on human blood, forgetting not only Lent, but also God.”

II. From these words of Blessed Nicholas it is obvious that this instruction follows: even if we abstain from food during the fast, but at the same time hate others and cause them any harm, then our fast is no longer a fast.

Therefore, now we will speak about fasting in connection with other works of piety.

a) Without faith, fasting is ineffective. Fasting is a medicine for the soul and body; therefore, he would be in a miserable error who, relying on the power of his fast, imagined that he could find in it alone a means of reconciliation with God, of satisfaction with the law and truth of God, of recompense for his sins, of paying the debt of his conscience.

You know by whom and how divine justification and at the same time pardon have been delivered to all of us – by the merits and death on the cross of the Son of God, undertaken for us. Therefore, whoever would imagine, without faith in the merits and death of the Savior, that by fasting alone he would satisfy God’s truth at the judgment for his sins, would thereby show a completely false concept of both God’s truth and his sins.

In order for our fast to be effective and pleasing to the Lord, we must remove from it any notion of it as a sacrifice for sins, and represent it only as a means of weakening in us the pernicious inclination towards sensuality and the shameful slavery of the flesh, and at the same time we must, as much as possible, sanctify it with faith in the merits of the Redeemer, which, in connection with active love, assimilating them in our soul, thereby justifies us before God.

b) Fasting is also unthinkable without humility. Fasting is a medicine for the soul and body; therefore, he would clearly act contrary to the very essence of fasting who, observing the fast, would think that he himself has the right to exalt himself above everyone who does not fast like him. What is there to exalt himself about? Your neighbor does not fast like you? Perhaps he is extremely weak in the flesh and healthy in spirit and has no need of this medicine; perhaps he receives this medicine in a different form than you receive it. Even if he were spiritually dead without the medicine you use, all you can and should do is pity him and pray for him, and not be proud that you have comprehended the power of the medicine and use it as you should. But you can in no way use it as you should until you sanctify your fast with humility. For the common disease of mankind, which you have undertaken to cure in yourself by fasting and repentance, consists mainly in self-love and pride. Therefore, the Holy Church never prays to the Lord so loudly and repeatedly as during Lent, that He grant each of us to see our own sins and not to condemn our brother.

c) A one-sided fast is not valid – only physical without the spiritual.

Fasting is a medicine for the soul; therefore, during fasting, one must look not only at the body, but rather at the soul. And in the treatment of bodily ailments, the state of the soul means much; therefore, doctors advise, when taking medicines, to observe as much spiritual calm as possible, not to think about this or that subject, to try to occupy the imagination with what is best. All this is even more necessary when using fasting. What a harmful contradiction it would be to deprive the body of food, and at the same time allow the soul to indulge in worldly thoughts, furious movements, outbursts of self-love or hatred! This would mean destroying with another hand that which is planted and built up by the other.

d) Fasting is of little use without pious exercises appropriate to the time of fasting.

What occupations are especially appropriate for fasting? First, public and domestic prayer; then self-examination or examination of one's life and conscience, reflection on the subjects of faith, especially on the life and teaching, sufferings and death for us of our Savior; then reconciliation with all enemies and forgiveness of offenses, deeds of love for mankind and philanthropy; reading the word of God and soul-saving books, conversation with pious people, and the like. Each of these means helps the action of fasting, increases its strength, sweetens its bitterness, and thus sanctifies our fast.

e) Finally, fasting is a powerful and necessary medicine, but at the same time it is by no means the only one, but a preparatory one to other, higher, spiritual medicines. Therefore, indulging in fasting, one must always keep in mind the further goal, that is, repentance, confession and communion of the Holy Mysteries. Fasting should help first of all to escape from the power of sensuality, to destroy the strength and power of carnal passions, to give freedom and convenience to survey one’s life, to recognize, as accurately as possible, the wounds of one’s conscience, to find the main passion that consumes one, to dispose one to sincerely seek healing from it, to decide once and for all to begin a virtuous life. If this is not the case, then fasting has not yet brought any significant benefit, and it is necessary either to aggravate it or to correct it. It is necessary to intensify it or correct it in such a case, if, while fasting, you have not come closer in spirit to your Savior, have not felt the need for His merits, have not felt the spiritual hunger to satisfy yourself with the Divine meal of His Body and Blood, have not yet heard in yourself the voice of His love, calling for union with Him.

III. However short and simple these rules of fasting may be, if we observe them constantly during our fasting, that is, if we dilute our fasting with faith, humility and prayer, and if we, while fasting bodily, fast at the same time spiritually: then our fasting will be holy and pleasing to the Lord, and will serve for the sanctification of our souls and bodies. 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.