Toward renewal of flesh and spirit
Toward renewal of flesh and spirit
There are only a few days left until the beginning of Great Lent and, as responsible Christians, we are asking ourselves (again) how shall we approach this great exercise. The sources in we which we generally look for guidance are preserved in the Church Tradition: the Holy Scriptures, the writings of the Fathers, the advice of the elders. There is however another source that comes to confirm what the Church is continuously teaching for about two thousand year: modern medicine.
In the traditional Eastern Christian approach man is considered as a whole with both body and soul and Church practice stands witness for it. The goal is to involve man totally into living a life in Christ: fasting, prostrations, standing during Liturgy, kneeling in front of the icons and so on. Man's body was fashioned with God's own hands being therefore a temple for the spirit that we need to take care of. (1Co 6:19). In which way though?
Contemporary media advertises a life full of everything: food, pleasures, physical activity, a life centered on the body and its physiological needs. The general outset is that if you feed your body well and you exercise you will ensure a long and happy life. No pleasures should be denied to the body, abundance is the general word.
The typical commercial sequence during a prime time show advertises mouth watering foods in gargantuan quantities followed by diet pills or exercise equipment advertisements. The slogan seems to be "eat all you can, we'll find a way to loose the weight later".
Some recent medical research however comes to put some doubt into this approach. Is really abundance the path to a longer and healthier life? Gerontology, a branch of medicine that studies aging comes to say that not abundance but calorie restricting diets may have an effect on prolonging life. They also found that intermittent fasting (eating every other day for instance) has similar effects.
Another area of medicine, nutrition, has studied the lifestyle and diet of people living on the Mediterranean shores, the cradle of ancient Christianity. Couple of recent published papers focus on Greece in the population that follows the prescribed fasting practice of the Greek Orthodox Church. The results are stunning because they show that proper fasting decreases improves the profile of blood lipids, accounting for a lower risk of ischemic heart disease and obesity. Also interesting is a comparative study that shows that in the last 30 years the population of Crete has gradually abandoned the typical religious diet and replaced it with a western type diet with increased quantities of meat and saturated fats. This has lead to an increased in the risk of ischemic heart disease and in a higher percentage of obesity in the tested population.
This finding come to no surprise to the Orthodox believer, because we all know that our Church prescriptions are not just blind rules meant to keep us from enjoying life, but are meant to ensure that our bodies and souls are up to the task of a life in continuous exercise toward living an eternity with Christ. Our choice to abandon our traditions proves to be detrimental both spiritual wise but also health wise.
I cannot stop myself to link these scientific findings with the life of Orthodox hermits that spent their lives in isolation in the caves of Mount Athos or in the desert of Egypt reaching mathusalemic ages feeding mostly on dry food in very modest quantities. This men and women went into the desert to achieve spiritual insight, to seek a union with God and to live a life away from temptation[1]; their fasting and abstinence were methods of disciplining the body and so the mind so their view of the Kingdom of heaven will not be obstructed by the transitory epicurean habits of the world.
Disciplining the body, controlling reactions to temptations was their way of following Christ lead. Escaping the casual needs of everyday life they were able to focus their attention on what really matters: obtaining salvation through union with Christ.
Their example, although seemingly extreme for most of us stands proof that the direction in which the society is taking us is a false one; that the standards uphold by a spiritually uneducated majority are not necessarily the right standards to adhere to.
For us today, even thinking of the efforts of these ascetics takes us out of our comfort zone. We don't want to fast, we don't want to strive, we don't want to exercise our will. We are OK with sitting comfortable in our recliners and complaining how harsh the Church rules of fasting are. But the point the Church is trying to make is to take us out of this comfort zone and make us realize that there is more to achieve in life that goes beyond our level of self sufficiency.
The Great Lent does just that by asking us to discipline ourselves to live a healthier life, both physically and spiritually. Body and soul together should be renewed through the four pillars of Great Lent:: fasting, prayer, charity and repentance. Lent is not just about renouncing certain types of food, but is about restoring the proper place of material things in our lives and focusing on what really maters: interacting with God, fulfill His commandment of love and admit our fallen state.
From this perspective I don't think anything changed in the way the Church sees Great Lent today, the only thing that needs to change is our attitude towards it. We shouldn't look at it as an impossible task, but as a challenge, as a training camp forging athletes in Christ able to win the race of salvation. Amin