The Great Lent: Journey to Πασχα
Alexander Schmemann’s Wonderful Little Book
Every few years, I reacquaint myself with this excellent little book written by Orthodox Priest Alexander Schmemann (αιώνια η μνήμη). It tracks the liturgical elements of Lent as practiced by The Church since its inception. It follows the weekly church calendar during this time and explains what things like “Meat Fare Sunday” means.
This is the time of year we are meant to practice the physical act of denial. I have made the case before that fasting, for example, is healthy. Who knew? Well God of course. But Lent is not about mere fasting for health, nor is it meant merely for our bodily health—it is for our spiritual health as well.
I will limit this post to the most important and serious points of the book, but I encourage you to pick it up and read it in total.
Schmemann states early on that the first step is humility for we must be in order to recognize our fallibility. We cannot come to God in arrogance. The Prodigal Son looms large here as the prime example of all this. The return home and the confession of all our sins is cleansing. It puts us in a right relationship.
After humility, then we are in the frame of spiritual mind to repent. However, repentance is not the mere—I got angry at X, I did X, etc. This passage is rather striking just what repentance is: we should realize that,
I have defiled and lost my spiritual beauty, that I am far away from my real home, my real life, and that something precious and pure and beautiful has been broken in the very texture of my existence.1
Schmemann calls this RetVrn! To go back home, to recover real knowledge is to go back HOME. Leaving aside the philosophical question of knowledge, as will all who believe in revelation, real knowledge is only found in the scripture of God, and in the contemplation of Him.
Sin leads us into a “war of all against all.” While the channeling of Hobbes is useful here, he means this not in the political sense—he means that the spiritual separation from God leads us away from others, and into hostility. This happens not because of selfishness or self interest—it happens because we do not fulfill the soul obligation we have with our Creator.
Realizing all of this comes out of fasting, which, makes us “illumined.” To be illumined is to realize that we have been enslaved to sin, and the cares of this world more than the care of our souls. Our attention is misdirected away from God and to the present cares of this life.
We should make a particular note here that fasting is NOT giving up one thing, or some thing we think we are too attached to. There is no, “I will give up the internet for Lent,” or the abstaining from drink, etc. All of that is too limiting and makes us the chooser of whatever “sin” we think we have.
Fasting in the original meaning of the church is more comprehensive. It is the putting away of all things that drive our desires. Schmemann leaves all this dangling on just what that implies. It does suggest we are to abstain from more than “food.”
But it is the abstention from food that is particularly helpful. Why? Because The Church believed that humans being human need all their senses appealed to for the greatest effect. That means that Lent and the abstention from food makes us realize our weakness. We go hungry a lot, and endure it in pain, which reminds us of our Lord and what is to come. You will notice that fasting makes a person tired, a lot, during this period. That is the point. We are reminded daily of not just our own fallibility and weakness, but that the Lord is the only way through our time on this earth.
Abstaining from food is only part of the Lenten requirements of fasting, however. Fasting is, in essence, a preparation. It is a στιχιρα:
Let us begin the time of fasting in light!
Preparing ourselves for the spiritual efforts
let us purify our soul; let us purify our body
As from food, let us abstain from all passion and enjoy the virtues of the spirit.2
Again, fasting is not just the abstention from certain foods, it is comprehensive.
Lent is a wandering in the desert; it is a softening, a thirsting, so that we may be illumined to communion with God.
It is at this point we read that it is not JUST the soul that must return to God, but the entirety of the person—body and soul. Now you understand, perhaps, the reason for fasting is that it works on both.
God wants all of His created person to RetVrn! Therefore, the asceticism of Lent means to not fight against the body but “for it!” Fasting returns the body to its original condition, or rather, “restores” it because it was meant to be holy as God became flesh.
This is why the rejection of sloth, pride, lust for power, idle talk, and, among other things, and the promotion of Chastity in ALL its forms is the aim of this time of repentance.
The passions are the great snare of life—from that come many evils. Lent is to remind us we might be ensnared and perhaps we have been deluded into thinking we are not. Fasting gives us clarity during our minimal suffering.
In this post, I have really only described the first 2 chapters. The rest of the book describes the liturgical process through Lent, and focusses on the Eucharist. Lent prepares us for communion. That is beyond my purpose here, which is to describe the why of fasting.
Part of the reason for this poast is because of the spiritual folly of many who have, of late, been criticizing this foundational Christian practice. One person, a Presbyterian paster somewhere, stated that fasting is “Pagan.” This is laughable for a person who believes in a god who picks and chooses who is saved and who goes to hell—a plaything of the gods. Never before have I read such ignorance and slander upon the Faith.
It is important not to dwell on that, but to remember that indeed, fasting is a biblical concept stated in scripture:
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. The tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”…
This is Matthew 4:1-3. The Orthodox describe it this way: fasting does not control us, it allows us to control our own temptations. The body does not control him, he sets his body in a right relationship.
Fasting reminds us of the evil and the temptations of this world are not The Way.
Let us follow His example.
p. 22.
emphasis added.