Word III. On Fasting and Prayer

Father John celebrated the Liturgy in his Ioannovsky women’s monastery, with the participation of the local clergy. At the end of the Liturgy, according to his custom of never leaving those at prayer without a word of edification, the deeply honored Father Archpriest delivered approximately the following edifying instruction.

Wisdom has built Herself a house (our monastery, and the temple within it), She has hewn out its seven pillars, She has slaughtered a sacrifice, She has mixed wine in Her cup, and has prepared a table for Herself, She has sent out Her servants (the Apostles and Priests) with a lofty proclamation: whoever is simple, turn in here; and to the dim-witted She says: come, eat My bread and drink the wine mixed by Me; leave foolishness and live, and walk in the way of understanding (Prov 9:1-6).

These words were spoken a thousand years before the Savior’s coming into the world. Wise King Solomon, son of David, made wise by the Spirit of God, foretells in them our great well-being, our great happiness and treasure—the Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. The kings, forefathers, and prophets of the Old Testament did not have this happiness, to see the Lord Jesus Christ with their own eyes; but we have this happiness, this ineffable mercy of God, for we ourselves (the priests) perform this wondrous Mystery, ourselves commune, and give you communion too, after your sincere repentance. See, then, how the Wisdom of God has devised to save us through the Cup, in which is our cleansing, our renewal, our life, our salvation, our great happiness and blessedness.

It is remarkable that the Wisdom of God, through the mouth of Solomon, gives this instruction to all: whoever is simple, turn in here (to Me), and to those who lack understanding She said: come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mixed; forsake your folly and live, and walk in the way of understanding. Lack of understanding possesses every sinner. Take the drunkard, or the lazy man, the fornicator, the hoarder of riches, take whatever sinner you like—how senseless, how foolish they all are, because they unceasingly labor for their passions and die in their passions. For them it is utterly necessary to partake of the most pure Body and to drink the life-giving Blood of Christ, which will teach us to flee from cunning and every sin, and to live in simplicity, righteousness, and every virtue. Therefore wise Solomon already says: come, all of you, to the Holy Cup, forsake all folly, and walk in the way of understanding.

Now let us explain the Gospel we heard today (Lk 5:33-39).

Once it was said to Jesus Christ: why do John’s disciples fast often, but Your disciples eat and drink? But how could they have done otherwise than eat and drink—they were great laborers, and besides, the Lord, sending them out to labor in preaching the Gospel, commanded them to take with them neither purse, nor bread, nor sandals… Jesus Christ says that His disciples do not fast while the bridegroom is with them, but the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, then they will fast. Here the Lord points forward to Wednesday and Friday, appointed for fasting from the very first days of Christianity: Wednesday, in remembrance of the betrayal of Jesus Christ to His sufferings on that day, and Friday, in remembrance of the Savior’s fearsome sufferings and death on the cross on that day, and also that we might cleanse our thoughts and hearts and make them more capable of understanding our own spiritual poverty and dependence on God. On this occasion the Lord spoke a parable: No one puts a patch of new cloth on an old garment, tearing it from a new garment; otherwise he will tear the new, and the patch from the new will not match the old (v. 36). By the old garment the Lord here means His own disciples, who were old until they were renewed by the descent of the Holy Spirit. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the skins and be spilled, and the skins will be ruined (in the East, wine is kept in skins). But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved (vv. 37-38); that is, the Apostles would come to understand the teaching of Christ in all its depth only when they were wholly renewed, when the Holy Spirit descended upon them; but for now they needed indulgence with regard to fasting and prayer, because of their great labors in preaching the Holy Gospel. They did, of course, pray and fast even then, but less than the disciples of John, who did not bear the heavy labors of the Apostles, and so could more easily give themselves to the labors of fasting and prayer.

To us Christians, as new men, fasting is commanded; therefore we ought not to care overmuch for the feeding of the belly, for excess in food and drink, for delicacies, because all this hinders the attainment of the heavenly kingdom. Our duty is to prepare ourselves for heavenly life, and to care for spiritual food; and spiritual food is fasting, prayer, the reading of the Word of God, and especially the Communion of the Holy Mysteries. When we are careless about fasting and prayer, then we are filled with every kind of sin and passion; but when we feed on spiritual food, then we are cleansed of them, and adorned with humility, meekness, patience, mutual love, and purity of soul and body. Amen.