Pints With Aquinas - Fasting Makes a Comeback | Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P.

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

Father Pine, seeing the rise in fasting in secular culture, takes another look at Catholic Fasting. 🟣 Join Us on Locals (before we get banned on YT): https://mattfradd.locals.com/ 📖 Fr. Pine's Book: https://bit.ly/3lEsP8F 🖥️ Website: https://pintswithaquinas.com/ 🟢 Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/pintswithaquinas 👕 Merch: https://shop.pintswithaquinas.com 🚫 FREE 21 Day Detox From Porn Course: https://www.strive21.com/ 🔵 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattfradd 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattfradd

Hello, my name is Father Gregory Pine and I'm a Dominican friar of the province of St. Joseph. I teach at the Dominican House of Studies and I work for the Thomistic Institute, and this is Pines with Aquinas. In this episode I would like to talk about fasting. Why? Well, because people are out there talking about fasting. Give the people what they want. No, so our secular contemporaries are getting into fasting, whether that be with like intermittent fasting practices or narrowing their eating window. That's not to say that that's a secular thing, like as if it were a bad thing. It's just to say that even non-believers or non-religious types are talking about fasting. And yet, you know, believers and religious types are talking about fasting too, and perhaps for

different reasons or with different motivations. So like Muslims will talk about fasting during Ramadan and Christians will fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, especially during the season of Lent. You know, you think of Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, or you think about people doing Exodus 90 and other things besides. So it's out there. It's happening. And maybe you're thinking to yourself, I don't know, is this for me? Could I incorporate it into my practice?

Might this bear spiritual fruit? Well then this video is for you. So let's get after it. All right. So in's get after it. Alright, so in talking about fasting we are in effect talking about the virtue of temperance. Okay, so you recognize that virtue there. It's one that people talk about all the time. It's one of the four cardinal virtues along with prudence, justice, and fortitude. And what temperance does is that it gets into our sensitive appetite, right? The kind of appetite that we have for sense goods, and it

moderates it. All right, you might think about it as like reining in or curbing or bridling, but a lot of times this sense appetite gets out of control because it's so intense, it's so vehement. Why? Because the goods that it's fixed on, like food and drink and sexual intercourse, are so necessary or natural and as a result of which the desire for them is so urgent and so we tend to overdo it because as a result of the fall right our passions our emotions are inflamed we ourselves are kind of twisted or we ourselves are kind of bent on lower things to the exclusion of higher things so the virtue of

temperance is about retraining our appetites, kind of healing and growing our appetites such that they kind of reflect accurately what's good, right, within a hierarchy. So the better goods at the top of the hierarchy and the lesser goods at the bottom of the hierarchy. You get it. Alright, so temperance is kind of though it's like an ensemble of virtues or a suite of virtues. It's like a genus and within that genus there are certain species.

So there's a virtue for food and drink which we call abstinence. And here we don't mean like not doing, right? We don't mean holding off at arm's length. We just mean doing what is right or what is appropriate. So not too much and not too little. And the standard for that is the necessity of our body, right? The upbuilding of our bodily life. So health, you might just simply say health.

And then you've got another virtue which concerns intoxicating drink. And I mentioned this in a past video, we call that sobriety. And when we hear sobriety in the 21st century, we think not drinking again. But what we're talking about here is drinking in accord with reason, or drinking in the appropriate way, for hilarity and festivity, for refreshment and relaxation, for communion and kind of fellowship as it were, in accord with reason, without abandoning reason. And then obviously the virtue that concerns sexual intercourse or the pursuit of sexual goods would be chastity. So now like in different aspects of our life, in different aspects of the life of virtue, we're typically shooting for the mean, especially as it

concerns these lower goods, sense goods. And when we're thinking about temperance, we're thinking about especially like goods of the sense of touch, like things that we can lay hold of, things that we can assimilate, things that we can latch onto. And so, kind of zooming in there on food and drink and on the virtue of abstinence, we're trying to incorporate this within a human culture, within a more broadly human life, such that we ourselves don't become slaves of food and drink, that we remain masters as it were of our fate, albeit subject to the mastery of God himself. Okay so fasting is like a kind of most excellent act of the virtue of abstinence. Not in the sense that you're supposed to be

fasting at all times and that you should starve yourself to your crazy bones and only ever give in when you're about to die, you know, perish from the effort. No no no. The point of the Christian life isn't to keep ourselves constantly on the brink of collapse or exhaustion or malnutrition. When we think about fasting as an act, we think about it as a kind of exemplary act. And the way that we would think of martyrdom as a kind of exemplary act of fortitude, right, you're not going to be called upon to perform acts of martyrdom every day,

right, or in every hour of every day. Right? It's the type of thing which God, in his loving kindness, may supply the grace for at a particular time, at a particular hour, but we should always be prepared in spirit to live in this way, right? To perform this heroic gesture. And like, in a similar way I suppose, you can say something of, you know, the virtue of chastity might be expressed best or is expressed best as the Christian tradition in the act of virginity or in the state of virginity. That's not to say that virginity is thereby required of all individuals because while

it's revealed in the Christian tradition that the state of virginity, the celibate state, is higher insofar as it frees one up for higher goods like the contemplative life, that's not to say that all of us are called to it, because while it might be objectively higher, it might not be subjectively yours. Okay? So there's some, like, differentiation within the landscape of the practice of Christian virtues. Again, it's not the point is not to drive ourselves to the brink, to the point of exhaustion, to the point of collapse, to the point of malnutrition, as it were, until such times we either capitulate or die. All right? That's not it. We're seeking, according to a kind of human prudence, according to a kind of human adjustment, to live well, to live in balanced fashion. But mindful of the fact that

God isn't calling us just to live well and to live in balanced fashion, He's calling us to share in His divine nature, and He's calling us to offer our lives as a sacrifice to the praise of His glory. So when we talk about fasting, we're talking about a way of kind of living as it were to the praise of His glory. All right, so when we talk about fasting, we're talking about a way of kind of living as it were, the fullness of our Christian vocation, but we might not necessarily do it at all times or in all places. Okay? So one of the ways in which we can think about fasting in the Christian tradition is as like a kind of medicine. So there's a way in which we ourselves are sick because our various desires are, while trained on goods, you know, not always trained on those goods in healthy fashion.

So sometimes we just don't want a thing that is in fact good for us or we want a thing that is in fact not good for us. And so fasting can be used as a kind of medicine to keep in check the turbulence of our sensuality and to kind of limit, or as it were, limit the effect of original sin in our life so as to liberate our spirits beyond the kind of narrow confines in which they are sometimes, as it were, trapped. Okay? So you can think about fasting in those terms as a resource, as an instrument, as a means, as a method, as a medicine, which while in itself might not taste good, you will kind of undergo for hope of the health that lies in store. Okay, so thinking about fasting, we've said that it's an act of the virtue of abstinence, which itself is a kind of species of temperance, and the point is to be reasonable and kind

of super reasonable about our intake of food. All right? to be reasonable and kind of super reasonable about our intake of food. So it's not like we're supposed to be fasting every day, but we might consider fasting on certain days as an eminent or an especially characteristic act of abstinence, as a way in which to kind of testify or witness to the work of God in our life, which is reigning in those lower appetites and subjecting them to those higher appetites. In the Christian tradition, you know, like fasting was often a matter of just taking one meal.

And that's still how it's understood according to canon law, that you would take one meal. And mind you, many people find it difficult to take just one meal. And so the church permits that you would take an additional kind of like two snacks, which when added together do not amount to the size of a meal. And those are called, sometimes in the tradition, collations. So you're just trying to kind of tend to nature, right? Tend to desire without overindulging, because the point is to apply a kind of medicine. And just as medicines will sometimes involve a deprivation, so as to kind of tease out or chase out whatever it is that's trapped in the body causing it to be

foul and festering, so too with the act of fasting. And St. Thomas will say like, listen, the act of fasting isn't something that we add on, it's not something that we as Christians say like, I might prayerfully consider this as an option for my future. He says it's just called for, right? It's just called for. He says it's part of the natural law. It's something that we as human beings have to be ready to pursue or perform in light of the fact that there is this kind of disorder, right? There is this kind of tendency to incline to lower goods, this tendency to prefer lesser things to greater things. And so we're going to have to discipline ourselves. We're going to have to even mortify our flesh to some degree or extent so as to communicate in our very bodies that there

are things to be preferred and things to be preferred less. So all of us are bound to make a kind of satisfaction for the sins that we have committed in the past. All of us are bound to rectify our appetites in so far as those appetites can be out of line or out of step. And fasting, the church says, is one of the principal ways or it's one of the most excellent ways to go about it. All right? So like when you fast and how you fast, that's set down for us by the church, right? So ecclesiastical law clarifies for us what the natural law

not merely suggests, but commands. And so in current ecclesiastical law, right, we are required to fast on Ash Wednesday and on Good Friday. But then you have other encouragements to fast more regularly. So like I made mention of the Didache, which is an ancient second century document testifying to the nature of Christian worship at the time. And it said in the course of that document, the Christians fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. And there are various reasons for which I think the Didache says it's because their Jewish contemporaries fasted on different days. And so they wanted to displace those days, but you can think like Wednesday with a spy Wednesday and the anticipation of Holy Thursday.

And you can think of Friday with good Friday and then the association with our Lord's passion. All right. So, um, when we fast, we seek to, you know, kind of subject ourselves or subordinate ourselves to God's healing and growing purpose, right? So we're reigning in the desire of the flesh. Um, and St. Thomas will say, it also helps to cool lust.

So when you think about it, our desire for those most basic sense goods, food, drink, and sexual intercourse are related. They're bound up, right? Uh, because they all concern the preservation of our existence. So food and drink concern the preservation of our individual existence. And sexual intercourse concerns the preservation of our species existence. Um, but at the end of the day, they're, they're very much, they're deeply instinctual.

And as a result of which they're very urgent, right? Like I have said, super vehement. And so when you mortify one, that is to say when you reign one in, when you seek to submit one to discipline, then the other will follow in turn. So you might think of fasting as an opportunity in which to overcome habitual sexual sin or continue the process of healing and growing beyond habitual sexual sin. Okay. So reigning in the desire of the flesh specifically for cooling lust, and then

freeing the mind for the contemplation of sublime things. So people have made this observation when it comes to like narrowing your reading window, um, and to intermittent fasting. And they've made observations concerning like the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system. And when it makes most sense to digest and when it makes most sense to kind of leave yourself free from the process of digestion, because it helps to clear some of the brain fog and it helps to kind of focus you during times of intense work so that you can give yourself to the task. But not just for work, right? It's ultimately for the contemplation of the Most High God because there

are higher things and there are lower things. So like our exterior possessions are for the good of our bodies and our bodies are for the good of our souls and our souls are for the good of our souls, and our souls are for the good of God. So we should prefer the contemplation of most sublime things to the kind of rudeling around amongst the least sublime things. And so fasting helps us by disciplining us vis-a-vis lower goods to free ourselves up for the pursuit of higher goods. And then the last thing I made mention of is satisfying for sins. That we join our wills, we join our hearts to the punishment, which the Christian tradition recommends for our healing and growth. So

that way in giving our hearts and giving our souls to it, right, we would no longer find it to be punishment in the strict sense, but it become for us satisfaction. That is to say that we would make up for what is lacking by offering God a gift greater than the offense ever registered. So St. Thomas in his treatment of fasting, he quotes St. Augustine of Hippo who says, listen, fasting, he doesn't say listen, I say listen, listen, fasting purges the mind, it raises the senses, it subjects the flesh to the spirit, it makes the heart contrite and humbled, it disperses the clouds of concupiscence, it extinguishes the

ardor of libidinousness, and it lights the flame of chastity. Okay? So that gives us a kind of basic sense why we might undertake fasting, the practice of fasting, and how we might undertake the practice of fasting. You might think to yourself now, okay, what are concrete and particular ways in which I can do it? I made mention in an earlier video that my family, you know, went to Medjugorje with some frequency growing up, that my parents led pilgrimages, my dad still does, and so this was a thing we were encouraged to fast on bread and water on Wednesdays and Fridays, which is a typical thing.

If you find that oppressive, or if you find that drives you to the point of distraction, then you might just consider eating one meal, right? Deferring your one meal till mid-afternoon and then seeing if you can kind of go without taking a collation. And if you do take a collation, that's not bad, right? It's not like it was worthwhile and now it's not worthwhile.

The idea here is that you would put off eating and that you would eat less, and that you would graze less or snack less as a way by which to focus the mind and heart to offer satisfaction for sin and ultimately to discipline the appetites which need all be given unto God. All right? But again, we shouldn't fast too strictly because there can be a kind of sin in that, insofar as the discipline becomes for us an end rather than a means, or insofar as we judge ourselves worthy of the Most High God to the degree and extent that we mortify or chastise our flesh.

St. Jerome says, listen, he doesn't say listen, but I say listen, inordinate fasting is like giving stolen goods as a sacrificial offering. All right, it's not pleasing to God because it's not yours to give, right? Because you want to give to God of the integrity of yourself, not like the diminishment of yourself or the destruction of yourself, right? Because that's not yours to take. It does not pertain to you by right. So be careful not to overtax nature or like the natural will to live because that can be scaly. And St. Thomas here is obviously cognizant of the tendencies of some heretics like his contemporaries, the Manicheans, who were not only tough on the body but denigrated the

body as something evil, as something coming from a spirit other than God. So we want to be careful of that too. So the point here is to train, to discipline, to satisfy, to ultimately make of our lives an oblation or an offering to God. And we find that fasting is an excellent way by which to do just that. So in fasting, we aim to restore the inner form of man destroyed by the gratification of the palate. This is one of the sources that St. Thomas cites.

So yeah, if you have any questions about fasting, you can follow up with any number of good resources online. But keep in mind that God does not ask of us Holocaust and sin offerings. He asks of us a contrite heart. And we undertake to fast so as to offer him precisely that. Boom. All right, this is Pines with Aquinas. That was what I was hoping to share, so I pray that it is a prophet to you.

If you haven't yet, subscribe to the channel, push the bell, and get sweet ML updates when other things come out. Also, if you haven't yet checked out God's Planning, do so. It's a podcast to which I contribute with four of the Dominican friars, and we often take on subjects just like this as a way by which of helping you in your own spiritual growth and your own spiritual journey. And also we're having a retreat June 7th through 9th in Malvern, Pennsylvania at the Malvern Retreat House for persons aged 21 years and up, so you can apply for that at godsplending.org

and get more details. So know of our prayers for you, our, me and the mouse in my pocket, know of my prayers for you, please pray for me, and I'll look forward to chatting with you next time on Pines with Aquinas.