Page 135 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

P R AY E R A N D FA S T I N G
existence, that the world is not given to us for our domination,
but as a gift to be received in humility and thanksgiving.
In fasting, we are liberated from the tyranny of necessity.
We discover that we can live not only by taking, but by offering;
not only by consuming, but by restraining ourselves for the
sake of others.
Thus, fasting becomes a struggle against self-love. And self-
love, whether individual or collective—whether personal,
national, or social—is the source of all division, conflict, and
death. It gives rise to enmity, to violence, to war. It isolates the
human being and ultimately leads him into the very death he
seeks to escape.
Therefore, evil will begin to recede only when man ceases
to place himself at the center of the world.
This is why the Church, especially in the season of Great
Lent, calls us to prayer and fasting. These are not external
disciplines, nor empty forms. They touch the deepest layers of
our being. They are matters of life and death.
And yet, significantly, the Church suspends fasting when
celebrating the Divine Eucharist. Why? Because in the
Eucharist we do not struggle—we celebrate. We partake of the
victory over evil, we taste the Kingdom where death is no
more. Fasting prepares us for this reality; the Eucharist reveals
it.
Thus, ascetic struggle and eucharistic joy belong together.
One leads to the other. A life without prayer and fasting, then,
is not merely incomplete—it is already a form of death. For it
is a life turned inward upon itself, a life that reduces the world
to the measure of the ego.
But a life shaped by prayer and fasting becomes a life of
openness—toward God and toward others. It becomes a life
of love and mercy.
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