Aug
04
2007
Lauren Winner on Fasting
“I’m beginning to understand some of the benefits of fasting; I’m beginning to see that I recognize my dependence on God more clearly when I’m hungry; I’m beginning to chip away at some of the stupor that comes with always being sated. I’ve not achieved that highly evolved state where I look forward to it. I wish there were an easier, less annoying way to reap the fruits of fasting, but I don’t think there is. What fasting is slowly teaching me is the simple lesson that I am no utterly subject to my bodily desires.
“I’ll admit here that cheese is my favorite food. I especially like sharp white cheddar cheese. I would eat it at every meal if I could. One day I realized I’d done just that; I had eaten cheese at the last six meals. So I decided I’d take just three days off, eat no cheese until Thursday (when I had plans to meet a friend at the pizza parlor). This seemingly small gustatory sacrifice was a mini-revelation. On Tuesday, for example, I found myself at a cafeteria for lunch, and there was yummy looking mac and cheese. The world would not have ended if I’d eaten some. I don’t think God was sitting in heaven jotting notes to Himself about my cheese intake. But in passing up the cheese, I got the inkling of a lesson – I am not captive to this desire. I can pass the mac and cheese up. I can say, “Nope, today I’m fasting from cheese.”
“St. Francis of Assisi famously called his body “Brother Ass.” It is fasting, I think, that helps us say to our body, “You are Brother (or Sister), but you are also Ass.” Fasting, in other words, is the practice that most obviously helps us learn to discipline our physical selves.”
- Lauren Winner, from Real Sex: The Naked Truth about Chastity