What tires the body is not fasting but eating

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III









What tires the body is not fasting but eating.

Overeating, indigestion, eating between meals, etc... all leads to bodily exhaustion. Moreover, the body is also fatigued from the extra heat energy generated by foods consumed beyond man's need, and we have discussed this issue before here on st-takla.org in other pages. How great are the sicknesses brought about by overeating.

Therefore, you have to liberate yourselves from the idea that fasting hurts your health.

Nursing mothers incorrectly assume out of their love and concern for the health of their children, that they must be chubby and full. They assume that this is a sign of good health although an overweight person is weaker in health than a slim one.

Wrong motherly affection is used to prevent children from fasting or discouraged. We say that this affection is erroneous because it did not concern itself with the son's soul as it did with his body, as if they are only responsible for their sons' bodies only. In their concern for their children’s bodily health, they neglect the nourishment of their souls.

Despite this, saintly children used to fast.

An example of these is given by Saint Mark, the hermit on Mount Antonius, who started fasting in his early childhood and kept on fasting through out his life.

Likewise was Saint Shenouda, the father of hermits, who at the age of nine, used to give his food away to shepherds and pray standing up while fasting, till sunset.

To the young and old, fasting bestows health and strength. It freed their bodies from their extra fat and water.

Many saintly bodies have kept from decay, all because of God's blessing that preserved them as a reward for their faithfulness. On the other hand, because their bodies had little in the way of fat and dampness, the causes of decay.

Meat can be preserved without decay for a long time if it is exposed to heat which rids it of its water content and dissolves its fat which dries it up and preserve it. To the some extent were the bodies of saints who, through fasting were without fat and excess water. Thus, decay could not touch them.

However, why should we concentrate on the body? Is fasting a virtue for the body alone?