Dear Baba

Dear Baba; Can you please explain all these fasts to me?  I understand Great Lent and to an extent Nativity Lent but am not so certain why we have two more fasts in the summer.  I know what we need to do physically during the fasts but I’m not sure of the spiritual purpose.

My dear friend, I’m so glad you’ve stopped by with your questions.  Come let’s sit down over a cup of tea and some of these fresh fruits just in from the garden and let’s talk about all these Lents we have.  Yours is indeed a very good question and I think it is absolutely essential we know why we are doing something beyond just the mechanics of how to do it.

As you know, we Orthodox have four Lenten periods during the year in addition to specific fast days.  We spend more than half the year fasting.  So let’s start first with what we mean by the year.  We are talking here about the liturgical year and not the calendar year.  Our Liturgical Year begins on September 1 not January 1.   If you look at the cycle of feasts, they fall perfectly into this Liturgical Year which is a microcosm of mankind’s salvation history.   In September the first feast of the New Year is on September 8 – the Nativity of the Theotokos.   The last major feast is the Dormition of the Theotokos on August 15.  

Man could not on his own close the chasm between heaven and earth that we created in the fall.  We could come up to the chasm but not bridge it.  It took God reaching out to us to make that happen and it took cooperation between Creator and His creation.  That bridge to counter the disobedience in the garden came in the form of the obedience of the Theotokos.  Salvation history then begins with her birth and is culminated in what is the hope of every Christian – perfect union with God and in God after our earthly lives have drawn to a close.  In between those events, we have the life of the church which is made up of each one of our individual lives.

Every Lenten period is a time of preparation.  But it is important to note my dear, it is a time of preparation for us.  God has acted and given His grace freely – He doesn’t need to prepare for anything.  We, however, need to receive it which of course takes preparation.  As crazy busy as we’ve allowed our lives to become, we need that preparation more than ever.

And as you said my dear, those are pretty obvious in their intent.  It is the summer fasts that we often forget about and perhaps don’t really stop to realize what we need to be preparing for.  The Apostles Fast which varies in length depending on when Pentecost falls is perhaps the most forgotten and misunderstood.  But let’s take a look at it from its place in our salvation history year. 

We have prepared for the coming of the Lord in His Nativity.  We have prepared for and received the blessings of Pascha.  What do we do with that?  What have we been called to do with that? 

We were not told to go warm a pew somewhere and keep all those blessings to ourselves.  We have been given the great commission to go forth and baptize all nations.   The Apostles Fast therefore is very much the fast to prepare us for our mission work in the world – to spread the light of Christ where there is darkness.  And believe me my dear, there is plenty of work to be done.  The fields are white with harvest.    What better examples than Sts. Peter and Paul to use as our focus to prepare ourselves for our work here on earth to share the abundant blessings of Our Lord and Savior and to bring salvation to all the world.

And then, as our liturgical year and our life’s work comes to a close, we honor her who is the ultimate example of a Christian – the most blessed Theotokos.   We ponder the great beauty of her falling asleep knowing that we too shall one day stand at that threshold.   A friend of mine once explained the icon of the Dormition to me and I have to say it made quite an impact.  I had looked at it before as an icon of a historical event – the Theotokos on her deathbed surrounded by the Apostles (of course minus Thomas who has been called on more than once to help dissipate uncertainty and doubt).  In the mandorla over her, stands Christ – showing that in addition to the historical, witnessed facts is a truth seen by our spiritual eyes.   I had seen it many times without stopping to realize that in His arms He is holding the Theotokos’ soul wrapped in swaddling clothes.  What a powerful juxtaposition of the icon of the Nativity.  Here on earth she swaddled Him and cared for Him – pulled lovingly close to her heart.  And now she is swaddled in His arms, pulled lovingly close to His heart for all eternity.  Is that not the joy and desire of every Christian?  Is it not indeed the very deepest desire of our lives?

And what if we look back on this past liturgical year as it is drawing to a close and gasp at how much of it we squandered?  The church in her wisdom knows we all fall short so we are called to stop, reflect, go to confession and then we begin anew on September 1.  Make your new year’s resolution to live a year in the rhythm of this liturgical year.  There will be no fancy slogans of “God is great in ’98” or any other one time zinger.  Fall into the pattern of the feasts and the fasts and seize the blessing of this new liturgical year about to dawn for us.

Use this time of Dormition Lent to think through your life and the life of the Theotokos.  There is a beautiful icon that is often in the apse behind the altar of many churches of the Theotokos with the Christ-child in her womb.  It goes by several names including “more spacious than the heavens” and “until Christ be formed in you.”   It is located in the apse which architecturally connects the ceiling and the floor (representing heaven and earth if you like the symbolism as much as I do).  Her obedience to God’s will and allowing her womb to become the heavenly throne and contain the Uncontainable was mankind’s side of the bridge that brought heaven and earth together. 

So my dear, the question becomes – how have we architecturally built our lives?  What is in the apse of our heart?  The fast is a time to quiet the drone of the noise of our lives and see what really is honored in the temple that is our body.  Is there stuff that needs to be cleaned out?  If you are like most of us, the answer is a resounding yes. 

So we are called to once again pray, fast and draw closer to God.   We can let the light of God shine a little deeper each time we fast and each year as we genuinely experience the liturgical cycle.  It isn’t just another repetitive task, just another fast or yet another feast - but true work that needs to be done in each one of us.  Let’s journey together my dear and we can help each other along the way as we grow closer to the source of all life, truth, and love.

With enveloping hugs;
Baba