Fast/Abstain for Self-control

St. Paul likens the secret of living a good Christian life to winning a race contest (2 Tim. 4:7). He also likens the secret of effective preaching to chastizing his body (2 Tim. 2:9).

In human terms both secrets entail self-control of one’s bodily needs. These are the needs of the five senses: seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling. Self-control is developed and acquired by voluntary self-sacrifice, that is, by depriving oneself of the five sensory pleasures. Self-deprivation or self-mortification is another word for fasting and abstaining.

The main reason for fasting from food and abstaining from meat is to acquire the grace of a strong will power to avoid or to lessen the attraction of the pleasures arizing from the senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. The acquisition of Christian virtues like faith, hope, love, humility, prudence, chastity, etc. require self-control which is the grace of a strong will-power.

The Lenten Season refers to 40 days of struggling to acquire self-control through fasting and abstinence.