“What do I have to do?” This is a common question in church life. “That feast isn’t a Holy Day of Obligation this year? So I don’t have to go?” There was a time when people didn’t need so many rules because they were a community that followed Apostolic tradition for spiritual benefit. “What did the Fathers do? Who am I to put my personal preference above them?” This moves from a sense of obligation to a sense of opportunity and ethos. Rather than asking “What do I have to do?” you might ask “What can I do?” In other words, “What will make me a more fully formed Christian? What is the tried and true practice of the ancient and eternal Church? I don’t want to miss out on anything that can help me to become more holy and grounded in the ancient faith!”
The Eucharistic FastWe can apply this to the Eucharistic fast. From time immemorial, the Church has fasted from the night before receiving the Eucharist. Tertullian described the Eucharist as “the first food of the day” in the 3rd century. Church councils declared this standard practice in the 4th century. In the 5th century, St. Augustine wrote, “It has pleased the Holy Ghost that, to honor so great a Sacrament, the Lord’s Body should enter the mouth of the Christian before other food.” Our fathers in the faith came to a universal consensus that this is how we approach our Lord in the Eucharist.
A change for good?But this recently changed. The initial impetus was to accommodate those who have to travel or work after midnight–something more common in an industrialized society. For this purpose, water was allowed after midnight in 1953. A few years later, the minimum fast was changed to three hours. But in 1964 the requirement was changed to only one hour. The answer to the question “what do we have to do” for a Eucharistic fast now brings us to a bare minimum that is virtually no fast at all. But the faithful can still choose to fast longer. Does a one hour fast help you prepare for communion? Does that help you to regard the Holy Mysteries with reverence and discern the Body of Christ with wonder?
Principles for growth
Jesus answered the Tempter by quoting Scripture:
“Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that precedes from the mouth of God.” (Mt 4:4)Along these lines, we can consider these words from the Cherubic Hymn in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom: “No one given to carnal lusts and pleasures is worthy, O King of Glory, to meet or approach You or to celebrate your Liturgy: for to minister unto You is great and awesome even for the very powers of heaven.”
In the end, we only approach these mysteries by God’s mercy because, on one level, we are always unworthy. Yet we can also say, “You are the One who offer and are offered, who receive and are distributed, Christ our God.” For this reason, we approach our Lord with our deepest gratitude and reverence, and this is helped by a Eucharistic fast. Tradition is often described as dead when we don’t understand why it was handed down in the first place. But with understanding, the traditions of the fathers keep us alive. The Eucharistic fast became a universal tradition because it comes from roots planted in fertile soil.
In Christ,
Fr. Scharbach