Starve the devil within
Lessons from Jesus Christ
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If you’re fasting during Lent and Ramadan, but your heart is filled with pride and lust, you’ve failed. You’ve lost the purpose of this season.
The point of fasting is not fasting from food. Many make this mistake. They think that if they fast from food and implement strict ascetic practices during this season, they’ve succeeded.
No.
The point is to annihilate our transient self, our pride, our hunger for vanity and self-glorification, to grow in love and wisdom.
You could spend the next 40 days in the harsh Judean desert like Jesus fasting, yet if you’ve not overcome that pride or lust, my friend, you are as good as the devil who tempted Christ in the desert.
Muslims and Christians who are “serious” with their faith will practice fasting during Ramadan and Lent—yet many misunderstand it.
Some fast all day, but in the evening gorge like a glutton till their stomachs hate them. Their lips stay dry, but their hearts drip with lust for their neighbour’s wife. They resist hunger, but their minds continually relish vain glory. They refrain from water, but their hearts run dry of love.
What then is the point of fasting if, throughout this season, you keep harbouring anger against your brothers and sisters, sheltering your lust in your heart?
Do you not see the foolishness of all this? You’re not fasting—you’re getting tricked by the devil, my friend.
The etymology of Ramadan is ramida (رَمِضَ) meaning “becoming glowing and intense burning” after holiness. That’s what fasting is pointing us towards.
So we must become like Christ in the desert who overcame the devil by understanding the true purpose of fasting—becoming holy.
Till next week,
Peace!
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