The Fast

ELIZABETH YATES MC GREAL

We read in the Bible that from time to time periods of fasting were instituted among the Israelites, but these early lost their significance. True prayer, springing from reformation and devotion, was set aside for form and ceremony. Isaiah, burning with the consciousness of national wrongdoing, exposed the falsity of such ways, urging the people to replace an empty form with a true fast.

Lifting up his voice like a trumpet, the prophet cried: Why had they fasted and God not heeded? Because even at the moment of their fasting they were pursuing their accustomed paths. What could it profit them to abstain from food when they did not abstain from strife and wickedness? An inward yearning after the perfection of God, evidenced outwardly in a turning away from all unlike God, was the prayer that would be answered.

Leaning toward material forms of religion rather than the searching of the heart shows itself in varied ways. Rebuking this tendency, our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, says in her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 (pp. 16, 17), "Fasting, feasting, or penance,—merely outside forms of religion,—fail to elucidate Christianity: they reach not the heart nor renovate it; they never destroy one iota of hypocrisy, pride, self-will, envy, or hate. The mere form of godliness, coupled with selfishness, worldliness, hatred, and lust, are knells tolling the burial of Christ."

Isaiah's ringing message confronts us today. "Is not this the fast that I have chosen?" he asks; while the questions in the verses following establish forever the true fast. They challenge us to separate error from our thought of others; to relieve the suffering and sorrowful; to break the bondage of mortal beliefs. Such thinking is preparatory to speaking the word of Truth unhesitatingly, and bringing those who have been wandering in a wilderness of doubt into a knowledge of the Christ, so leading them to take a firm stand in their work and not fear the opinion of friend or kin.

Practical activity replaces the empty form for those who accept the prophet's challenge. The only fast is that from material beliefs, which hinder a full understanding of God and man. Christian Science teaches that man reflects God, and therefore expresses the fullness of God; that man is idea, therefore forever one with his divine source, for "Principle and its idea is one," as Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 465). "Fast" is derived from a word which is akin to the word meaning firm. The true fast is surely that which enables us to hold firmly and strongly to the truth about man, God's idea. What comfort this brings, and what power, as we reject the lying imposition of a mortal concept and hold fast to the true.

The yoke of material beliefs and personal opinions must be finally laid aside, as well as censure, criticism, or "the putting forth of the finger," and each one must be ready to serve in the establishment of God's kingdom. The realization of God's ever-presence brings with it the realization of man's relationship to God, a sonship pure and perfect, which has always been intact. This is the truth that guides and satisfies, enabling all who receive it to build up their desolate places—the hope that has been delayed, the faith that has been darkened, the love that has turned to bitterness. So swiftly, so surely, are these replaced by the hope that knows only victory, the faith that transcends fear, the love enriching all, that the structure of right thinking rises with the knowledge that never in any way was it impaired, except in a false human sense that has been destroyed.

The true fast reveals the true man made in the image of God, reflecting the beauty and power of God, expressing the infinite ideas of God. The truth about the real man is the truth about each one of us. This fact, entertained in consciousness, enables us to ride upon the high places of the earth. To those consciously living in Spirit, only things spiritual are real. Matter has no claims to make where God, Spirit, is the only and ultimate Lawgiver. To this end, our Leader has written in Science and Health (p. 14), "Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man's dominion over the whole earth."

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