Fasting, hungering

One of my readers, a Filipino-American who prefers to be called Mrs. G for now, recently offered to extend scholarships to two students in my college. After she wrote one of the students informing him of the scholarship, he was ecstatic and wrote back, “Now I can eat properly and not be hungry every month.”

I know the cynical among you will think, “Ang OA (overacting) naman,” but I can tell you, there are students who do go hungry, involuntarily, at the University of the Philippines, and of course all over the country.  Mrs. G herself said she cried on reading the e-mail from the grateful scholar because she recalled her own difficult life as a working student many years back, as a high school and college student.

What’s involved here isn’t the usual youthful skipping of meals that we all went through at one time or another, sometimes because we were so busy studying but more often because there were other more exciting extracurricular pursuits.

It’s different with the kind of students Mrs. G is supporting: These are people who sometimes end up doing involuntary fasts, skipping a whole day’s meals or scrimping and taking very light, and cheap, meals, usually instant noodles without anything added. I interviewed one of the students who was applying for a scholarship and was shocked to see how skinny he was. It wasn’t your typical tall and lanky adolescent male build but very obvious undernutrition.

Religious fasts

My e-mail exchange with Mrs. G about hunger among students took place, appropriately, on  Eid’l Fitr, the end of the Ramadan, during which all Muslims who have reached the age of puberty are obligated to fast from sunrise to sunset, not taking in food or beverages. Strict Muslims sometimes will not even swallow their saliva, and others will not take medicine, which can be a problem for those with chronic ailments like diabetes. I always remind my medical students to counsel Muslim patients and remind them that the sick are exempted from fasting. The Koran (2:185) prescribes: “And whosoever of you is present, let him fast the month, and whosoever of you is sick or on a journey, a number of other days. Allah desires for you ease; He desires not hardship for you; and that you should complete the period, and that you should magnify Allah for having guided you, and that perhaps you may be thankful.”

Different forms of fasting are found in many religions, usually meant not just as sacrifices but also to allow deeper reflection on one’s faith. Thus, during Ramadan, Muslims abstain not just from food and drink but also from sexual activity, and are asked to discipline themselves, curbing emotions like anger.

During Ramadan, blessings from good deeds are said to be multiplied, so Muslims are exhorted to pray more during this period, read the Koran, and do more charitable acts. Some Muslims will in fact prepare a large iftar—the meal at the end of the day to break the fast—to share with other people, including the poor.  Wealthy Muslims’ iftar may become a banquet, serving hundreds of guests in a public venue.

Eastern Orthodox and Greek Catholics still consider fasting an important part of their religiosity, to strengthen both body and soul. The fasting is to control gluttony, as well as lust. Like Muslims, Orthodox Catholics accompany the fasting with prayer and alms-giving.

It is a pity that fasting has become a minor and often lax obligation among most other Christian churches, including Roman Catholics. I still remember in my youth how older Catholics would try to fast throughout Lent, fasting then defined as limiting one’s food to one full meal and two smaller meals or collations, without any snacks or, woe to the Filipino, merienda in between. Today, fasting is limited to Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Most of us complain when we have to do an overnight fast in preparation for a blood sugar test. Yet in the past, Catholics who wanted to take Holy Communion had to do a Eucharistic fast, lasting overnight. That’s now been reduced to a 3-hour fast before Communion, and I don’t think anyone’s strict about that.

I worry, though, that the idea of “religious obligations” reduces religion to do’s and don’ts.  The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, in a 1985 statement on penance, says it “exhorts (but does not command)” when it comes to penitential practices. We do need to hear more on the spirit in which these practices were formulated.  For example, people would abstain from meat on Lenten Fridays, but prepare sumptuous meals of lobsters and prawns, defeating the purposes of abstinence as a form of sacrifice.

More than penance

The Bible has many references to fasting, as atonement, as strengthening of the spirit, and as spiritual reflection. There is another side to fasting that is less known, and is well explained in Isaiah 58:6-7: “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house, when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”

Muslims and Christians need to highlight the importance of fasting and abstinence as forms of solidarity with the poor, as well as others who go hungry because they are refugees from natural disasters and wars. So, yes, the hungry students come in here, too, and Mrs. G goes a step further beyond fasting with her scholarships.

I should mention that voluntary fasts have health benefits, something recognized early in time as shown in the passage in verse 8 of the book of Daniel: “Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.”  The medical research findings are mostly from animal studies but there is a growing number of studies among humans as well, showing benefits from intermittent fasting for people with chronic ailments like cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. So, perhaps the multiplied blessings that Islam speaks of from Ramadan’s fasting come from these health dividends.

Ultimately, though, I still think the multiplied blessings are those of greater common good for society.  Fasting, going hungry voluntarily, should make us hunger more for justice.

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