May we see this as a season not of lack, but of embracing deepening intimacy found in unbroken authentic communion with the Father, a “renewal fast” made possible by the Incarnation, Resurrection, and indwelling Holy Spirit, in advance of the time of leading up to Easter celebration. Can the joy of the Resurrection Celebration really be thoroughly experienced without the “giving things up” in the fast? What is the spirit of Lent? Let us look back to tradition in the early church. Eastern Orthodox liturgy and theology expresses that Adam “ate apart” from God. He entered into the world of self-sufficiency and independence from God, so much so that he hid. He believed the lie that the one restricted fruit was for his own well-being had life and could then become like God instead of trusting the very words of God and embracing relationship with God. The boundary was a certain fruit upon the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Accepting that instruction, trusting God, limited the excess of human freedom. By design, Adam was to thrive in the boundary set, dependent upon God for life – for food. Was not God’s instruction an abstinence from the one fruit, not all fruit? In a sense then, did they not break the boundary, the restriction placed for well-being, a “fast” from the one fruit that provided unbroken communion with God? Continue reading →