The Lord said: “However, this kind (of demons) does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” (Matthew 17:21)
Thus, the Lord Himself reveals that fasting possesses such great power that it drives away demons—our worst enemies. But why is this so?
“He fears it like the devil fears incense,” says a popular proverb.
The devil is not afraid of the incense sold in shops, but of the incense offered to the Lord, precisely because it is offered to Him.
In other words, even if we were to offer a single hair to the Lord, because that hair would now belong to Him, it would become a burning fire to the devil. He could neither bear to look at it nor even hear its name.
Yes! That single hair would become a source of fear and terror to the supposedly “almighty” devil!
If that single hair, simply because it has been dedicated to the Lord, becomes like a “nuclear bomb” to the devil, then imagine what fasting means to him—the abstinence from food undertaken by a Christian in the name of Christ.
“Lord, even the demons obey us when we command them in Your name” (Luke 10:17), said the Seventy disciples to the Lord.
By saying this, they revealed how difficult it is to make demons submit—to compel them to leave a person whom they have possessed.
Could the devil, the most wicked of all, possibly abandon his victim, a human being, merely because another human being demands it?
This can happen only through the invocation of the name of Christ. It can also happen through fasting undertaken in the name of Christ.
Once, a demon-possessed man was brought to a monastic skete. An Elder made the sign of the Cross over him, invoking the name of Christ, and the demon came out of the man.
Then the demon said to the Elder:
“Now that you have driven me out of this man, I am coming into you.”
“Come!” replied the Elder. “It will be my pleasure.”
And so, with the Elder’s permission, the demon entered the Elder’s soul.
From that moment onward, the Elder began to fast even more strictly, eating only twelve date pits (not the fruit itself!) each day.
This ascetic struggle continued for twelve years. The Elder’s fasting was a torment to the devil, yet the demon endured it!
Eventually, however, the demon could bear it no longer and departed from the Elder.
“Why are you leaving? Stay a little longer!” the Elder said to him.
The demon replied:
“Only God Himself can destroy you!”(The Evergetinos, Volume II, Hypothesis XV, Chapter VI, 1)
Take heed! The devil fears fasting undertaken in the name of Christ, not dieting undertaken for the sake of maintaining a slim figure.
Next in this series: Fasting and Theology
Leave a Reply