I apologize to my fellow members, the link posted for Fr. Cantalamessa’s article in post # 11 doesn’t work. This one does
ewtn.com/library/SPIRIT/FASTING.HTM
One potential pitfall I can see with not ascribing a 40 day time period to the fasting of Moses when he was with God, or with Christ when he was led into the desert by the Spirit, is that if it is not explained properly, or not understood within its proper context, it can have an erosive effect. Unfortunately the front-line casualties of the erosive effect can be the beliefs/faith of those who are simple of heart. Our faith can be such an awesome and beautiful thing when cultivated in an unencumbered heart.
While teaching/sharing the truths of our faith , any time we enter into the sphere of speculative thought, we have the added responsibility of not attacking, destroying, weakening or removing the faith of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ; their faith is precious, and we are not all at the same absorption level when it comes to speculative thought. So it would be my hope to demonstrate that there really isn’t anything wrong with believing Moses fasted for 40 days when he was with God. In my limited opinion, certain philosophies and/ or the way they are presented sometimes tend towards a brashness or carelessness when it comes to considering the faith of the simple of heart.
It isn’t to belittle the “hidden and grace-filled message” of the number 40 in the bible, the concept of which has no lack of supporters, and I agree ,as a fellow member posted, that fasting is meant to promote an encounter with the divine. Fr Cantalamessa uses the words of the prophet Joel [2:12] to make that point: “Even now," declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting…” However, I can’t help being at least somewhat leery when someone says, “not a measure of time”.
Recall that as humans, we need tangible means of nourishing our faith. In order to be an event, in order for anything to be an historical fact in this world as we know it, there have to be coordinates for time and space: It had to happen somewhere and it had to happen during an interval of time … even a nanosecond; otherwise it didn’t happen, humanly speaking. And this is the point, people can be inadvertently led to misinterpret particular speculative commentaries through no fault of their own.
Even miracles in our world need time and space coordinates to explain them. Almost every time we form a sentence, it is either past, present, future, conditional - always permeated by time.
No matter how we claim ( relative to the biblical passages mentioned) that today the quantitative element does not have so much bearing … it does. Actually, in order for anyone to believe that Moses or Jesus did indeed fast as the scriptures say, they have to hold some type of quantitative (both temporal and spatial) value of it in their minds (even if they have trouble admitting it
) .
In the case we are considering, speculation itself may encourage us not to place a precise definitive numeric value on the measurement of time during which Jesus and Moses fasted when they were “with God” . However, even speculation has a set of rules by which it must abide :
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In order for the “fast” to indeed be a “fast”, it would have to be of a temporal interval above the point of convergence. In other words, it would have had to last reasonably longer than the regular period between meals… or there is no fast at all. Add on top of this, the time it took for Moses to write all the words God had told him to … if you believe the story at all – and this is where it can lead. We can actually begin to inadvertently empty sacred scripture of its supernatural content to the point where subjective belief begins to wane.
…Just to confirm: my own view here is solely of Moses and Jesus fasting 40 days while they were “with God”. I’m not considering Jonas, Goliath, the deluge in Genesis, the other times the number 40 appears in the accounts of the OT including the 40 year oppression by the Phillistines in the Book of Judges.
To concede a point, we can’t take all scripture literally - we do have to read into it. If we had taken Matt 5:29-30 literally, about 90% of all Christians (the honest ones, anyway) would be missing at least one eye and a hand.
If people wish to speculate that Jesus and Moses fasted for a number of days other than 40 … that’s their prerogative I suppose. I wonder though, with Moses as the principal Old Testament figure, and Jesus as God, as Perfection, as the Alpha and the Omega and as the principal New Testament figure and the Promised One…whether 40 days may have been the most fitting amount of time to fast … a type of prophetic fulfillment, if you will.
In any event (considering solely the fasting of Moses and of Jesus when they were “with God”), Father Raniero Cantalamessa – Preacher to the Papal Household, doesn’t seem to have a problem saying, “Moses fasted for forty days” so I don’t see why we should …
Sure !!.. we could always ask Fr. Cantalamessa exactly what he meant by that :ehh: . But as stated before , everyone who believes Moses and Jesus fasted, according to the biblical accounts, has to have some type of quantitative idea in their heads as to how many days the fast lasted.
The number in my head is: 40 days?
How about yours ?
- (Hint: If you choose a number other than 40 days, be a faithful speculator and make it above 10 days; as the OP posted and as some expert accounts I’ve read, without water a human being would die after between 7-9 days – 10 if you’re strong. If you choose a number lower than these you’re not allowing adequate plausibility for the miraculous to have occurred… if you still believe the scriptural accounts )
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