Essays on Eastern Orthodoxy
Faith, Works, Fasting, and Hand-Scooped Milkshakes
Essay on the Fast of the Dormition of the Theotokos
August 1 - 14
(Essay completed August 25, 2005)
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(Continued from p. 3.)
There's a strange interrelationship between the sorrow of repentance and the joy of resting in the grace of God. There's a strange connection between resting in the grace of God and striving hard against the passions of the soul. And this brings us full circle back to where I started: the question of works or faith. Somewhere toward the beginning of this whole fasting thing I heard an Orthodox lecturer mention, in passing, the subject of faith and works. He was a foreigner from a central European country who came to the United States to do graduate work. This was his first acquaintance with Protestants and the first time he had heard faith and works put into stark contrast with each other by a fellow Christian. (You see, in today's world the divide between faith and works is primarily a Western problem, not a Christian problem.) His response was that both formulations were wrong. We are not saved by works; neither are we saved by grace through faith (in terms of how that Pauline formula is typically formulated in the West). We are, in fact, saved by Jesus Christ. God in Christ transcends both faith and works. Likewise, God in Christ, by transcending both, embraces both faith and works. There is only a problem, when we, like the Galatians, try to break apart these two things that God himself has embraced. The problem is not works; the problem is works apart from faith.
In a sublime way the discipline of fasting forces a Christian, as weak in the faith as I, to embrace both works and faith. When one is trying to pray on a Wednesday afternoon, but can't because of a constant desire for a hamburger and milkshake, the realities of my life in God come into focus. I find that not only am I quite bad at faith, I am quite bad at works. The only option I've got is to rely on Jesus Christ himself for my salvation.
There is a wonderful prayer to Jesus Christ that is often said by Orthodox Christians, as a part of Morning Prayers, that explores the issue of works, faith, lack of faith, and desire: “And again, O Savior, save me by your grace, I pray to you. For if you should save me for my works, this would not be grace or a gift, but rather a duty, yes, you who are great in compassion and ineffable in mercy.” A bit later, the prayer continues: “Let faith instead of works be imputed to me, O my God, for you will find no works which could justify me. But may my faith suffice instead of all works, may it answer for, may it acquit me, may it make me a partaker of your eternal glory.” (Notice, the goal isn't faith, but faith is a means of becoming a partaker in God's eternal glory.) And again, a bit later, my favorite sentence of the prayer says, “But whether I desire it or not, save me, O Christ, my Savior, forestall me quickly, quickly, for I perish.”
In short, it is neither faith nor works that saves me. Only Jesus Christ. If I had to rely on my faith, I would be in trouble because some days I am faithless. If I had to rely on my works, salvation would be a duty and not a gift. Instead, I rely on the loving, faithful and ever-sure Jesus Christ, and ask that he save me, whether I desire it or not. At the same time I dare not presume upon the goodness of God, and so I work to control and destroy all other desires (that is, passions) that undermine my desire for God. This is the dynamic that lays at the heart of fasting.
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