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In this recording, Archimandrite Athanasios Mytilinaios (1927-2006), answers the question: “Why do we eat fish during the Nativity Fast and not some other kind of meat? The first element of fasting is obedience. The Church says that we can eat fish. That is where the whole point is and not in the kind of food.” He shows the spiritual significance of fasting, the role of obedience, and how plant-based proteins sharpen the mind.
Audio source: “Answers to Catechism questions“, no. 981 (in Greek), December 15, 1996
Archimandrite Athanasios:
Another related query goes: please answer the following question: why do we eat fish during the Nativity Fast and not some other kind of meat? We could choose not to eat any kind of meat, namely animal-based proteins, as we do during the Great Lent. Clearly, during that period, we avoid all animal-based proteins and rely on plant-based proteins instead. I would be delighted if a child, anyone of you, raised his hand and asked me: where can we find plant-based proteins? Go ahead.
– Plant-based proteins can be found in soybeans, in beans
– Ιn bean soups! Do you know how bean soup is called? The poor man’s meat! So, if we eat plant-based proteins, that is legumes, which we have banished from our diets, then we are adequately nourished. Do you want proof? Go ahead
– Can I add something?
– Yes
– When we eat bean soup and brown bread, we obtain all the proteins we need, almost as if we were eating meat.
– Exactly! Mark my words, this part concerns you, eating plant-based proteins sharpens our minds. On the contrary, eating endless amounts of meat and all those indulgent foods and strong drinks of our time, clouds our minds. Do you want an example? The three youths of Babylon. We refer to their situation in our prayer during the offering of antidoron (ipsoma). Observe the prayer when the priest raises the offering. He says that these three youths stood out brighter and better than the other delicately nurtured young men of Babylon. Who is called delicately nurtured? The one who eats delicately, worries if he finds a bone in his food or his mouth and wants “everything soft, everything delightful, everything tasty, everything plump and fatty.”
It says that these three youths stood out brighter than the other delicately nurtured youths of Babylon, and then the prayer follows. In other words, kids, these three youths asked not to eat meat but legumes instead. The head chef panicked, fearing punishment from Nebuchadnezzar, because he had ordered them to eat from the royal table, but they pleaded: “Test us for ten days, and if you see that we are getting thinner, then you can feed us from the royal table like the rest. It was a peculiar political organization. Nebuchadnezzar took all the youths of the nations that he subdued and turned them to satraps with Babylonian sentiment in order to govern their own countries. They were similar to the Janissaries. Do you know what was the outcome? When Nebuchadnezzar tested himself what the youths had learned from the Babylonian literature, all were rejected, except these three young men. Can you imagine? You can understand that we suffer no harm when our diet is primarily plant-based, on the contrary, we perform better in our studies.
Now, let us return to the primary question: why do we eat fish during the Nativity Fast and not some other kind of meat? Fish, in the hierarchy of fasting, is ranked as follows: first, we have absolute fasting, meaning that we eat nothing at all (ni-siteia), that is no-eating, no food, we stay completely unfed. Nevertheless, we can eat dry foods the so-called 9th hour, at 3 o clock, once a day (xerophagy). Then we move to oil-free foods, then to oil-based foods. Eating oil-based foods is considered a discontinuation of the fasting according to the Canons. Then fish follows. Eating fish is considered a discontinuation of the fasting, though not completely, as it comes after oil in the ranking. Next come dairy products and lastly meat which is considered a full discontinuation of the fasting. So, fish comes after oil. If you ask me if eating meat (from land animals) is similar to eating fish, I would advise you the following: this matter is not important, do you know what is? That if our Church says that we can eat fish, it is a matter of obedience. Fasting is a matter of obedience. Fasting that isn’t rooted in obedience is considered pointless.
What was the fruit the “protoplasts”, the first humans, were forbidden to eat? It was just a fruit. Could this be considered suitable for fasting today? No. So what is the point of fasting? Obedience. Our Church tells us that today that is St. Eleftherios day, we can consume oil. We can because our Church says so. Consequently, the first element of fasting is obedience. The Church says that we can eat fish. That is where the whole point is and not in the kind of food. Some people wonder why we can consume olives and not oil, or why we can consume oil and not olives. Why doesn’t the Church forbid olives since they contain oil? Do you think that wheat doesn’t contain oil? Same as corn (known as corn-oil)? Many foods contain oil. But the issue is not that we mustn’t eat this or that because they contain oil. That’s why we eat olives. It is a matter of obedience. The Church does not forbid olives, it forbids olive oil. Praise be to God, we can eat olives. That is all.
