As a season changes in Church, as the colors change, the music changes, the services get longer, the icon changes, and so forth. How does our body share in this except through fasting, except through imitating a change in its normal procedure. It can involve food, entertainment, sex, in fact, any aspect of our daily and routine lives. The Church's emphasis on fasting is precisely a reflection of this materialism. We all know the feeling we have for something when we have an investment in it.
People always try to protect their investment.
This is natural. Here we find a rejection of the world, not in an absolute sense, but in a relative sense. The world in itself is valuable only when it is seen in its relationship to God. Food is the most obvious example. Everyone agrees that eating, after breathing, is the most necessary and normal activity of our life.