The answer
St. Basil believes that it is befitting for the believer to count fasting as a celebration of rest and the sabbath. The believer, his servants, and all the workers in his house, should mark the fast by not only finding spiritual rest, but also devoting the time normally given to cooking to spiritual worship instead. He says, “The butcher puts down his knife and the table is content with plants. The Sabbath was given to the Jews, it says, that your donkey and your manservant might rest (Ex. 20:10). Let fasting be for your household servants a rest from their perpetual labors, seeing that they serve you for the whole year. Give your meat cook a rest. Give your tablesetter a holiday. Stay the hand of your winepourer. Give some time off to your pastry chef, who makes a variety of desserts. Give your household some quiet from the endless clamor, from the smoke and cooking aromas, and from the servants who run up and down to cater to your stomach as if it were an imperious lady. As a matter of fact, even tax collectors permit their subordinates a little freedom. Your stomach should also give your mouth a kind of vacation and agree to a five-day truce with us [his audience was about to begin a five-day fast], seeing that it makes endless demands but never ceases.”434
Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty
Notes
434 St. Basil of Caesarea, On Fasting and Feasts 1.7 (PP 50:64).