The First Breakfast

"Today people fast for all kinds of reasons, including sometimes political reasons.  It is important, therefore, to discern the uniquely Christian content of fasting.  It is first of all revealed to us in the interdependence between two events which we find in the Bible:  one at the beginning of the Old Testament and the other at the beginning of the New Testament.  The first event is the "breaking of the fast" by Adam in Paradise.  He ate of the forbidden fruit.  This is how our original sin is revealed to us.  Christ, the New Adam--and this is the second event--begins by fasting.  Adam was tempted and he succumbed to temptation.  The results of Adam's failure are expulsion from Paradise and death.  The fruits of Christ's victory are the destruction of death and our return to Paradise."

--Alexander Schememann