The commandment of men or God?

As Lent begins, this story from the 4th century Egyptian desert serves as a reminder that there are sometimes good reasons to lighten whatever you have taken on for Lent for the sake of another:

They made a rule in Scete that they would fast a whole week before celebrating Easter. But it happened that in the week some brethren came to Abbot Moses, from Egypt, and he cooked them a little vegetable stew. And when they saw the smoke coming up from his cell, the clerics of the church that is in Scete exclaimed: Look, there is Moses breaking the rule, and cooking food in his cell. When he comes up here we’ll tell him a thing or two. But when the Sabbath came, the clerics saw the great holiness of Abbot Moses, and they said to him: O Abbot Moses, you have broken the commandment of men, but have strongly bound the commandment of God.