CONCERNING FASTING. DOMINICA V OF FASTING.
A It is time, brethren, that we should gather the fruits of repentance through fasting. For, indeed, summer and autumn are suited to the gathering of fruits; winter and springtime for sowing; but for fasting and prayer, every time is suitable. For the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast. If, therefore, this work escapes us at other times, behold now the acceptable time to labor in this field. I call fasting a field, because it admits us all to labor and to sowing: it does not reject the woman, nor the old man, nor the youth, nor little children; it opens its doors to all, and welcomes all, that it may save all, even as it saved the Ninevites. The seed of fasting is good, because it uproots our sins like thorns, and raises up righteousness like a flower, and brings it to bloom; the labor of fasting is good, because it renders the burden of sins lighter for the soul, and makes the weight of the precepts of Christ lighter. Take my yoke upon you; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. The yoke is faith, imposed upon all, a burden of the works of the commandments, carried upon the shoulders of the soul, made manifest in heaven. Through fasting, the lawgiver Moses, having remained fasting for forty days and nights, saw God speaking to him face to face, the cloud overshadowing, and God speaking through it things profitable to him; a pillar of fire shining and leading the camp of Israel by night; the gates of heaven opened, angelic bread descending to earth, man receiving the manna of God as food; the rock rent by a rod and pouring forth waters; the sea producing a strange food; the quail nourishing the peoples. Many other signs did Moses see because he kept the fast. B Fasting is the destruction of death. The Savior said: This kind of demon goes out in nothing but prayer and fasting. Nothing is worse than demons: a demon is a boundary difficult to cross; a demon is the most grievous of all evils and wounds: in the marketplace a laughter, in houses a humiliation, in churches an overturning, a consumption of flesh, a weakness of soul, a daily pain, an obstacle of the mind, the one impediment to works. Great is the vexation of the demon. But fasting and prayer overcome all these. Praying and beseeching, David drove out the demon of King Saul: For the Spirit of God departed from Saul, and he was suffocated by the spirit of an evil demon; and as David played the psalms, the king breathed again. But that King David fasted, hear him writing in the Psalms: My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh is changed because of oil. If Adam had fasted from the tree, he would not have lost paradise; if Eve had not eaten, deceived by the serpent, she would not have brought death into the world; if Esau had devoted himself to fasting, he would not have lost his birthright; on account of one meal he lost his glory, and was made a slave to his brother. Do you wish to learn the power of fasting? Run to the Ninevites, who used that common good work. For when God wished to destroy Nineveh for their sins, He sent Jonah the prophet and said to them: Three more days, and Nineveh will be subverted. This was the clemency of God, that He sounded as with a trumpet what He was about to do, and predicted death to those who were subject to sin, not that they might flee from the city, but that they might perform penance within the city, and that they might be awakened and become more diligent by hearing this word. He did not say, "Fast, and I will save you"; He did not signify, "Perform penance, and you shall obtain mercy"; but He hid His clemency and proclaimed severity, so that no one might say: "He compelled them to fast, to perform penance, and to worship God." For that which is done by necessity is not acceptable: Not of grief or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. Three more days, and Nineveh will be subverted. A short threat: a determined time about to come soon without the form of judgment. What are you about to do? From what harbor do you bid us flee? Shall I oppose a valid army to the one saying these things? Who is he who shall answer God? He who speaks is without falsehood. But if it is God who threatens, they say to themselves, "What way of escaping shall we find? How shall we wage war? Who will fight for our souls? Who will appease God so that He may put aside His wrath? Whom shall we send as an orator to God, who may reconcile peace to us? We are all sinners; since we are enemies of God, we shall not be heard. What shall we do? Whither shall we flee from the face of the Lord? Come, let us run to fasting, O men of Nineveh, says the king, and let us spread ashes: let not the sheep and oxen feed, nor drink: and let us see if God will have mercy on us." Thinking these things, the Ninevites, even as if using fasting as a most sharp javelin, prepared for prayer, as for incense of good odor, shedding tears of repentance like rivers, and returning each from his evil way, they appeased God and brought Him to peace. C The three days of the fast ascended into heaven, they reached the Lord, and obtained salvation. He granted life to all, to men and to beasts: repentance and fasting shone forth. See that you do not despise this possession, but approach, watch, make within it the fruit of piety. Let us all pray together, therefore, that we too may be delivered from the impending wrath, and may attain the kingdom of heaven, by the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and empire unto the ages of ages. Amen.
CONCERNING FASTING.
It is a time of propitiation, lest we neglect the opportunity; a time of recalling ourselves from sins, lest we reject grace; but let us fast from foods, and first from sins, for the first good is liberation from evils. Malice, indeed, is contrary to virtue; namely, envy, theft, slaughter, war, and whatever other evils are spoken of and exist. And he who dwells in evils has the evil itself as his punishment: for even before Gehenna, he is tortured by present wickedness. For the surgeon’s knife is not an evil; but the punishment is brought on because of the preceding malice. The first evil is to live in wickedness. The impious man is alien to God; even if he is not cast into Gehenna, he is deprived of good things. He who is not temperate is corrupted by concupiscences; the envious man wastes away from this disease; the thief is fearful and afraid; the murderer does not trust in his own life. The primary evil is to be evil. Even if the physician does not cut, the infirm man is sick; although God does not punish (for He is patient), he who sins is sick; for he who commits sin, He says, is a slave of sin. Therefore, even before sinning, the sinner is a slave, and already has punishment. The bridle of fasting is a good thing for those who love the utility of fasting. Do not look at the labor alone, but also at the fruit. For if he did not foresee the utility, he who sows would not sow, lest he appear to be scattering seeds: looking at hope, he sows what he has, so that he may reap what he does not have. The grieving flesh fasts, but the soul rejoices in the hope of good things. D
A And it prepares a reason for itself. For if it cares for the body, it is much more fitting that it should care for itself. The order from God is that the soul should rule the body; those who place the body before the soul overturn the right order. It does not itself serve the body, but rather, from the beginning, it was created righteous, and the body was always in subjection to the soul. If this does not convince you, then let the very feasts which the soul celebrates against the body convince you that it also thinks against the body. The body is saved when the body is ruled by the soul, and it [the soul] is destroyed. Let us not think that fasting B is a small gain. If Adam had abstained from one tree, and had fasted from one [thing], death would have been dead; or rather, that which does not exist would not have died. See, if Adam had used this medicine, would our race have become mortal? What grace was needed, so that what Adam brought about through intemperance might be undone! When you see that the opposite created evil—namely, that Adam did not abstain from one tree—recognize how great a good fasting and abstinence from permitted things is. For Adam, by touching what was not permitted, destroyed the race; but fasting, by keeping one away even from permitted things, recalls the transgression. And if Esau also had fasted, he would not have sold his birthright; but having become weaker than food, he sold his natural advantage for lentils. I entrust these things to those instructed in the Scriptures. C What did Moses bring down to the Jews from the mountain? A law and a fast held for forty days. But before it was brought down, the law was seen, the people were caught acting impiously. The first commandment is, "The Lord thy God is one"; and those who were about to receive such a commandment say, "These be thy gods." Great weakness; for before the living God, the image of a calf was preferred. What, then, is the medicine for such great evil? Again, Moses, who had not sinned, fasts, and the root of the old law is granted to those who have sinned. The proclamation of the New Covenant began from fasting, it took its beginning from fasting. For the Savior, having been baptized for our sakes and having gone off into the desert, first fasted, and thus He began His signs, not that He Himself had D need of fasting, but teaching us to have the turning toward the power of fasting. If, therefore, the Old [Covenant] begins from fasting, and the New places the foundation from this, let us not think that fasting is an evil. Some are resentful, seeing the burdensome law, and they do not see the gain that comes from this law. Do you not see that even lions in a pit were persuaded to fast, and did not touch Daniel? If even lions obey the commandment, and have put off the nature of their ferocity, and are as familiar, and do not approach as strangers, let us hasten to fasting when we are commanded. Again, it is written: when Jeroboam the king of Judea had acted impiously, worshipping a calf according to ancestral heritage, a prophet arrived, and said nothing to the king and the people, knowing that both the ruler and the subjects were disobedient; having left the people who would not listen, he speaks to the altar, namely, to the hearth, in order to show that stones listen more than men; he says, "Let Josiah be born, and he will burn the bones of the sacrificers upon the altar." He did not endure the dishonor, and the one being rebuked was indignant; by power he stretched out his hand, in order to turn the benefactor, the prophet; he stretched it out, but he was unable to bend it; for sin withered his hand. He who stretched out his hand against the prophet speaks, and at the same time he shouts, the prophet relaxes his hand; and the king says to him, "Come up with me to the house, eat bread and drink water, and thus you shall go." The prophet replies, "I have a command of God concerning these places, in which impiety is practiced, not to taste water and bread." The prophet departs. But pay attention to the end of the narrative. Another prophet, having heard that a prophet having arrived had said such things, pursues and overtakes him, and entreats the prophet to enter and taste with him, and persuades him. He persuaded him by saying that the Lord also told me to do this. He entered and ate. 806 And while he was eating, the Holy Spirit comes upon the prophet who had invited him, and from then on he prophesies, not the things of the heart, but the things of the Spirit, and he says to the one who had entered and eaten: "Since you did not hear the Lord your God, and you ate where you were commanded not to eat, you depart from here, and a lion eats you." Do you see what great evil result the overlooking of a fasting commandment brings about? The prophet departs, and the dignity of prophecy did not stand by him because of the disobedience. A lion came out, not in order to eat, but in order to show that it obeys a command, and it overtakes the one who did not obey, and it laid hold of the body of the one who disobeyed to such an extent as merely to kill him; and it killed him in order to punish the one who disobeyed. Having killed, however, the lion did not use the fast of the one who disobeyed instead of a feast; for the prophet lay dead, and his donkey stood alive, not that it was not easier to kill a donkey than a man, but the irrational lion judged by the commandment, and the donkey, which had not sinned, it did not kill, nor did it touch, but the one who had disobeyed, no longer a prophet as far as disobedience was concerned, it killed. And it was possible to see three wonders concerning him: the prophet lay there, indicating the disobedience; the lion sat by him, indicating the obedience; and the donkey stood by, neither fearing the nature of the lion, nor departing, nor suffering anything from the lion, so that it might appear that the lion did not approach as it did because of the longing of the belly, but because of the one commanded not to taste not having used fasting. Again, Elijah was taken up as into heaven. What then is the sign of the ascension, if not the forty-day fast? If Moses fasts, and Elijah fasts in addition, and the Lord seals it, A it is a good imitation. Although we do not traverse the rests in between; for we do not fast for forty days, but leaving intervals in the middle, we join the number, but we do not distinguish the fasting. Great are those before us, small are those from us; but if we also fail in the small ones, we have clearly become strangers to those who have fasted. No one among us fasts for forty days; for we rest for forty intervals, just like those traveling, camping each evening, and starting again. If those people even fasted the forty [days], and we do not travel the same path as them even with rest, let us not dare to mention those whose imitation we do not have. Fasting is, according to one's ability, the imitation of angels, a contempt for present things, school for prayer, the soul's delight, a bridle for the body, and a calming of desire. And those who fast know that it calms the pleasures, and those who have been tested do not NOT know it; B it softens anger, bites at wrath, and calms the natural waves, it rouses the mind, and makes the soul bright, it lightens the flesh, drives away shameful nocturnal incontinence, delivers from drunkenness, puts an end to headaches; it brings brightness both to the colors and the gaze. Movements are orderly during fasts, speech is easy, not distorted by wine, the mind is upright; for desires are not poured out. He dances in self-control, he maintains serenity; for the outer person creates leisure, and the things that we suffer in drunkenness, we do not remember, but the things from which we are delivered in fasting, we have the remembrance. For fasting knows itself, and the things that are contrary; but drunkenness, being ignorant of itself, also is ignorant of the goods from fasting. For what reason, tell me, were the sons of Aaron the priests destroyed? Was it not because while ministering they tasted of wine? What was the law of the Nazirites? Was it not to abstain from wine, and all things from wine? Those around Daniel ate seeds, despising the C tyrannical table of Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel, the man of desires, fasted for three weeks of days; when he abstained from desires, he received this ultimate designation. He fasted not a Jewish day, not a poor one, 807 but three weeks of days, he himself also prefiguring the ecclesiastical path. "Bread of desires," I said, "I did not eat—he says—and they hunger for desires in their time; wine and meat did not enter into my mouth—things from which the Church fasts." See in the Old [Covenant] the Christian lifestyle. For in the weak are the types, but in the prophets already are the traces of the truth. Fasting recalled God's decree. For God said, "Nineveh is destroyed," and it was not destroyed; for they offered a fast, and Jonah escaped, having feared the help from fasting. And [because] a sea monster swallowed him; but while fasting it swallowed him. For the one who swallowed him did not use the catch for food, but put it aside and guarded the deposit for the Master.
And he took the one who did not want to leave by his own accord and led him to where he was commanded. A The great city of Nineveh heard one solitary prophet who had come out from the monster, not even keeping the color of a man because of his fear; one prophet entered there, and the time revealed the sign which he performed. But he said, "The city will be overthrown." He ought to have turned them away from their faith even beforehand. But they heard one prophet and proclaimed a preventive medicine against the destruction: fasting. B Jonah contended, not that Nineveh might be destroyed, but that it might be brought to the test through comparison with Israel—that the nations were ready to listen to even one prophet, while Israel did not obey so many prophets. Fasting was offered, which would dissolve the sentence of God. C But the fasting was not simple, but an abstinence from foods and an abstinence from sins: for he who fasts because of sin and wallows in sins, what is he doing? It is as if one washed from mud should wallow in the mud again. One must first abstain from the very sin. For what does it profit one to have declared sin on other days, only to devise it again after the previous examples? Is not the soul weakened by the previous wounds? Are not reasons demanded by those who pray, because we have sinned? If we repent of the past, why do we heap up the second ones? It is written again that they abstained from foods and also abstained from sins. God heard: fasting is able to entreat the Lord. D Jonah took it ill that the prophet was to be heard; but God, having changed the sentence, was not sluggish in providing salvation. For God could not lie, but He is truthful who said: "If I shall suddenly speak against a nation and a kingdom, that I will pull down and root out, and they turn from their malice, I will turn from the things I pronounced" (Jer. XVIII, 7, 8). God did not lie when He revoked the sentence; for He had not sent the prophet so that Nineveh might be destroyed—what necessity would there have been to announce it? But because He did not desire to destroy it, He threatened that He would destroy it, so that by repenting they might not be destroyed. Not so did Adam eat from the tree; God did not punish him at that time, but foretold, "If you eat, you will die," so that he would not eat. He did not listen to the one speaking; he ate, and was swallowed. *** Is it to be accused where the intention was there? But you will say, did He not know that he was about to eat? Perhaps it is a heretic who says these things and acts against the Scriptures; to him it shall be answered: If the Savior knew that Judas was about to betray Him, why did He choose him? We shall perhaps defend ourselves against the heretic by opposing Judas to Adam. Is this, therefore, the solution, or is the knot a double one? We must therefore demonstrate in our defense why He chose such a man as Judas, and why, knowing Adam was about to sin, He established him in Paradise. A One must stir up great questions during the fasts, when the soul is vigilant. The Savior knew—for one must begin from here—that Judas was about to betray Him. What then, do you say? By declaring the magnitude of His benevolence, He says: "As much as lies in me, you are a disciple, and I count you among the apostles; if you indeed show yourself unworthy, my great benevolence shines forth, and your great wickedness." For He entrusted to him the purse, knowing that he was about to steal, but from his own will, when He gave him the power of subduing this disease. He foresaw, therefore, and foretold—not only did He foresee, but He also spoke often: "One of you will betray me." Why therefore shall He be accused? So that the wretch, through his own wickedness, might fulfill the good economy; nor did He who chose him force him. For if He had forced him, certainly He would not have forced him to be a traitor, but to be an apostle; but He does not force even the apostle. B For that which happens from necessity is said not to happen: for he who is temperate from necessity is not temperate, because he is such by necessity. For virtues are not established by bonds, but by the intention of the will. Why therefore did He leave Adam in Paradise? The Creator was good; He had made him free, and imposed this command upon him as a free being. But He knew he was about to eat. C But He did not prevent him by necessity, nor did He force his will: Adam sinned. But because of the wood, the place was to be honored in which something honorable was. He was not created evil, but did not comply with the One commanding. If, however, the eating also lost the command, the fast, together with the command, is revoked and brings salvation. D Examine yourself, O man. For what is the benefit of the readings? Consider yourself, who you were before the fast, and who you are while fasting. For other works bring fruit at the end, others beget fruit in the very work. He who descends into the sea to fish does not get the catch when he descends; but he who fasts has the fruit immediately. Do you not have tranquility? Are you not free from the storms of wine? Are you not free from the storm and the winter? Do you not desire to hear that the flesh is curbed and neither leaps out nor blushes? Do you not know how to bring forward arguments about temperance now? Do you not rejoice when you hear that someone has fasted? You who fast, do not think that the fast is an evil: for he who thinks fasting is an evil, if he fasts, is in evil. Angels are not to be considered among evil beings, who do not need, as we do, the delicacies of foods. We do not eat for dignity, but are filled for necessity. Whatever evils happen among us are blotted out by fasts. I speak of fasting not only as abstinence from foods, but also that which Isaiah knew: "Fast so that you may be heard." And if you should say to God according to the Judaic word: "We fasted and you did not see: we humbled our souls and you did not acknowledge it" (Isa. LVIII, 5): be comforted, lest you be unheard. For in your fasts you find your own wills. If you fulfill the will of the Lord, you have performed the fast. For fasting is not a negotiation, so that we gain by not eating, but so that what you were about to eat, the poor might eat in your stead; and a double good occurs for you, both that you fast, and that another does not hunger. We labor while fasting; we are not yet crucified while fasting. Why the fast? On account of the Cross: we have received greater things, we return smaller ones. He was crucified for your sake, and He thirsts and drinks vinegar with gall. Unpleasant food, the fast is a great thing. You have not yet drunk gall, and do you stand laboring? You have not yet been suspended on the cross. Do not be ungrateful toward Jesus: do not weep because you fast, but weep rather because you do not always fast. From what are you deprived while you fast? From wine? Not from wine, but from phlegm, from the headache, from the laborious breathing. Therefore, think in what sort of things you are involved: in quiet, in gentleness, in tranquility. The color of those in the fasts is mild and serene to the sight: for the color of wine is the inflammation of fire. He who does not suffer with Jesus does not know Jesus; he who drives away fasting does not know the cross. Let us not approach to fasting as though to some evil, lest that become an evil for you which you suspect is2 evil; nor let yourself be found a base slave ministering to God. No one is burdened at festivals, except he who ignores the power of the festivals. When there are festivals, then rejoice all the more. But you do the opposite: when you were an angel, then you take it ill. Do you not know what has been interchanged? When nature desires the marriage, you do not draw back above nature. Reverence the nuptials: if you honor the fasts, on the days of the fasts be an angel. I do not disapprove of the nuptials, but I prefer the fast. What we eat before the fast does not remain with us. Why therefore do we involve ourselves in those things which are not present? All the pleasure of foods is until we swallow; when they have passed the taste, they are as if they were not. But the fast does not wither, is not contained in the belly, nor is it changed through the belly into dung: for it conciliates immortality, it leads a life with the angels; it is the imitation, as much as possible, of that which is the angels'. Are you in disgust because you fast? Because you are not burdened by foreign happiness, because your mind is straight, your flesh pure? Because your spirit flourishes? Because you hear the Scriptures with joy? Because you keep silent about secrets, and you are not a man, but almost an angel? It is the festival of the Lord who called us to spiritual nuptials, who has entered to see those reclining; let no one enter with foreign garments. It is necessary to bring to the nuptials garments that are pure, immaculate, and holy; holy, indeed, for holy and undefiled nuptials; delightful on the outside, splendid on the inside. Let the nuptials also be quiet, and let each one hold the command of the apostle for an admonition, so that each one may apply himself to the fasts with a concordant mind.
ON PRAYER
A ... B ... C ... D ... judgment? If you speak the truth regarding fasting, have joy in fasting; if you are pained, you wrong yourself; if you sorrow, you do not rejoice; if you pursue like one deprived of good things, you do not attain the good things. Jesus has been crucified for you, and He did not resent it, but rather even hastened to suffer; and do you not endure a small fast for your own salvation? O man, I do not have such power to cry out as I ought. Jesus is crucified; look, and beat your breast, bring down a tear from your eyes. He is crucified for you; be crucified with Him, be glorified with Him—not that you may die, but that you may be delivered from death. This is the day of Preparation, the day in which the cross was planted for you; and you, be crucified with Him, die with Him. For the word is concerning God, God who became man for you. Do we not respect the value? Do we not blush at the passion? Consider both, O man: who He was, and what He suffered. The Judge is judged, and Life is delivered to death; and He who feeds is hungry, and He who waters is thirsty; and He who is in glory is in dishonor, and the King is under a governor, and God is condemned by men; He who is true in speaking. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son; by whom is He who judges all things judged? These things are sufficient for you, O man, for a reminder of fasting. For it is necessary first to know in what state we are, and then to examine our affairs. When we love fasting and are well disposed regarding it, as those dancing at a feast, and at the banquets in fasts, we shall set forth the mysteries of fasting, honoring the Lord's table with the servants of the Lord, the glory before the ages, His economy in the latter times: who He was, and what He became, from where He came, and over what people He visited, and why: that, as those rejoicing and making others rejoice, we may have this fasting always, serving the Lord of fasting, thanking Him from everywhere, and always glorifying, always loving Him who loved us, and worshipping Him who took upon Himself our sins, and dying for Him who died, and hoping to be glorified with Him who was dishonored. And to the most holy Father, who deemed us worthy of the present fast, and who did not spare His own Son for our salvation, through Him who came let us send up glory to the Sender, together with the life-giving Spirit, now and always, and to the ages of the ages. Amen.
ON PRAYER
Come, all you, brothers, let us recognize Him who made us, our Lord Jesus Christ, the good and philanthropic and merciful One, who does not desire the death of the sinner, but that he should turn back and live. All you, watch and be ready, because you do not know at what hour our Lord comes; come, hear Him saying: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:2). Finally, brothers, since the judgment is at the doors, there is need of many tears, of much lamentation, of much prayer; prayer not done today and tomorrow. For prayer is an inexhaustible treasure of every good thing, a harbor without storm, an occasion for tranquility, a dispensary for the soul; prayer is psalmody, sanctification of soul and body and, simply to speak, prayer is what opens the gates of heaven, it brings every man to God, small and great, rich and poor, and he who prays throughout every day with his whole soul is made greater than the angels. But what is this cold argument of the many? I am a sinner, he says, and without boldness, filled with shame, and I am not able to look up and see the height of heaven, because I have sinned much both in words and in works and in thought, and I have spent every day and hour of my life in dissipation, and with what face or boldness shall I enter into the church? How shall I open my evil and unclean mouth? How shall I move my lips, or for which of my wicked deeds shall I first entreat God? Are you thus saying these satanic words? Learn whom Christ calls, having come upon the earth: the righteous, or sinners? For He says thus: "I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Matt. 9:13). I am a sinner, he says, and how shall I enter into the church that I may become righteous? You speak well; because I hear, and I do not keep; and what is the benefit to me? And I say to you again: whether you keep it or do not keep it, only enter into the church, hear the divine Scriptures, hear the reading. I know truly that if you enter into the church, and hear the divine Gospels, and the teachers, the apostles, and the divine fathers, even if you have a heart of stone, even if you have the mind and ferocity of a beast, sooner or later and easily you will be pricked. Are you a sinner? Enter into the church, fall down, weep, lament, groan, shed tears. Have you sinned? Confess your sins to God; say only, "I have sinned"; say it to God who knew it before your birth; say it to God who examines hearts and kidneys; say it here, so that you may not be shamed and convicted there by myriads of angels and men. Tell me, what is better: here in the church to confess to God alone and to your spiritual father, or there to be publicized by so many myriads? Are you a sinner? Say only—I ask nothing else of you—only groan. What necessity is there for this? What affliction? What expenditure of money? What difficulty in saying only, "I have sinned"? But you say, "I am ashamed." Wretched and miserable one, when you were committing the sin, you were not ashamed, and when you want to repent and be saved, you are ashamed? When you were engaging with the harlot, the evil one, and doing an evil deed, you were not ashamed, and now you are ashamed? When you were sinning, when you were committing fornication and adultery, you were not ashamed; and when you repent and want to be saved, then you are ashamed? Because you were seizing the things of others, because you were oppressing widows and...