Sermons to the People 210.1–210.12

The solemn season has come which reminds us, more than the other spans of the year, to humble the soul with prayers and fasts and to chastise the body. But since it often troubles some people why this is celebrated as the feast of the Lord's passion draws near, and why with the mystery of the number forty, we rightly undertake to put before Your Love what the Lord has deigned to grant us to say on this matter. And those whom we know to ask these things not in order to quarrel but in order to learn help us greatly by their faith and piety, so that we may obtain what is to be said.

For this is what usually raises the question: why the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who took a human body and appeared to men as a man precisely in order to give us an example of living, dying, and rising, fasted not before he was baptized but after he was baptized. For so it is written in the Gospel: “When he had been baptized he immediately came up from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending upon him. And behold, a voice from heaven saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Then Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry.” But we fast with those who are to be baptized before the day of their baptism, which is the approach of the Paschal day, and after that day we relax our fasts for fifty days. This would rightly trouble us if it were not lawful to baptize or be baptized except on the most solemn Paschal day. But since throughout the whole year no one is barred from baptism, as each one's need or will may require, by the gift of him who gave them power to become children of God; whereas the yearly feast of the Lord's passion may be celebrated only on a fixed day of the year, which is called Pascha: the sacrament of baptism is without doubt to be distinguished from Pascha. The one may be received on any day; the other may rightly be kept on one fixed day of the year. The one is given to renew life; the other is commended as a remembrance of religion. And that a far greater number of those to be baptized flock to that day is not because a richer grace of salvation sets it apart, but because a greater joy of festivity invites them.

What of the fact that the baptism of John, which Christ then received, is to be distinguished from the baptism of Christ himself, which his faithful receive; and that the baptism with which Christ was baptized is not better than this with which the Christian is baptized because Christ is better than the Christian, but rather this baptism is preferred to that because it is Christ's? For John baptized Christ while confessing himself less than Christ; but Christ baptizes the Christian, showing himself greater even than John. It is as with the circumcision of the flesh: though Christ too received it and no Christian now receives it, better is the sacrament of Christ's resurrection, by which the Christian is circumcised to strip off the fleshly old life, so that he hears the Apostle saying, “As Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.” It is as with the old Passover itself, which was commanded to be celebrated by slaying a lamb: it is not better than our Passover, in which Christ has been sacrificed, because Christ celebrated it with his disciples. For it belonged to giving us an example of humility and devotion that, on coming, he deigned to receive even those sacraments by which he himself was foretold as one to come, in order to show by this with what great reverence we ought to receive these sacraments by which he is announced as having already come. So, because Christ fasted immediately after receiving John's baptism, it is not to be believed that he gave a rule of observance, as if it were necessary to fast immediately after receiving Christ's own baptism; but plainly by that example he taught that we must fast when we happen to grapple in fiercer struggle with the tempter. For this is why Christ, who deigned to be born as a man, did not refuse to be tempted as a man: so that the Christian, instructed by his teaching, might not be overcome by the tempter. Whether, then, immediately after baptism or after any interval of time, when a like battle of temptation is brought upon a man, he must fast, so that the body may fulfill its service by chastisement and the mind may win the victory by humility. In that example of the Lord, then, the cause of that fast was not the washing in the Jordan but the temptation of the devil.

But why we fast before the feast of the Lord's passion, while that relaxation of fasting is completed on the fiftieth day, the reason is this. Whoever fasts rightly either humbles his soul in the groaning of prayer and the chastening of the body, out of faith unfeigned; or else his attention, lifted away from fleshly allurement by some spiritual delight in truth and wisdom, comes down to feeling hunger and thirst only lightly. Of both kinds of fasting the Lord spoke when he answered those who asked why his disciples did not fast. For of the first, which involves the humbling of the soul, he said: “The sons of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them; but the hour will come when the bridegroom is taken from them, and then they will fast.” And of the other, which involves the banquets of the mind, he went on to say: “No one sews a new patch on an old garment, lest a worse tear be made; nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, lest the wineskins burst and the wine be spilled; but they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” Accordingly, since the bridegroom has now been taken from us, we, the sons of that beautiful bridegroom, must mourn. For he who is “beautiful in form beyond the sons of men,” whose “grace is poured out on his lips,” among the hands of his persecutors “had no form or comeliness, and his life was taken from the earth.” And rightly do we mourn if we burn with longing for him. Blessed were those who were allowed to have him present then, before his passion, to ask him as they wished and to hear him as they ought to hear. The fathers before his coming longed to see those days, and did not see them: because they had been appointed in another dispensation, as those through whom his coming would be announced, not those by whom he would be heard when he came. For of them he speaks to his disciples, saying: “Many righteous men and prophets desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” But in us is fulfilled what he likewise says: “Days will come when you will desire to see one of these days, and you will not be able.”

Who is not burned with the flame of holy longing? Who does not mourn here? Who does not toil in his groaning? Who does not say, “My tears have been my bread day and night, while it is said to me every day, Where is your God?” We believe indeed in him as already seated at the right hand of the Father; but yet, as long as we are in the body, we are exiles from him, and we cannot show him to those who doubt or deny and say, “Where is your God?” Rightly did his Apostle long to depart and be with him, while he thought remaining in the flesh not best for himself but necessary for our sake. Here the thoughts of mortals are timid and our foresight uncertain, for the earthly dwelling weighs down the mind that thinks of many things. Hence human life on earth is a trial; and in this night of the world the lion goes about seeking whom he may devour. Not the Lion of the tribe of Judah, our king, but the lion who is the devil, our adversary. Christ, expressing in himself alone the figures of the four living creatures of John's Apocalypse, was born as a man, worked as a lion, was sacrificed as a calf, flew as an eagle. “He flew upon the wings of the winds, and made darkness his hiding place.” He made darkness, and it became night, in which all the beasts of the forest pass through; the young lions roaring, that is, the tempters through whom the devil seeks whom he may devour; not indeed having power except over those whom they have received leave to take, for in that same psalm it goes on, “seeking their food from God.” In so dangerous a night of this world, full of temptations, who does not fear, who does not tremble in all his marrow, lest he be judged deserving to be let fall into the jaws of so cruel an enemy to be devoured? Hence we must fast and pray.

And when better, when more urgently, than as the very feast of the Lord's passion draws near, by whose yearly celebration the memory of that same night is in a way engraved anew for us, lest it be erased by forgetfulness, lest that roaring devourer find us asleep, not in body but in spirit? For what else did the Lord's passion itself commend to us in our head, Christ Jesus, than this very temptation of this life? Hence, when the time of his death was already coming, he said to Peter: “Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat; and I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail; go and strengthen your brothers.” And he plainly did strengthen us through his apostleship, through his martyrdom, through his letters. In them too, warning us of the night of which I speak as something to be feared, he taught us, with the consolation of prophecy as with a light in the night, to keep careful watch. “We have,” he says, “the more sure prophetic word, to which you do well to attend, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

Let our loins, then, be girded and our lamps burning, and let us be like men waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding. And let us not say to one another, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” But all the more, since the day of death is uncertain and the day of life is burdensome, let us fast and pray, for tomorrow we die. “A little while,” he says, “and you will not see me; and again a little while, and you will see me.” This is the hour of which he said, “You will be sorrowful, but the world will rejoice”: that is, this life full of temptations, in which we are exiles from him. “But I will see you again,” he says, “and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” In this hope of the most faithful promiser we rejoice even now after a fashion, until that most abundant joy comes, when “we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is,” and no one will take our joy from us. For of this hope we have received the Holy Spirit as a pledge so welcome and so free, who works in our hearts the unutterable groanings of holy longings. “For we have conceived,” as Isaiah says, “and been in labor, and brought forth the spirit of salvation.” And “a woman,” says the Lord, “when she is in labor has sorrow, because her day has come; but when she has given birth there is great joy, because a man has been born into the world.” This will be the joy which no one will take from us, into which, from this conception of faith, we shall be poured over into eternal light. Now, then, let us fast and pray, since it is the day of labor.

The whole body of Christ spread throughout the whole world, that is, the whole Church, does this, that unity which says in the psalm, “From the ends of the earth I have cried to you, while my heart was in anguish.” From this it now becomes clear to us why this solemn season of humiliation was established as a Forty. For she who cries from the ends of the earth when her heart is in anguish cries from the four parts of the world, which Scripture also often mentions: East and West, North and South. Through this whole world the Decalogue of the Law has been proclaimed, now no longer to be feared through the letter only, but to be fulfilled through the grace of love. Hence, ten multiplied by four, we see forty completed. But this is still in the toil of temptation, with pardon of sins. For who perfectly fulfills, “You shall not covet”? Hence we must fast and pray, yet not cease from good works. To this toil is paid at the end the wage which is called by the name denarius. For just as ternarius comes from three and quaternarius from four, so denarius takes its name from ten; joined to forty, it is paid as a wage for the toil. The figure of the number fifty signifies the time of that joy which no one will take from us: we do not yet have the enjoyment of it in this life; but after the feast of the Lord's passion, from the day of his resurrection, for fifty days, on which we relax our fasts, we celebrate it with Alleluia resounding in the Lord's praises.

Now, therefore, in the person of Christ, so that you may not be outwitted by Satan, I exhort you, most beloved, to win God's favor by daily fasts, more generous alms, and more fervent prayers. Now is the time when husbands should abstain from their wives and wives from their husbands, so as to be free for prayer; although throughout the whole year too they ought to do this on certain days; and indeed the more often, the better; for whoever seeks immoderately what is permitted offends him who permitted it. For prayer is a spiritual thing, and so it is the more acceptable the more it fulfills the effect proper to its nature. And it is poured out the more in spiritual work, the more the mind that pours it out is lifted away from fleshly pleasure. Moses, the minister of the Law, fasted forty days; Elijah, most excellent of the prophets, forty; the Lord himself, who has the testimony of the Law and the Prophets, forty. That is why he showed himself on the mountain with these two. But we, who cannot carry on so long a fast as to take no food for so many days and nights as they did, let us at least do what we can: so that, except on the days on which for certain reasons the custom of the Church forbids fasting, we may please the Lord our God by daily or frequent fasting. But can it be that, as abstinence from food and drink cannot be continuous for so many days, so neither can abstinence from intercourse? when we see many of both sexes, in the name of Christ, keeping their members dedicated to God wholly free from this. I think it is no great thing for the chastity of spouses to manage for the whole Paschal season what virginity can manage for a whole life.

And now there is something I ought not to have had to warn about, since I have commended as much as I could the time for humbling the soul; yet because of the errors of people who, through vain-talking seductions and perverse customs, never cease to bring us troublesome concern on your behalf, I cannot keep silent. There are some observers of Lent who are pleasure-loving rather than religious, seeking out new delights rather than chastising old desires; who with plentiful and costly preparations of various fruits strive to outdo the variety and flavors of any dainties whatever. They fear the vessels in which meat has been cooked as if they were unclean, and do not fear in their own flesh the luxury of belly and gullet. They fast, not to reduce their usual greed by moderation, but to increase their immoderate craving by delay. For when the time for refreshment comes, they rush on their rich tables like cattle on their mangers; they overwhelm their hearts and stretch their bellies with more numerous courses; they stimulate their palate with artful and foreign varieties of seasoning, lest it be checked even by abundance. In short, they take in so much by eating that they cannot digest it by fasting.

There are also those who do not drink wine, but in such a way that they seek out for themselves other drinks pressed from other fruits, not for health's sake but for pleasure: as if Lent were not an observance of devout humility but an occasion for new pleasure. How much more decent it would be, if a weak stomach cannot bear drinking water, to be sustained by the usual wine in moderation, than to seek wines that know no vintage and have never known the winepress; not to choose a purer drink, but to reject a more frugal one? And what is more absurd than, at a time when the flesh is to be chastised more strictly, to procure such delights for the flesh that the very craving of the gullet would not want Lent to pass? What is more unfitting than, in the days of humility, when the diet of the poor is to be imitated by all, to live in such a way that, if one lived so all the time, the fortunes of the rich could scarcely bear it? Beware of these things, most beloved: think of what is written, “Do not go after your desires.” If this most wholesome precept is to be observed at all times, how much more in these days, when it is so shameful for our craving to be let loose on unusual allurements that whoever has not restrained the usual ones is rightly blamed?

Above all remember the poor, so that what you take from yourselves by living more sparingly you may lay up in the heavenly treasury. Let the hungry Christ receive what the fasting Christian takes less of. Let the chastening of the one who is willing become the support of the one who has nothing. Let the voluntary want of the one who has plenty become the needed plenty of the one in want. Let there also be in a placable and humble mind a merciful readiness to forgive. Let him who did the wrong ask pardon; let him who received the wrong grant pardon; so that we may not be possessed by Satan, whose triumph is the dissension of Christians. For this too is an alms of great gain, to release a debt to a fellow servant, so that it may be released to you by the Lord. The heavenly teacher commended both good works to his disciples, saying: “Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you.” Remember that servant whose whole debt, which his master had forgiven him, was laid on him again, because he did not repay to his fellow servant who owed him a hundred denarii the mercy that he himself had received for the ten thousand talents that he owed. In this kind of good work there is no excuse, where the will alone is the whole means. Anyone can say: I cannot fast, lest my stomach hurt. He can also say: I want to give to the poor, but I do not have the means; or I have so little that I fear I shall be in want if I give. Though in these works too people often make false excuses for themselves because they do not find true ones. But who is there who can say: I did not grant pardon to the one who asked because my health prevented me, or because I had no hand to hold out? Forgive, that you may be forgiven. Here there is no work of the flesh; no member of one's flesh is called upon to help the soul fulfill what is asked. It is done by the will; it is completed by the will. Do it without anxiety, give without anxiety: you will suffer nothing in the body, you will have nothing less in the house. And now, brothers, see what an evil it is for a man not to forgive a repentant brother, when he is commanded to love even an enemy who is still hostile. Since this is so, and since it is written, “Let not the sun go down on your anger,” consider, dearly beloved, whether someone is to be called a Christian who will not end, at least in these days, enmities which he ought never to have carried on.