講道與書信 第 14 章

CHAPTER I. — The safeguards, dearly beloved, divinely instituted for the sanctifying of our minds and bodies, are for this reason renewed without cessation with the courses of days and seasons: that the very medicine of our infirmities may remind us of them. For our nature, being mutable and mortal through the taint of sin, although already redeemed and already reborn by sacred baptism, is prone to worse things in the same measure as it is capable of suffering. It would be corrupted by carnal desire, were it not fortified by spiritual aid; for just as it never lacks that whereby it may fall, so there is always at hand that whereby it may stand, the Apostle saying: For God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will make a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1 Cor. 10:13).

Although, therefore, the Lord protects His warriors and soldiers, He who is mighty in battle (Ps. 24:8), and exhorts them and says: Fear not, for I have overcome the world (John 16:33); yet it must be known, dearly beloved, that by this encouragement fear has been taken away, not the fight; and though the sting of dread is blunted, the occasion of the contest remains, which is stirred up by the crafty enemy—terribly indeed by the fury of persecution, but more harmfully brought on under the guise of peace. For where the battles are in the open, there also are the crowns in plain sight. And this very thing nourishes and kindles the fortitude of patience, that just as tribulation is near, so also is the promise close at hand.

But when the public assaults of the impious have ceased, and the devil refrains from the slaughters and torments of the faithful—lest by our steadfastness his cruelty become the multiplication of our triumphs—the raging adversary turns his bloody enmities into quiet snares: so that those whom he could not conquer by hunger and frost, by flames and sword, he may make lukewarm by ease, ensnare by cupidities, puff up by ambition, corrupt by pleasure. CHAPTER II. — But for the destroying of these and all other things, the Christian army has powerful fortifications and victorious weapons, while, the Spirit of truth instructing His soldiers, gentleness extinguishes wrath, generosity extinguishes avarice, and kindness extinguishes envy.

For when the right hand of the Most High changed the hearts of many, the old state returned into newness, and from slaves of iniquity there came forth ministers of righteousness. Continence subdued luxury, humility drove out arrogance; and those who had been foul with unchastity shone with chastity. To these conversions, dearly beloved, through the providence of the grace of God there have been added the holy fasts, which on certain days would exact from the whole Church the devotion of a general observance. For although it is beautiful and praiseworthy that each single member of the body of Christ be adorned with its proper offices, yet it is of more excellent action and more sacred virtue when the hearts of a devout people run together into one purpose:

so that he to whom our sanctification is a punishment may be overcome not only in part, but even in solidity. To which work, dearly beloved, the tenth month is now offered, warning us in a manner suited to the quality of its season that no one grow numb with the cold of unbelief, but rather gather strength with the spirit of charity. For even through the very elements of the world, as through public pages, we receive an indication of the divine will; nor does the heavenly instruction ever cease, since we are taught even from those things which serve us. CHAPTER III.

— For besides that apostolic saying by which men lacking the fruit of piety are compared to empty trees, that fig tree too must be guarded against by us, as an example of its barrenness, which the Lord Jesus, as the Gospel relates, having found nothing that a hungry man might take, condemned to perpetual sterility: that we might understand that whoever does not refresh the hungry denies food to Him who declared that what is given to the poor is bestowed upon Himself. And of this malediction shall be those trees to whom it shall be said by the Judge: Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which my Father has prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me not to drink, etc. (Matt. 25:41, 42).

These things are recalled one by one, that we may perceive that he will not be outside mercy who has performed even a part of these works; but the soul, having helped no one, will be like a tree bearing no fruit, since it will be found a stranger to all piety. The fast of the tenth month, therefore, which is of the winter season, calls us to a mystical husbandry, by which the powers of crops and vines and trees, whereby human weakness is sustained, may be cultivated by spiritual pursuits: that the Lord's field may be enriched by its own outlays, and that which it is never expedient should be without fruit may become more fruitful by its own fertility.

This, indeed, your holiness understands, is to be referred to the advancement of the whole Church, in whom the seed is in faith, the growth in hope, the ripeness in charity; for the chastisement of the body and the earnestness of prayer then obtain true purity when they rely on the sanctification of almsgiving, the Lord saying: Give alms, and behold, all things are clean unto you (Luke 11:41). Let us therefore fast on the fourth and sixth days of the week; and on the Sabbath let us keep vigil at the tomb of the most blessed Apostle Peter, through the aid and support of Him who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.