wherefore do you also strengthen your brethren' (Luke 22:31-32). And plainly He strengthened us through the Apostle: as also when He showed Himself on the mountain to him, together with these two celebrators of this fast, namely Moses and Elijah. We, however, since we cannot perpetuate so long a fast that we should for days and nights take no food, as they did; let us at least, as much as we can, do it, and, except on the days on which for certain reasons the custom of the Church forbids fasting, let us frequently exact of ourselves even daily fasts for our Lord God. But although abstinence from food and drink cannot be continuous for so many days;
yet on account of the errors of men, who by empty talk, and seductions, and depraved customs, do not cease to bring troublesome care upon us on your behalf, I have, as much as I could, commended a time for humbling the soul. For there have been certain observers of Lent, delightful rather than religious, and so on. Consider, brethren, whether he is to be called a Christian, who in these days is unwilling to end the enmities which he ought never to have practised. SERMON 173. On the Rogation, 1. 1. Days of medicine. How one must contend with the devil. Behold, most beloved brethren, holy and spiritual days draw near, and medicinal to our souls:
and therefore whoever wishes to heal the wounds of his sins, let him not despise the salutary remedies. For he himself does not seek a physician on such days, who does not feel himself sick. And who is there, most beloved brethren, who so rejoices to fight in the arena of this world that he can receive no wound from the devil? For who could ever stand thus always armed against thousands of demons day and night, so that he was never cunningly struck by the devil? For who could prevail even to think of, not to say enumerate, the wiles and snares of the ancient enemy, of whom it is written: 'He has a thousand names, and a thousand arts of harming'? And therefore, most dear brethren, just as he himself always strives to wound us on every side;
so let each one of us, with God's help, be prepared with all his might against his snares: and because he strives to overthrow us not only by hardships but also by allurements, and we frequently receive wounds inflicted by him that are not only bitter but also, what is worse, evilly sweet; we ought always to have ready spiritual remedies, that is, all good works, as much as we can by the Lord's bounty. Let us therefore hear the counsel of the blessed Apostle, and against the devil's snares let us always fortify ourselves with spiritual arms. 'Take up,' he says, 'the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God' (Eph. 6:16-17).
For what evil could he suffer from the devil, who has equipped himself with such arms? The devil rises up with unbelief; do you resist him with faith. He fights with pride; do you fight with humility: he displays luxury; do you retain chastity. He lays hold of wickedness; do you hold fast righteousness: he suggests anger; do you pursue patience. He sends in avarice; do you exercise mercy: he sends gluttony, do you send abstinence. Likewise also in other matters let us always study to set forth contrary arms against the wickednesses of the devil; and never will his devices be able to deceive us. That therefore we may be able, with God's help, to accomplish these things, and, with the aid of divine grace, to overcome the most cunning enemy;
we ought continually to provide ourselves with the arms of fastings, vigils, and prayers. 2. The whole Church celebrates the three days of the Rogations. He who withdraws himself from the church is a deserter from the heavenly camp. Although these are proved to be necessary for us at all times, especially in these three days, which throughout the whole world the Church regularly celebrates, let no one withdraw himself from the holy assembly: let no one, occupied with earthly affairs, forsake the church as the school of the heavenly physician; let no one desert the spiritual camp.
Knowing this, most dear brethren, that whoever serves an earthly king, if, when about to fight, he withdraws himself from the battle-line under the compulsion of fear, not only shall he not receive the glory or rewards prepared, but he shall not even escape the peril of the present life: what sort of man, then, is he who deserts the army of an earthly king? Without doubt such is he also to be judged who in these three days forsakes the church of Christ. Whoever therefore, without any infirmity or certain occupation, in these days deserts the people of God, let him know that he shall receive in that heavenly kingdom not a reward but reproach, not glory but ignominy:
and indeed such a one, as it were a fugitive and deserter from the heavenly camp, shall sustain eternal confusion and a punishment worthy of his deserts. But far be it, most dear brethren, that we should suspect such things of you. Whence, fearing this as the safer course, rather than believing anything sinister of you, I presume to suggest it: for, trusting rather in your devotion, I believe that you, like most prudent bees, faithfully hasten to the hive of Christ; that from the divine readings you may be able to receive the sweetness of spiritual honey, and to say with the prophet: 'How sweet are Thy words to my palate, O Lord, above honey and the honeycomb to my mouth' (Ps. 118[119]:103). 3. How the days of the Rogations are to be celebrated. What fruit comes therefrom. When sins cease, the scourges also cease.
And because throughout the whole year, most dear brethren, the wounds of sins creep upon us, in these three days let us faithfully run to the church, and with contrite heart and humbled body let us implore the mercy of God: that we may recall the wounds of all our sins to their former health by this three days' medicine of compunction. Let no one therefore studiously seek to provide himself with any occupations, let no one occupy himself with idle tales: lest thence he make wounds for himself, whence he might have prepared remedies for himself. Let no one in these three days either draw blood or take a potion; unless perhaps some exceedingly dangerous infirmity compels this.
Let us also prepare our little feasts after the Lenten manner, and rather by reading, singing psalms, or praying, let us seek for our souls spiritual banquets rather than bodily delights: that, being wholly free for God, and suppliantly imploring His mercy, we may deserve both to be healed of all our infirmities, and to be delivered from all our sins, and through God's mercy to be freed from so frequent an inundation of waters. For most certainly we ought to believe, most dear brethren, that if our sins should cease, the divine mercy would at once remove the scourges due to us. For He Himself has deigned to promise this through the prophet, saying: 'Turn to Me, and I will turn to you' (Zech. 1:3);
and again: 'When you shall be converted and shall groan, then shall you be saved' (Isa. 45:22 / 30:15). Let us therefore turn to better things, while the remedies are in our own power, and let us by good works provoke to mercy the loving and merciful Lord, whom by sinning we have provoked: that He, according to His custom, may deign both to repel adversities and, of His loving-kindness, to grant us prosperity. 4. How the church is to be frequented with fruit. Again and again I ask, that they who, as I have already said, run with full devotion to the hive of the church, as to the sweetest honeycomb of Christ, like most prudent bees, may prepare within themselves cells from the various flowers of the divine Scriptures, that they may take in the holy and heavenly honey.
But those who come late and depart quickly, and are not content to wait until the divine mysteries are completed, are not to be reckoned among the swarms of Christ: because they do not make spiritual honey by good morals, but through pride and contempt both hinder themselves and, by the example of an evil manner of life, overthrow others. And therefore, most dear brethren, whoever love the Lord in truth, and come quickly to the church and depart late, let them persevere in good work, and, spurning idle or worldly tales as a deadly poison, let them strive rather to sing psalms and to pray: and, despising the bitterness of the world, let them seek in the church whence they may receive the sweetness of Christ.
But those who are negligent, and not only come late to the church, but even depart before the mysteries are completed; and, spending their time in idle tales in the very church, neither sing psalms themselves, nor allow others to sing psalms or to pray: such as these, let them quickly correct themselves; lest they prepare death for themselves in that place where they might have been able to find life. I admonish what is my part: let him who despises the herald fear the judge. Hard indeed are the wounds of the physician, but they make men whole; sweet do the delights of the world appear, but they wickedly deceive. Hear me therefore, brethren, as I entreat; hear me as I admonish with fatherly affection:
that God may grant you in this world both health of body, abundance of fruits, and the pardon of sins, and in the world to come may grant you happily to attain to the eternal rewards. So then may the divine loving-kindness govern our acts, and deign to guide our souls; that when the time of recompense shall come, both I who admonish you with charity may deserve to obtain pardon, and your Charity, for its good obedience, may attain to the crown; through the bounty of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 174. On the Rogation, 2. 1. Brief sorrow is to be endured to avoid eternal sorrow. We ought to know and understand, most dear brethren, that we are celebrating days of compunction and of penance:
and therefore it does not befit us to dissolve ourselves in excessive laughter or in any less cautious and unbecoming guffaw; remembering that which the Lord said in the Gospel: 'Woe to you who laugh, for you shall mourn and weep' (Luke 6:25); and that which is written elsewhere: 'Mourning takes hold of the end of joy' (Prov. 14:13). Nor let it seem harsh to any that we appear to provoke you rather to sorrow or lamentation than to gladness. For if you attend diligently, brethren, in all the Scriptures the Lord exhorts and admonishes this, that we ought so to be solicitous in this world, that in the world to come we may be secure, as the Psalmist says: 'They that sow in tears shall reap in joy' (Ps. 125[126]:5).
...as it says in the Gospel, 'Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted' (Matthew 5:5); for narrow and strait is the way that leads to life, while broad and spacious is the way that draws to death (Matthew 7:13-14). It is better for us, after a few hardships, to attain to eternal blessedness, than after a brief joy to descend into the depths of hell. Wherefore we ought to strive with all our strength, that we may be able to escape the punishment of the rich man clothed in purple, and to attain to the blessedness of poor Lazarus (Luke 16). For what did his pride profit that rich man, that here for a little while, given to luxury, he was fed upon his own delights, and now without any end he feeds the flame of hell with his own marrow?
It is therefore better that we should for a short time urge you toward a wholesome sorrow, and afterward be counted worthy to attain with you to everlasting gladness; than that we should for a time wish to instil in you a false sweetness, and afterward feel with you a perpetual bitterness. 2. The exercises and the goal of these days. The peace of the seasons is to be procured by peace with one's neighbours. And although, most beloved brethren, at all times it behoves you with contrite body and compunct heart to seek the mercy of God, and faithfully to ask of Him the pardon of sins:
nevertheless now, because of the deserved and most grievous severity that hangs over our sins, we ought with mighty roaring and groaning, with unceasing prayers and more generous almsgiving, to implore the mercy of God; that He Himself may grant us mercy and the blessing of heavenly rains, may deign to restore peace, to give pardon of sins, and in His loving-kindness to grant us prosperity. In these days especially let us strive to put an end to idle talk; and, so far as our strength allows, let us be zealous to pray and to sing psalms. And if we desire to receive peace in our times, let us not neglect to keep peace with our neighbours. For if in truth you wish your enemy the devil to be conquered, be quickly reconciled to your neighbour.
Let not your anger rage against any man; and quickly will the divine indignation cease from you, according to that promise of the Lord and Saviour: 'If,' He says, 'ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your trespasses' (Matthew 6:14). 5. The church is to be frequented. Let no one deliberately seek out for himself any occupations by which he may withdraw himself from the assembly of the church. Without doubt he loves the wounds of his own sins, who in these three days does not, by fasting, praying, and singing psalms, seek for himself spiritual remedies. The negligences that we have gathered up throughout the whole span of the year abound, and abound exceedingly:
and therefore at least in these three days let us be zealous to do what pertains to the brightness and cleansing of the soul. Do not withdraw yourselves from the assembly of the church; for we are not wearied by so long a space that we cannot endure it. Just as he who in these six hours does not withdraw himself from the assembly of the church is known to provide a great remedy for his soul: so on the contrary, those who, whether through covetousness, or for any other less necessary occupation, are unwilling to be present, inflict upon themselves cruel wounds in the very place from which they might have had healing remedies; and they burden themselves in the very place from which they might have been relieved.
But I trust in the mercy of God that He will deign so to inspire you, that you may not acquire the negligence of sins, but rather, through compunction, by fasting, praying, singing psalms, and giving alms, may be able to attain to the remedy of pardon; through the bounty of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and glory unto ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 175. On the Litany, III. 1. We must fast especially from vices. Since it is the season of fasting, most beloved brethren, we must treat with your Holiness concerning fasting; that you may know in what manner you should fast. For the fasts of Christians are to be practised spiritually rather than carnally. Wherefore let us fast chiefly from sins;
lest our fasts, like the fasts of the Jews, be rejected by the Lord. For what sort of thing is it, that from the foods which the Lord created some deceiver abstains, and yet grows fat with the surfeit of sins? 'Such a fast I have not chosen,' says the Lord. 'For if,' He says, 'you bend your neck like a ring, and spread sackcloth and ashes under you; not even so,' He says, 'will I call it an acceptable fast. But what then? Loose,' He says, 'every knot of iniquity, and the obstinacy of evil deeds. Send away the afflicted into rest, and break asunder every unjust bond.' For it is too little to abstain by fasting from sins only, unless we also add good works. 'Break,' He says, 'your bread to the hungry, and bring the needy without shelter into your house.'
'When you see the naked, clothe him' (Isaiah 58:7). Moreover, to our fasts this too ought to be added, which the Lord enjoined in the Gospel: 'When you fast,' He says, 'do not become, like the hypocrites, gloomy; for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear to men to be fasting: amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your heads, lest you appear to men to be fasting: and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly' (Matthew 6:16-18). Wherefore, brethren, your Holiness clearly perceives that fasts cannot be accepted in any other way, unless it happen that we fast lawfully. 1. Fasting without holiness is displeasing to God.
According to the saying of the Apostle: 'Brethren, to write the same things to you, to me indeed is not irksome, but for you it is safe' (Philippians 3:1). And the Lord also in the Gospel says: 'Every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a man that is a householder, who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old' (Matthew 13:52). So that your Holiness may know, brethren, that not only are new things to be spoken, but old things also to be repeated. We read that the Holy Spirit through the prophet Isaiah rebuked the imperfect in this manner: 'Your new moons and the sabbath and the great day I cannot bear,' says the Lord (Isaiah 1:13). It is the fast that the Most High approves, not only the interrupted refreshment of the body, but truly also the departure made from evil deeds.
Therefore take care that your mind be not weighed down, oppressed by sins, nor that your soul take delight in the allurements of vices; and you have paid to God a worthy fast. But if long fasts consume your body, and you withdraw food from it; while you do not withdraw your vices but persist in evils, you rather horrify God than please Him. Then will your fasts be acceptable to God, if your conscience has been purged by holy works. For why do you rack your body with hunger, while by shamefully sinning you flatter it? Chiefly, then, let the soul fast from evils; and so let the body undergo the fasts that are to be practised. For since fasting is the humbling of the soul, what sort of thing is it to be humbled in food, and to be increased in sin?
He, therefore, who devoutly enjoins fasts upon his body, let him chiefly renounce vices, suppress the tinder of lusts, break the impulses of the mind, conquer wanton desires, extinguish the torches of burning avarice, and extend more widely by his deeds the power of love, and bestow upon the food of the poor the outlay of the sumptuous fare he has cut off. 5. It moves not God to grant our prayers. What prayers easily obtain. Let all the abominable sins of the body, therefore, be trodden down by the virtue of the soul; that the soul also may be aided by the holiness of the body. For then indeed will it be possible to obtain what is desired, if a chaste body and a devout soul advance, through care of observance, to the fulfilling of the offices of holiness.
These are the things that move the divine pity, that ever open a way for obtaining holiness by prayers. But if you bow down your head, and scatter ashes over it, if in short you twist your neck like a ring, and pour out abundant tears to entreat the clemency of God, you will accomplish nothing. For you will not be able to move the divine pity, who toward your neighbours have neglected the charity that is due: for it is written, 'Such a fast I have not chosen,' says the Lord. 'For if you bend your neck like a ring, and spread sackcloth and ashes under you; not even so,' He says, 'will I call it an acceptable fast. But loose every knot of iniquity and the obstinacy of evil deeds.'
'Send the broken away into rest, and break asunder every unjust bond. Break your bread to the hungry, and bring the needy without shelter into your house; if you see the naked, clothe him, and despise not those of your own flesh: then shall your light break forth in its season, and your garments shall speedily arise, and your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of God shall encompass you; then shall you cry, and God shall hear you; while you are yet speaking, He shall say, Behold, I am here' (Isaiah 58:6-9). For these are the things by which a man, even when refreshed with food, often obtains what he longs for, and, when fasting, attains greater rewards of holiness. 4. What fasts are acceptable to God.
Such a fast delights Christ; with such a fast, in short, the almighty God is pleased—one whom to fast is impelled neither by the frequent guilt of monstrous crimes, nor kindled by the empty desire of attaining temporal glory or of heaping up an inheritance; but ever there urges him the affection of religion and devout sincerity: and when the offices of full piety have accompanied this, how much will he prevail, how much will he profit? By acting thus he shall deserve straightway to feel the Lord present and propitious. Fulfil, then, the offices of compassion; and you have sanctified your fasts. Fatten the bowels of the poor; and your soul grows fat with the gifts of holiness. Clothe the naked; and your sins are covered. Strive to receive the stranger into your lodging;
that God also may receive you into the kingdoms of the heavens. SERMON 176. On the Ascension of the Lord, I. 1. The Lord's miracles are for our sake. His Ascension is our surety. Christ is the guide of our nature. All the miracles, dearly beloved, which the Lord Jesus Christ performed in this world under our frailty, are of profit to us: for while He carried the human condition up to the stars, He showed that heaven can lie open to believers; and while He raised the conqueror of death into the heavenly places, He showed to the victors whither they should follow. The Ascension of the Lord, therefore, was the confirmation of the catholic faith: that we might for the future securely believe the gift of that miracle whose effect we had already perceived in the present;
and that every believer, when he has already received such great things, may through the things he knows to have been granted learn to hope for the things promised, and may hold the past and present goodness of his God as, so to speak, a surety of things to come. Above the heights of heaven, therefore, an earthly body is set; bones, a little before enclosed within the narrow confines of a sepulchre, are borne into the companies of Angels; a mortal nature is transfused into the bosom of immortality; and therefore the sacred history of the apostolic reading testifies: 'When He had said this,' it says, 'while they beheld, He was lifted up' (Acts 1:9). When you hear that He was lifted up, recognize the homage of the heavenly host. Hence today's festival makes manifest to us the mysteries both of the man and of God. Under one and the same person, in Him who lifts up, recognize the divine power;
but in Him who is lifted up, recognize the human substance. 2. The error of Eutyches. Whence the error of Arius flowed. And therefore in every way the poisons of the Eastern error are to be detested, which with impious novelty presumes to assert that the Son of God and the Son of man are of one nature. For on either side, either he who shall have said that He was only man will deny the glory of the Creator, or he who shall have said He was only God will deny the mercy of the Redeemer. By which manner of thinking the Arian cannot easily hold the evangelic truth, where we read that the Son of God is now equal, now less. For whoever with deadly persuasion has believed our Saviour to be of one nature, is compelled to say either that He was only a man sent from heaven, or only God crucified. But it is not so.
For neither could God alone have felt death, nor man alone have overcome it. Let us therefore acknowledge in Christ a twofold and twin substance; from the Father heavenly, from the mother earthly. Both of these it is easy to set forth by their own testimonies in one and the same Redeemer. As man He was saying, 'Because the Father is greater than I' (John 14:28); but the same as God declared, 'I and the Father are one' (John 10:30). As man He was saying, 'My soul is sorrowful even unto death' (Matthew 26:38); but as God He was speaking confidently, 'I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again' (John 10:18). As man He hung upon the cross; but as God He bestowed the heavenly kingdom (Luke 23:43).
But the Arians, with confused mind not at all perceiving the distinct substances, impiously referred to God the things that were of the man, believing that a lesser divinity was speaking, where the infirmity of the man joined to God was being shown. Thus making no distinction between heavenly and earthly things, while they know not how to distinguish between God and man, they divided the substance of God: and while they look only to the words of the man, they lost God without the light of understanding. But we, as we said before, acknowledge the twofold substance of God and man, yet a single person. 3. The error of Valentinus is refuted.
That error also is greatly to be shunned, which impiously asserts that blessed Mary bore God only, on the ground that our Saviour brought some heavenly flesh, I know not what, into the maternal womb, and so passed through the Virgin's birth-canal as though through an alien body. But since the divine word says through the prophet, 'He shall drink of the torrent in the way; therefore shall He lift up the head' (Psalm 109[110]:7): if it is not our body, how is it our head? And since in another place the prophet records, 'A little child is born to us' (Isaiah 9:6): He is not born to us, if He took nothing from us; if He received nothing of ours, He bestowed nothing on us.
Wherefore, dearly beloved, if He triumphed over the devil not in our flesh, He exerted Himself, but conquered not for us: if He rose again not in our body, He contributed nothing to our condition by rising. Whoever says this does not understand the reason of the flesh taken up and assumed, confounds the order, empties out the usefulness: if He wrought not the medicine in our flesh, then He chose from man only the injury of being born. Let so perilous a persuasion depart from our senses. Of our own is that which He took up; of His own is that which He gave. I testify that mine is that which fell, that mine may be that which rose again. I testify that mine is that which lay within the tomb, that mine may be that which ascended into heaven.
In that body, therefore, of our race, the death of Christ made us alive, His resurrection raised us up, His ascension consecrated us. In that body of our origin He set the soul of our condition in the heavenly kingdoms. 4. We ascend after Christ by hope and by the extinguishing of desires. Let us strive, therefore, dearly beloved, that just as the Lord on this day ascended on high with our body; so we, after Him, as we are able, may ascend by hope and follow in heart. By that same affection and progress let us ascend after Him, even through our lives and our sufferings. In what way through our sufferings?