Our Lord and Saviour, most dear brethren, exhorts and admonishes us through the prophet how we ought to come to Him after many negligences, saying: Come, let us adore and fall down before God, and let us weep before the Lord who made us (Ps. 94:6); and again: Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting and weeping and mourning (Joel 2:12). For the days of holy Lent, most dear brethren, if we attend diligently, signify the life of the present age; even as the days of Easter prefigure eternal blessedness. And as in Lent we have, as it were, sadness, that at Easter we may rejoice in due order:
so also in this world, as long as we live, we ought to do penance, that in the world to come we may be able to receive the pardon of our sins, and to attain to eternal joy. But let each one so sigh for his crimes, pour forth tears, and give alms, that, with God's aid, so long as he lives, he may ever strive to flee those very crimes. For as no one ever was or can be without small sins, so, by God's gift and aid, we can and ought to be in every way without capital crimes. Lent, the time of spiritual harvest and vintage. What food is to the flesh, that is the word of God to the soul. The wine-cellar.
And that we may be able to obtain these things, if at another time the entanglements of the world hold us bound, at least in the days of holy Lent let us meditate day and night on the law of the Lord, as it is written (Ps. 1:2): and so let us fill our heart with the sweetness of the divine law, that we may leave in ourselves no place empty of virtues which vices might occupy. For as at the time of harvest or vintage there is gathered that whereby our flesh may be sustained, so in the days of Lent, as it were in a spiritual season of vintage or harvest, let there be gathered that whereby our soul may live unto eternity: for as any negligent man, if at the time of vintage or harvest he has gathered nothing, will be tormented with hunger throughout the whole space of the year;
so he who in this season shall have neglected, by fasting, reading, and praying, to provide and gather the spiritual wheat and the heavenly new wine into the barns of his soul, will endure to eternity a most harsh thirst and a cruel want. Know most surely, most dear brethren, that such as is the flesh which receives food only after many days, such is the soul which is not continually fed with the word of God: and as the flesh, through hunger and want, becomes thin and dry like some phantom, so also the soul, if it is not fed with the food of the word of God, is found parched and useless and fit for no good work. Consider, brethren, if we fill both the barn and the wine-cellar and the storeroom every single year, whereby our flesh may have food for one year;
how much, think you, ought we to store up, whereby our soul may be sustained unto eternity? 3. Occupations should be exchanged. The game of dice. And therefore, brethren, at least in these few days let the entanglements of the world withdraw, which according to Scripture make many negligent men wretched. Let carnal gladness withdraw, let the poison-filled allurements of this world withdraw. Let the joys of the flesh be lessened, that the spiritual gains of the soul may be prepared; because of that which is written: Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep (Luke 6:25); and that: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matt. 5:5). Let the divine lesson begin to occupy the time which the frenzied game of dice was wont to take from us.
Let conversations from the holy Scriptures take the place of idle tales, and biting jests, and venomous detractions. In those spaces of hours in which we were wont to be detained to the loss of our soul, let the sick be visited, let those confined in prison be sought out, let pilgrims be received, and let the discordant be recalled to concord. If we do these things, brethren, we can thereby prepare medicines for ourselves, whence we had made wounds for ourselves. 4. Meals should be given to the poor. The food of suppers should be neither dainty nor excessive. The flesh should be treated as a handmaid, the soul as a mistress. Before all things, in the days of fasting let us bestow upon the poor that which we were wont to eat at our midday meal;
lest perchance someone should strive to prepare for himself sumptuous suppers and banquets with exquisite flavours, and be seen rather to have transferred the abundance of foods to his own body than to have withdrawn it. It profits nothing to have prolonged a long fast the whole day, if afterwards the soul is overwhelmed by the pleasantness or excess of foods. Straightway the mind, being filled, grows sluggish, and the earth of our body, when watered, will sprout the thorns of lusts. Let the food therefore be temperate, and the belly never too full; and let us always think more of the food of the heart than of the food of the body: because within, in the inner man, we were made to the image of God; but in the flesh we were formed from the mud of the earth.
And see, brethren, whether it is just that our flesh, made from earth, should sometimes take food twice a day; while the soul, in which is the image of God, scarcely after many days receives the word of God: whereas it is fitting for us that we should honour the image of God in us more than our flesh. For they who think only of the flesh are like the beasts and cattle: and they who act thus have already worn away the image of God in themselves. Let the flesh, therefore, be governed as a handmaid; and let the soul be refreshed as the lawful mistress. For even if it be done otherwise, if we do not acknowledge that we were made to the image of God, and think more of the flesh than of the soul, I fear lest the Holy Spirit through the prophet should rebuke us, saying:
And man, when he was in honour, did not understand; he is compared to the senseless beasts, and is become like unto them (Ps. 48:13). 5. The divine lessons in church, at home, and at the time of refreshment. Gladly hear the divine lessons in church, as you are accustomed, and read them over again in your homes. If anyone should be so occupied that before his meal he cannot apply himself to the divine Scriptures, let it not irk him to read over something of the divine Scriptures at his little repast: so that, as the flesh is fed with food, so the soul may be refreshed with the word of God; and the whole man, that is, both the outer and the inner, may rise up satisfied from the holy and wholesome banquet. For if the flesh alone is refreshed, and the soul is not fed with the word of God;
the handmaid is satisfied, and the mistress is tormented with hunger: and how unjust this is, your Holiness cannot be ignorant. And therefore, as I have already said, you ought to read and hear the divine lessons with such desire that from them, in your homes and wherever you may be, you may be able also to speak and to teach others, and, ruminating the word of God with constant thought like clean animals, you may be able both to take for yourselves the useful juice, that is, the spiritual sense, and, with God's aid, to give it to drink to others: so that there may be fulfilled in you that which is written: And how goodly is thy cup that inebriates (Ps. 22:5)!
fulfilling that which the blessed Apostle exhorts and admonishes, saying: Whether you eat, or drink, or whatever else you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). If infirmity does not forbid, fast daily; rise for the Vigils with eager and fervent devotion, because of that which is written: In the night my spirit watches unto thee, O God (Ps. 62:2); and again: To thee will I pray, O Lord, in the morning, and thou shalt hear my voice (Ps. 5:4); and again: At midnight I rose to give praise to thy name, O Lord (Ps. 118:62). To which thing also our Lord and Saviour in the Gospel exhorts and admonishes, saying: Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation (Matt. 26:41):
which may He Himself deign to grant, to whom is honour and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit, etc. SERMON 142. On Lent, 3. 1. He who is not able to fast, let him give more generous alms. I ask and admonish you, most dear brethren, that in this lawful and most sacred season of Lent, except on Sundays, no one presume to take a midday meal, save perchance one whom infirmity does not permit to fast: for on other days, to fast is either a remedy or a reward; in Lent, not to fast is a sin. At another time he who fasts will receive indulgence: in Lent he who can and does not fast will feel punishment.
And yet let him who is not strong enough to fast prepare for himself alone in secret, or, if there is another sick person, together with him in his own house that which he may take; and let him not invite to a midday meal those who are healthy and strong enough to fast: for if he does this, not only God but even men can understand that he is unable to fast, not on account of infirmity, but is unwilling to fast on account of gluttony. Let it suffice him that he himself is not strong enough to fast: and let him rather eat with groaning and sighing and grief of soul, because, while others fast, he is not able to abstain. What need is there for any sick man to ask some healthy man to a midday meal, that he may also increase for himself sin from another's gluttony?
Yet because he cannot fast, he ought to give the more generously to the poor: that the sins which he cannot cure by fasting, he may be able to redeem by giving alms. 2. Almsgiving is better than fasting. It is good to fast, brethren; but it is better to give alms. If anyone can do both, they are two goods: but if he cannot, it is better to give alms. If there is no possibility of fasting, almsgiving suffices of itself without fasting; fasting without almsgiving does not suffice at all. Therefore, if anyone cannot fast, almsgiving without fasting is a good thing: but if he is able, fasting with almsgiving is a twofold good. But fasting without almsgiving is no good at all:
unless perchance someone be so poor that he has nothing at all to give. For him therefore who has not the wherewithal to give, good will suffices, according to that which is written: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Luke 2:14). 3. From giving one is easily excused. But who is there who could excuse himself, since the Lord has promised that He will render a reward even for a cup of cold water (Matt. 10:42)? And why did He say cold water? Lest perchance some poor man might excuse himself on account of scarcity of firewood, or say that he had no little vessel in which to heat the water.
Finally, most dear brethren, through the blessed prophet the Lord thus exhorts and admonishes that alms be given, so that scarcely any poor man may be able to excuse himself. For thus He says: This is the fast that I have chosen, saith the Lord: Break thy bread to the hungry. He did not say that one should give a whole loaf; since perchance that poor man might have no other: but He said, Break it; that is to say, Even if such great poverty is thine that thou hast but one loaf, yet break of it, and give to the poor. And bring, He says, the needy and the homeless into thy house (Isa. 58:6,7). If anyone is so poor that he has not the wherewithal to give the poor man food, let him at least in one corner of his house prepare a bed for the pilgrim.
What shall we say to these things, brethren, or what excuse shall we be able to have, we who, having ample and spacious houses, scarcely at any time deign to receive a pilgrim; not knowing, nay rather not believing, that in all pilgrims Christ is received, as He Himself says: I was a stranger, and you took me in; and, As long as you did it to one of these least ones, you did it to me (Matt. 25:35,40). 4. Christ is to be received in the poor, that He may Himself receive us into the fatherland. It is toilsome and irksome for us to receive Christ in the poor in our own country: I fear lest He may render us the like in heaven, and not receive us into His blessedness. We despise Him in the world:
I fear lest He in turn should despise us in heaven, according to that which He Himself said: I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat; and, I was a stranger, and you took me not in; and, As long as you did it not to one of these least ones, neither did you do it to me. And what follows after these things, brethren? May God avert this from us. For He added this afterwards, saying: Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels (ibid. 42-46). This therefore, most dear brethren, let us not hear in passing, nor with the bodily ears alone; but hearing it faithfully, let us also teach it by word and example alike, that others too may hold and fulfil it. 5. Those who heap up riches are reproved. What then did the Lord say after these things through the Prophet?
If thou seest, He says, one naked, cover him. In this saying I judge no one; let each one heed his own conscience. Yet I accuse and reprove myself, because it has perhaps sometimes happened that through my negligence my poor little garments, which ought to have been received by the poor, were devoured by moths: and I fear lest the very cloths be brought forward against me in testimony on the day of judgment; according to that which the apostle James terribly rebukes, saying: Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl in the miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
Your gold and silver is rusted, and their rust shall be a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure upon the earth, and have nourished your hearts in luxury in the day of slaughter (James 5:1-5). All these things, most dear brethren, as I have said, which Christ has threatened through the Apostle, although they may terrify us exceedingly; yet we must not despair of God's mercy. Still I and those like me who are negligent can, with God's help, amend ourselves, if we will, if we both give more generously the alms which up to now we have given more sparingly, and, for our past sins, with grief and groaning, with hope of restoration, beseech the mercy of God. 6. Fasting should not be without almsgiving.
Meals should be given to the poor. Therefore, as I suggested above, most dear brethren, let the richness of almsgiving commend our fasts; because such is fasting without almsgiving as a lamp without oil. For as a lamp which is lit without oil can smoke, but cannot give light; so fasting without almsgiving indeed torments the flesh, but does not illumine the soul with the light of charity. Meanwhile, at least in that which is done for the present, brethren, let us so fast that our meals may be given to the poor; that what we were about to eat we may lay up not in our own purses, but in the bowels of the poor: because the hand of the poor is the treasury of Christ, who lays up in heaven what He receives, lest it perish on earth;
because although the food which the poor man receives is consumed, yet the reward of the good work is laid up in heaven. For if we should strive to expend our meals upon exquisite flavours and manifold courses for our supper; if from our body delights are not withdrawn, but rather doubled: as nothing is now diminished from the body, so nothing is added to the soul. 7. Chastity is to be kept throughout the whole of Lent. These things, brethren, I admonish, fearing rather than believing anything sinister about you. For I know that many of you, by God's favour, both constantly receive pilgrims and frequently give alms to the poor. And therefore let what I suggest avail to this end, that he who was doing it may do it more abundantly;
but he who was not doing it, or perhaps was doing it too tardily, may make so holy an operation, pleasing to God, into a habit for himself. And although I believe that, by God's inspiration, your Charity, whenever festivals draw near, always keeps chastity for several days beforehand, even with your own wives:
nevertheless, though it be more than needful, even that which I believe you do, out of the regard of charity I admonish, that through the whole of Lent and up to the end of Easter you may keep chastity, with God's aid; so that on that most sacred solemnity of Easter, clothed in the light of charity, resplendent with almsgiving, adorned with prayers, vigils, and fasts as with certain heavenly and spiritual pearls, being peaceable not only with friends but also with enemies, with free and secure conscience, drawing near to the altar of the Lord, you may be able to receive His body and blood not unto judgment, but unto remedy. 8. By good will the poor fulfil the precept of almsgiving. But when we speak of almsgiving, let not straitened poverty be troubled.
For he has fulfilled all things, who has done what he could: because the perfect will to do a thing shall be reckoned in place of the deed done. But this he will be able to fulfil, who is willing to regard every poor man as it were himself; so that he may give to the poor man in such a way as he would wish it to be done to himself, were he in such need. He who does this will fulfil the precepts both of the New and of the Old Testament, fulfilling that gospel word: All things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them in like manner; for this is the Law and the Prophets (Matt. 7:12). To which true and perfect law of charity may the merciful Lord lead you under His protection; who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. SERMON 143.
On Lent, 4. 1. Lent celebrated by the examples of the saints, of Moses, and of Christ Himself. We ought to reckon all the time of our life as a kind of arena of virtues, and to strive with safe valour toward the heavenly prize. But this is especially to be fulfilled in the days of Lent, which, being dedicated to abstinence and fasting, confer upon us as much toward virtue of soul as they pluck away of pleasure from the body. And this is the lawful number of the fast, and one that is celebrated by these holy examples. Moses, being about to receive the Law from God, passed forty days and nights without food and drink, and was prepared, fasting, to receive the will of the Lord (Exod. 34:28).
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Elijah, after fasting for forty days, was translated by a chariot of fire from this world to the heights of heaven (1 Kings 19:8). Our Lord and Saviour Himself also, fasting for forty days, triumphed over the temptations of the devil, that He might come as victor already to the preaching of the Gospel (Matt. 4:1). Rightly therefore ought we too to keep by fasting this number of days, which we read was consecrated by such examples. 2. Then virtue is easier. Let us therefore celebrate these days with all alacrity of mind and with joy, and prefer them to all feastings, to all bodily delights.
For in these days especially the mind is kindled to fulfil the will of the Lord, when most of all through abstinence the pleasure of the flesh is extinguished. For then the whole mind, made purer, hastens to the Lord and His future promises, when it is thickened by no drunkenness, by no satiety of food and drink. Whence also the Saviour in the Gospel said: Take heed to yourselves, therefore, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this world; and that day come upon you suddenly: for as a snare shall it come upon all the whole world, and none shall escape (Luke 21:34,35).
But there is also this great benefit in the days of Lent: that even by abstaining from things which are lawful, we are admonished more and more to shun the unlawful. For we who abstain from meats which on other days it is permitted to use — we, then, who avoid these things that are at times allowed — let us above all flee from sins, which are never at all allowed. 3. The chief fast is from vices. Therefore, if we wish to fast well from food, let us before all things fast also from vices. For what does it profit to empty the body of food and to fill the soul with sins? What does it profit to be pale with fasting, if you turn livid with hatred and envy? What does it profit to drink no wine, and to be made drunk with the poison of anger?
What does it profit to abstain from flesh created to be eaten, and yet to tear the members of the brethren with malicious slanders? What does it profit if we abstain from those things which are at times lawful, and do those things which are never lawful? For God honours and loves those who flee the unlawful. So then, as I have said, let us fast from food in such a way that we may much more fast also from vices, that we may be filled with the abundance of holy works; so that in the world to come we may also deserve to be satisfied by the reward of those very works, even as we read in the Gospel: Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled (Matt. v, 6). 4. Let the poor be refreshed from our thrift.
For we ought rather to choose that recompense, whereby the food from which we abstain we bestow upon the poor and the weak; according to that which is written: Blessed are they who are content to hunger, that others may be refreshed. Sufficiently acceptable to God is the gift, when the needy is filled, when the naked is clothed, when anger is not carried out, and no time is reserved for wrath, when evil is not repaid for evil. Then are our fasts pleasing to God, if those who fast out of necessity are refreshed by us. Then shall we deserve to hear that sentence of the Lord: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these least, you did it to me (Matt. xxv, 40).
O most gracious Lord, who to subdue the avarice of men declares that whatever is given even to the least of the poor is given to Himself! And to you, brethren, may the mercy of the Lord grant that you may serve Him with fastings and almsgivings in good works, so that He Himself may lead you to eternal and true life, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. SERMON 144. On Lent, V. 1. The benefit of fasting is shown by the examples of Moses and Adam. The venerable and healing season of Lent is at hand, most beloved, through which by fasting we ought to heal the wounds of our sins. How great a good, then, fasting is, and how much grace it confers upon man, let us set forth in a brief sermon with examples added.
Moses first, when he had fasted forty days and nights, deserved to receive the Law of the Lord, whereby he might rule the peoples. The fasting of one man obtained what the fullness of the whole people had despaired of. Let us therefore observe how great a distance there is between fasting and satiety, between an empty belly and lungs seething with banquets. Moses, then, because he fasted, saw the Lord (Exod. xxiv, 18); the people, because they ate and drank, fashioned idols. But why should I speak of Moses and the multitude of Israel? That prince of the human race, Adam, as long as he fasted keeping the commandment, remained in paradise; but when he ate, he was cast out of paradise (Gen. iii).
And he who had been a virgin in the paradise of God, once cast out of paradise, knew his wife. For lasciviousness is always joined to satiety. The belly and the genitals are neighbours to each other, and the order of vices follows the order of the members. Food, then, cast us out of paradise; let hunger bring us back, let fasting bring us back. We have said, therefore, what holy Moses merited by fasting; next let us also behold all the rest. 2. Likewise of Elias. To holy Elias as he fasted even the elements gave service. He indeed for three years and six months closed up heaven (1 Kings xvii, 1; James v, 17), and at whose word even fire from on high descended (2 Kings i, 10).
And when queen Jezebel wished to kill him, and he lay weary under a leafy tree in the wilderness, an angel was sent to him and said to him: Take a little bread and water (1 Kings xix, 5). See how great is God's clemency toward those who fast, most beloved. It was not enough that the Lord had sent an angel to the one fasting, to admonish him to take food; but He also commands that he flee farther from his pursuer. He said: Take a little bread and water. For he was about to journey with a forty days' fast through the desert as far as Mount Sinai. Could not the Lord, who had made heaven and earth, whose is all creation, have sent him a meal in the wilderness by an angel, as He sent it to Daniel in the lions' den by Habakkuk (Dan.
xiv, 33)? But God knew that His prophet, in tempting the devil, could not otherwise overcome him, unless, trained by fastings, he might repel the temptations of the ensnaring enemy. 3. Likewise of Daniel, John the Baptist, and from the Gospel itself. The distance between the fasting and the sated. Daniel too, that man skilled in things to come, and conscious of the Lord's coming, and the most manifest herald of Jerusalem's overthrow, was for this reason called a man of desires, because he ate not the bread of desire and drank not the drink of concupiscence, since he desired Christ more than banquets. John also, the forerunner of the Lord, was nourished in the wilderness on locusts and wild honey, not on the flesh of animals, not on the delicacies of birds.
He could surely, being set beside the Jordan, have provided himself the delights of fish; but being about to preach repentance, he ought rather to teach the doctrine of severity and fasting by his own example than by his voice. In the Gospel too, when a certain man full of a demon was brought to the Lord, whom the Apostles were unable to cure, on their inquiry they hear from the Lord that this kind cannot be cast out except by prayers and fastings (Matt. xvii, 20). See therefore, most beloved, how great is the power of fastings, that fastings can do what the Apostles could not. I pass over the rest:
but let each one consider how great is the distance between fasting and satiety, between an empty belly and one crammed full, between a reddening face and pale countenances, between a fasting mouth and lips slackened with surfeit, between a mind oppressed by banquets, and one keeping vigil in the thinness of abstinence. 4. From what things we must abstain and why. Let the fasts not be alone. I do not say weeks, nor doubled, nor multiplied fasts; but let us pass even single days without the luxury of food. Let baths, wine, or meats cease — not that we should judge the creature of God to be condemned; but we who all year have lived for ourselves, let us at least for a few days live also for the Lord. But that our fasts may be full and complete, let them be fattened with the richness of mercy;