Chapter XII.
40. There follows a precept concerning fasting, having reference to that same purification of heart which is at present under discussion. For in this work also we must be on our guard, lest there should creep in a certain ostentation and hankering after the praise of man, which would make the heart double, and not allow it to be pure and single for apprehending God. “Moreover, when ye fast,” says He, “be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they
disfigure their faces,348
| 348 Vultum…videantur; Vulgate, facies…appareant. The Greek has a play on words, ἀφανιζουσι…φανῶσι (“they mar their appearance, that they may make an appearance”).
|
that they may appear
349
| 349 Vultum…videantur; Vulgate, facies…appareant. The Greek has a play on words, ἀφανιζουσι…φανῶσι (“they mar their appearance, that they may make an appearance”).
|
unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their
reward. But ye,
350
| 350 Vulgate has the singular as the Greek. The Pharisees were scrupulous in keeping fast-days. Monday and Thursday were observed by the strict with different degrees of scrupulosity,—the lowest admitting of washing and anointing the head. (See Schürer, N. Zeitgesch. p. 505 sqq.). The early practice of fasting in the sub-apostolic Church is evident from the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, which enjoins it before baptism, and on the “fourth day and
the Preparation Day” (vii., viii.).
|
when ye fast,
anoint your head, and
wash your face; that ye appear not unto men to fast, but unto your
Father which is in
secret: and your
Father, which seeth in
secret, shall
reward you.” It is manifest from these
precepts that all our effort is to be directed towards inward joys, lest, seeking a
reward from without, we should be
conformed to this
world, and should lose the
promise of a
blessedness so much the more solid and firm, as it is inward, in which
God has chosen
that we should become
conformed to the image of His Son.
351
41. But in this section it is chiefly to be noticed, that there may be ostentatious display not merely in the splendour and pomp of things pertaining to the booty, but also in doleful squalor itself; and the more dangerous on this account, that it deceives under the name of serving God. And therefore he who is very conspicuous by immoderate attention to the body, and by the splendour of his clothing or other things, is easily convicted by the things themselves of being
a follower of the pomps of the world, and misleads no one by a cunning semblance of sanctity; but in regard to him who under a profession of Christianity, fixes the eyes of men upon himself by unusual squalor and filth, when he does it voluntarily, and not under the pressure of necessity, it may be conjectured from the rest of his actings whether he does this from contempt of superfluous attention to the body, or from a certain ambition: for the Lord has enjoined us to beware of wolves under a
sheep’s skin; but “by their fruits,” says He, “shall ye know them.” For when by temptations of any kind those very things begin to be withdrawn from them or refused to them, which under that veil they either have obtained or desire to obtain, then of necessity it appears whether it is a wolf in a sheep’s skin or a sheep in its own. For a Christian ought not to delight the eyes of men by superfluous ornament on this account, because pretenders also too often assume that frugal and
merely necessary dress, that they may deceive those who are not on their guard: for those sheep also ought not to lay aside their own skins, if at any time wolves cover themselves there with.
42. It is usual, therefore, to ask what He means, when He says: “But ye, when ye fast, anoint your head, and wash your faces, that ye appear not unto men to fast.” For it would not be right in any one to teach (although we may wash our face according to daily custom) that we ought also to have our heads anointed when we fast. If, then, all admit this to be most unseemly, we must understand this precept with respect to anointing the head and washing the face as
referring to the inner man.352
| 352 So modern exegetes (Meyer, etc.).
|
Hence, to
anoint the head refers to
joy; to
wash the face, on the other
hand, refers to
purity: and therefore that man
anoints his head who
rejoices inwardly in his
mind and reason. For we rightly understand that as being the head which has the pre-eminence in the
soul, and by which it is evident that the other parts of man are ruled and governed. And this is done by him who does not
seek his
joy from without, so as to draw his
delight in a fleshly way from the
praises of
men. For the
flesh, which ought to be subject, is in no way the head of the whole
nature of man. “No man,” indeed, “ever yet
hated his own
flesh,” as the
apostle says, when giving the
precept as to
loving one’s
wife;
353
but the man is the head of the
woman, and
Christ is the head of the man.
354
Let him, therefore,
rejoice inwardly in his
fasting355
| 355 “It hardly needs to add,” says Trench, “that Augustin everywhere interprets ‘when ye fast’ as a command.”
|
in this very circumstance, that by his
fasting he so turns away from the
pleasure of the
world as to be subject to
Christ, who according to this
precept desires to have the head
anointed. For thus also he will
wash his face,
i.e. cleanse his
heart, with which he shall see
God, no
veil being interposed on account of the
infirmity contracted from squalor; but being firm and
stedfast, inasmuch as he is pure and guileless. “
Wash you,” says He, “make
you
clean; put away the
evil of your doings from before mine
eyes.”
356
From the squalor, therefore, by which the
eye of
God is offended, our face is to be
washed. For we, with open face beholding as in a
glass the
glory of the
Lord, are changed into the same image.
357
43. Often also the thought of things necessary belonging to this life wounds and defiles our inner eye; and frequently it makes the heart double, so that in regard to those things in which we seem to act rightly with our fellowmen, we do not act with that heart wherewith the Lord enjoins us; i.e., it is not because we love them, but because we wish to obtain some advantage from them for the necessity of the present life. But we ought to do them good for
their eternal salvation, not for our own temporal advantage. May God, therefore, incline our heart to His testimonies, and not to covetousness.358
For “the end of the
commandment is
charity out of a pure
heart, and of a good conscience, and of
faith unfeigned.”
359
But he who looks after his
brother from a regard to his own necessities in this
life, does not certainly do so from
love, because he does not look after him whom he ought to
love as himself, but after himself; or rather not even after himself, seeing that in this way he makes his own heart double, by which he is hindered from seeing God, in the vision of whom alone there is certain and lasting blessedness.
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