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| On the Fast of the Seventh Month, VI.
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Sermon XCI.
On the Fast of the Seventh Month,
VI.
I. Abstinence must include discipline of
the soul as well as of the body.
There is nothing, dearly-beloved, in which the
Divine Providence does not assist the devotions of the faithful.
For the very elements of the world1210
| 1210 Cf. Serm. XIX.
2, per ipsius mundi cardines, quasi per quattuor evangelia,
incessabiliter discimus quod et prædicemus et agamus. | also minister
to the exercise of mind and body in holiness, seeing that the
distinctly varied revolution of days and months opens for us the
different pages of the commands, and thus the seasons also in some
sense speak to us of that which the sacred institutions enjoin.
And hence, since the year’s course has brought back the seventh
month to us, I feel certain that your minds are spiritually aroused to
keep the solemn fast; since you have learnt by experience how well this
preparation purifies both the outer and the inner parts of men, so that
by abstaining from the lawful, resistance becomes easier to the
unlawful. But do not limit your plan of abstinence,
dearly-beloved, to the mortifying of the body, or to the lessening of
food alone. For the greater advantages of this virtue belong to
that chastity of the soul, which not only crushes the lusts of the
flesh, but also despises the vanities of worldly wisdom, as the Apostle
says, “take heed that no one deceive you through philosophy and
empty deceit, according to the tradition of men1211
.”
II. And in particular we must abstain
from heresy, and that of Eutyches as well as that of
Nestorius.
We must restrain ourselves, therefore, from food,
but much more must we fast from errors that the mind, given up to no
carnal pleasure, may be taken captive by no falsehood: because as
in past days, so also in our own, there are not wanting enemies of the
Truth, who dare to stir up civil wars within the catholic
Church1212
| 1212 The occasion of this
Sermon seems to have been either the same or a similar one to that of
Serm. XCVI., in which we read that certain traders had come to Rome
from Egypt after the murder of Proterius, supporting the heresy of
Eutyches. | , in order that by
leading the ignorant into agreement with their ungodly doctrines they
may boast of increase in numbers through those whom they have been
able
to sever from the
Body of Christ. For what is so opposed to the Prophets, so
repugnant to the Gospels, so at variance with the Apostles’
teaching as to preach one single Nature in the Lord Jesus Christ born of Mary, and without respect to
time co-eternal with the Eternal Father? If it is only
man’s nature which is to be acknowledged, where is the Godhead
Which saves? if only God’s, where is the
humanity which is saved? But the catholic Faith, which withstands
all errors, refutes these blasphemies also at the same time, condemning
Nestorius, who divides the Divine from the human, and denouncing
Eutyches, who nullifies the human in the Divine; seeing that the Son of
True God, Himself True God, possessing unity and equality with the Father and
with the Holy Ghost, has vouchsafed likewise to be true Man, and after
the Virgin Mother’s conception was not separated from her flesh
and child-bearing, so uniting humanity to Himself as to remain
immutably God; so imparting Godhead to man as
not to destroy but enhance him by glorification. For He, Who
became “the form of a slave,” ceased not to be “the
form of God,” and He is not one joined
with the other, but One in Both, so that ever since “the Word
became Flesh” our faith is disturbed by no vicissitudes of
circumstance, but whether in the miracles of power, or in the
degradation of suffering, we believe Him to be both God, Who is Man, and Man, Who is God1213
| 1213 For the whole of
this chap. compare Lett. XXXI. chaps. 1 and 2. | .
III. The truth of the incarnation is
proved both by the Eucharistic Feast and by the Divine institution of
almsgiving.
Dearly-beloved, utter this confession with all
your heart and reject the wicked lies of heretics, that your fasting
and almsgiving may not be polluted by any contagion with error:
for then is our offering of the sacrifice clean and our gifts of mercy
holy, when those who perform them understand that which they do.
For when the Lord says, “unless ye have
eaten the flesh of the Son of Man, and drunk His blood, ye will not
have life in you1214
,” you ought
so to be partakers at the Holy Table, as to have no doubt whatever
concerning the reality of Christ’s Body and Blood. For that
is taken in the mouth which is believed in Faith, and it is vain for
them to respond Amen1215
| 1215 This (acc. to the
Ball.) is the Amen which the communicant said at the Reception of the
Elements when the Priest said to Him, Corpus Christi and
sanguis Christi: on the Eucharistic evidence against
Eutyches, see Lett. LIX. chap. 2, and Serm. LXIII. chap. 7. | who dispute that
which is taken. But when the Prophet says, “Blessed is he,
who considereth the poor and needy1216
,” he
is the praiseworthy distributor of clothes and food among the poor, who
knows he is clothing and feeding Christ in the poor: for He
Himself says, “as long as ye have done it to one of My brethren,
ye have done it to Me1217
.”
And so Christ is One, True God and True Man,
rich in what is His own, poor in what is ours, receiving gifts and
distributing gifts, Partner with mortals, and the Quickener of the
dead, so that in the “name of Jesus every knee should bow, of
things in heaven, of things on earth, and of things under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father1218
,” living
and reigning with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever.
Amen.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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