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| On Lent, IV.
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Sermon
XLII.
On Lent, IV.
I. The Lenten fast an opportunity for
restoring our purity.
In proposing to preach this most holy and
important fast to you, dearly beloved, how shall I begin more fitly
than by quoting the words of the Apostle, in whom Christ Himself was
speaking, and by reminding you of what we have read921
| 921 Cf. Serm. XL. chap.
ii. n. 5. | : “behold, now is the acceptable
time, behold now is the day of salvation.” For though there
are no seasons which are not full of Divine blessings, and though
access is ever open to us to God’s mercy
through His grace, yet now all men’s minds should be moved with
greater zeal to spiritual progress, and animated by larger confidence,
when the return of the day, on which we were redeemed, invites us to
all the duties of godliness: that we may keep the super-excellent
mystery of the Lord’s passion with
bodies and hearts purified. These great mysteries do indeed
require from us such unflagging devotion and unwearied reverence that
we should remain in God’s sight always
the same, as we ought to be found on the Easter feast itself. But
because few have this constancy, and, because so long as the stricter
observance is relaxed in consideration of the frailty of the flesh, and
so long as one’s interests extend over all the various actions of
this life, even pious hearts must get some soils from the dust of the
world, the Divine Providence has with great beneficence taken care that
the discipline of the forty days should heal us and restore the purity
of our minds, during which the faults of other times might be redeemed
by pious acts and removed by chaste fasting.
II. Lent must be used for removing all
our defilements, and of good works there must be no
stint.
As we are therefore, dearly-beloved, about to
enter on those mystic days which are dedicated to the benefits of
fasting, let us take care to obey the Apostle’s precepts,
cleansing “ourselves from every defilement of flesh and
spirit922
:” that by controlling the
struggles that go on between our two natures, the spirit which, if it
is under the guidance of God, should be the
governor of the body, may uphold the dignity of its rule: so that
we may give no offence to any, nor be subject to the chidings of
reprovers. For we shall be rightly attacked with rebukes, and
through our fault ungodly tongues will arm themselves to do harm to
religion, if the conduct of those that fast is at variance with the
standard of perfect purity. For our fast does not consist chiefly
of mere abstinence from food, nor are dainties withdrawn from our
bodily appetites with profit, unless the mind is recalled from
wrong-doing and the tongue restrained from slandering. This is a
time of gentleness and long-suffering, of peace and tranquillity:
when all the pollutions of vice are to be eradicated and continuance of
virtue is to be attained by us. Now let godly minds boldly
accustom themselves to forgive faults, to pass over insults, and to
forget wrongs. Now let the faithful spirit train himself with the
armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, that through
honour and dishonour, through ill repute and good repute, the
conscience may be undisturbed in unwavering uprightness, not puffed up
by praise and not wearied out by revilings. The self-restraint of
the religious should not be gloomy, but sincere; no murmurs of
complaint should be heard from those who are never without the
consolation of holy joys. The decrease of worldly means should
not be feared in the practice of works of mercy. Christian
poverty is always rich, because what it has is more than what it has
not. Nor does the poor man fear to labour in this world, to whom
it is given to possess all things in the Lord
of all things. Therefore those who do the things which are good
must have no manner of fear lest the power of doing should fail them;
since in the gospel the widow’s devotion is extolled in the case
of her two mites, and voluntary bounty gets its reward for a cup of
cold water923
. For the
measure of our charitableness is fixed by the sincerity of our
feelings, and he that shows mercy on others will never want for mercy
himself. The holy widow of Sarepta discovered this, who offered
the blessed Elias in the time of famine one day’s food, which was
all she had, and putting the prophet’s hunger before her own
needs, ungrudgingly gave up a handful of corn and a little oil924
. But she did not lose
what she gave in all faith, and in
the vessels emptied by her godly bounty a source of new plenty arose,
that the fulness of her substance might not be diminished by the holy
purpose to which she had put it, because she had never dreaded being
brought to want.
III. As with the Saviour, so with us, the
devil tries to make our very piety its own snare.
But, dearly-beloved, doubt not that the devil, who
is the opponent of all virtues, is jealous of these good desires, to
which we are confident you are prompted of your own selves, and that to
this end he is arming the force of his malice in order to make your
very piety its own snare, and endeavouring to overcome by boastfulness
those whom he could not defeat by distrustfulness. For the vice
of pride is a near neighbour to good deeds, and arrogance ever lies in
wait hard by virtue: because it is hard for him that lives
praise-worthily not to be caught by man’s praise unless, as it is
written, “he that glorieth, glorieth in the Lord925
.” Whose intentions would
that most naughty enemy not dare to attack? whose fasting would he not
seek to break down? seeing that, as has been shown in the reading of
the Gospel926
| 926 Cf. Serm. XXXVI.
chap. i., note 7. | , he did not
restrain his wiles even against the Saviour of the world Himself.
For being exceedingly afraid of His fast, which lasted 40 days and
nights, he wished most cunningly to discover whether this power of
abstinence was given Him or His very own: for he need not fear
the defeat of all his treacherous designs, if Christ were throughout
subject to the same conditions as He is in body927
| 927 Si Christus eius
esset conditionis cuius est corporis, an obscurely expressed but
intrinsically clear statement. | . And so he first craftily examined
whether He were Himself the Creator of all things, such that He could
change the natures of material things as He pleased: secondly,
whether under the form of human flesh the Godhead lay concealed, to
Whom it was easy to make the air His chariot, and convey His earthly
limbs through space. But when the Lord
preferred to resist him by the uprightness of His true Manhood, than to
display the power of His Godhead, to this he turns the craftiness of
his third design, that he might tempt by the lust of empire Him in Whom
the signs of Divine power had failed, and entice Him to the worship of
himself by promising the kingdoms of the world. But the
devil’s cleverness was rendered foolish by God’s wisdom, so that the proud foe was bound by
that which he had formerly bound, and did not fear to assail Him Whom
it behoved to be slain for the world.
IV. The perverse turn even their fasting
into sin.
This adversary’s wiles then let us beware
of, not only in the enticements of the palate, but also in our purpose
of abstinence. For he who knew how to bring death upon mankind by
means of food, knows also how to harm us through our very fasting, and
using the Manichæans as his tools, as he once drove men to take
what was forbidden, so in the opposite direction he prompts them to
avoid what is allowed. It is indeed a helpful observance, which
accustoms one to scanty diet, and checks the appetite for
dainties: but woe to the dogmatizing of those whose very fasting
is turned to sin. For they condemn the creature’s nature to
the Creator’s injury, and maintain that they are defiled by
eating those things of which they contend the devil, not God, is the author: although absolutely nothing that
exists is evil, nor is anything in nature included in the actually
bad. For the good Creator made all things good and the Maker of
the universe is one, “Who made the heaven and the earth, the sea
and all that is in them928
.” Of
which whatever is granted to man for food and drink, is holy and clean
after its kind. But if it is taken with immoderate greed, it is
the excess that disgraces the eaters and drinkers, not the nature of
the food or drink that defiles them. “For all
things,” as the Apostle says, “are clean to the
clean. But to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is clean, but
their mind and conscience is defiled929
.”
V. Be reasonable and seasonable in your
fasting.
But ye, dearly-beloved, the holy offspring of the
catholic Mother, who have been taught in the school of Truth by
God’s Spirit, moderate your liberty with
due reasonableness, knowing that it is good to abstain even from things
lawful, and at seasons of greater strictness to distinguish one food
from another with a view to giving up the use of some kinds, not to
condemning their nature. And so be not infected with the error of
those who are corrupted merely by their own ordinances, “serving
the creature rather than the Creator930
,” and
offering a foolish abstinence to the service of the lights of
heaven: seeing that they have chosen to fast on the first and
second days of the week in honour of the sun and moon, proving
themselves in this one instance of their perverseness twice disloyal to
God, twice blasphemous, by setting up
their
fast not only in
worship of the stars but also in contempt of the Lord’s Resurrection. For they reject the
mystery of man’s salvation and refuse to believe that Christ our
Lord in the true flesh of our nature was truly
born, truly suffered, was truly buried and was truly raised. And
in consequence, condemn the day of our rejoicing by the gloom of their
fasting. And since to conceal their infidelity they dare to be
present at our meetings, at the Communion of the Mysteries931
| 931 In sacramentorum
communione. | they bring themselves sometimes, in order
to ensure their concealment, to receive Christ’s Body with
unworthy lips, though they altogether refuse to drink the Blood of our
Redemption. And this we make known to you, holy brethren, that
men of this sort may be detected by you by these signs, and that they
whose impious pretences have been discovered may be driven from the
society of the saints by priestly authority. For of such the
blessed Apostle Paul in his foresight warns God’s Church, saying: “but we beseech
you, brethren, that ye observe those who make discussions and offences
contrary to the doctrine which ye learnt and turn away from them.
For such persons serve not Christ the Lord but
their own belly, and by sweet words and fair speeches beguile the
hearts of the innocent932
.”
VI. Make your fasting a reality by
amendment in your lives.
Being therefore, dearly-beloved, fully instructed
by these admonitions of ours, which we have often repeated in your ears
in protest against abominable error, enter upon the holy days of Lent
with Godly devoutness, and prepare yourselves to win God’s mercy by your own works of mercy. Quench
your anger, wipe out enmities, cherish unity, and vie with one another
in the offices of true humility. Rule your slaves and those who
are put under you with fairness, let none of them be tortured by
imprisonment or chains. Forego vengeance, forgive offences:
exchange severity for gentleness, indignation for meekness, discord for
peace. Let all men find us self-restrained, peaceable,
kind: that our fastings may be acceptable to God. For in a word to Him we offer the sacrifice of
true abstinence and true Godliness, when we keep ourselves from all
evil: the Almighty God helping us
through all, to Whom with the Son and Holy Spirit belongs one Godhead
and one Majesty, for ever and ever. Amen. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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