Sermon 210

SERMO 210

IN LENT

The time of the year and the number of days must be considered.

The solemn time has arrived, which more than other intervals of the year, reminds us to humble the soul with prayers and fasts, and to discipline the body. But why, as the solemnity of the Lord's Passion approaches, and why it is celebrated with the mystery of the number forty, since this is accustomed to move some, rightly what the Lord has deigned to grant to be said on this matter, we undertake to bring forth to your Charity. However, those whom we know seek these things not for disputing, but for understanding, by their faith and piety we are greatly aided, so that we may be able to obtain what should be said.

Why at that time is fasting observed, before the celebration of baptism.

For this is accustomed to raise a question, why the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who having taken on a human body appeared to men as a man to offer us an example of living, dying, and rising again, did not fast before being baptized, but fasted after being baptized. For it is written thus in the Gospel: "And when he was baptized, he immediately went up out of the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending upon him. And behold, a voice from the heavens said: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he afterward hungered." But we, together with those who are to be baptized, fast before their day of Baptism, which day approaches Easter, after which day we relax our fasts for fifty days. This should reasonably raise concern, if it were not allowed to baptize or be baptized except on the most solemn day of Easter. But since throughout the entire year, as each person has necessity or will, it is not forbidden to be baptized, as granted by him who gave them the power to become the children of God; while the annual passion of the Lord may be celebrated only on a certain day of the year, which is called Easter, the sacrament of Baptism is undoubtedly to be distinguished from Easter. For it is permissible to receive Baptism on any day: but the other is permissible to observe on a single and certain day of the year. This is given to renew life; that is commended for the memory of religion. But that the far greater number of those to be baptized gathers on that day does not distinguish a more abundant grace of salvation here, but the greater joy of the festivity invites.

The baptism of John must be distinguished from the baptism of Christ.

What about the fact that even the baptism of John, which Christ then received, is to be distinguished from the baptism of Christ Himself, which His faithful receive; and yet it does not follow that the one by which Christ was baptized is better than this one by which a Christian is baptized, because Christ is better than a Christian; but rather, this baptism, because it is of Christ, is preferred to that one? For John baptized Christ, while he confessed himself to be lesser than Christ: but Christ baptizes the Christian, who shows himself to be greater than John. Just as the circumcision of the flesh, although Christ received it and no Christian now receives it, the sacrament of the resurrection of Christ is better, by which a Christian is circumcised to strip away the carnal and old life, so that he may hear the Apostle saying: "As Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life." Just as the old Passover itself, which was commanded to be celebrated by the slaughter of a lamb, is not better than our Passover, where Christ was sacrificed, even though Christ celebrated it with His disciples. For He condescended to receive those sacraments as well, which prefigured His coming, to offer us an example of humility and devotion: so that from this, He might demonstrate with how much reverence we ought to receive these sacraments, which now proclaim that He has come. Therefore, it is not to be believed that because Christ fasted immediately after receiving John's baptism, He gave a rule of observation that it is necessary to fast immediately after receiving the baptism of Christ: but clearly by this example He taught that it is necessary to fast whenever we engage in a fiercer struggle with the tempter. For this reason, Christ, who as a man was deemed worthy to be born, did not refuse as a man to be tempted, so that a Christian, instructed by His teaching, cannot be overcome by the tempter. Therefore, whether immediately after baptism, or at any interval of time, when a similar battle of temptation is brought upon a man, fasting must be undertaken: so that the body may fulfill a warrior's discipline through chastisement, and the soul may obtain victory through humility. Therefore, in that example given by the Lord, the cause of that fasting was not the immersion in the Jordan, but the temptation by the devil.

Why the Lenten fast before Easter?

But why do we fast before the solemnity of the Lord's Passion, and why is that relaxation of the fast completed on the fiftieth day? This is the reason. Everyone who fasts rightly either humbles his soul in the groaning of prayer and the mortification of the body out of unfaked faith, or suspends his intention from carnal temptation by some spiritual delight of truth and wisdom, and thus descends to feel hunger and thirst. The Lord responded about both types of fasting when questioned why His disciples did not fast. Regarding the first, which involves the humiliation of the soul, He said: "The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and then they will fast." About the other kind, which pertains to the feasts of the mind, He spoke consequently: "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved." Therefore, because the bridegroom has now been taken away, certainly for us, the sons of that beautiful bridegroom, it is a time for mourning. For He is beautiful in form beyond the sons of men, whose grace has been poured upon His lips, but who, in the hands of persecutors, had neither beauty nor majesty, and His life was taken from the earth. And we mourn rightly if we burn with desire for Him. Blessed are those who were allowed to have Him present before His passion, to question Him as they wished, and to hear Him as they ought. Those days the fathers before His advent longed to see, but did not see, because they were ordained in different dispensations, through which He was to be announced as coming, not heard as present. Concerning them, He speaks to His disciples, saying: "Many righteous men and prophets longed to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it." In us, however, that is fulfilled which He equally says: "The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it."

Who would not be burned with the flame of holy desire? Who would not mourn here? Who would not labor in their groaning? Who would not say: My tears have been my bread day and night, while it is said to me daily, Where is your God? For we indeed believe in him now sitting at the right hand of the Father: yet as long as we are in the body, we are away from him, nor are we able to show him to those doubting or denying and saying: Where is your God? Rightly did his Apostle desire to be dissolved and to be with him: but to remain in the flesh he did not consider best for himself, but necessary for us. Where the thoughts of mortals are fearful, and our foresight is uncertain; because earthly habitation depresses the mind thinking of many things. Hence human life on earth is a trial: and in this night of the world a lion prowls seeking whom he may devour. Not the Lion of the tribe of Judah, our King; but the devil lion, our adversary. However, the one expressing in himself the figures of the four animals from the Apocalypse of John, born as a man, worked as a lion, sacrificed as a calf, flew as an eagle. He flew on the wings of the winds, and made darkness his hiding place. He made darkness, and it became night, in which all the beasts of the forest prowl. The young lions roaring, evidently the tempters through whom the devil seeks whom he may devour; indeed having no power, except in those whom they have taken, because even in the same Psalm it follows thus: Seeking their food from God. In such a dangerous and temptation-filled night of this world who would not fear, who would not tremble to their very marrow, lest they be judged worthy to be left to be devoured in the jaws of so cruel an enemy? Hence we must fast and pray.

Why it is necessary to fast in this life.

And when better, when more urgently, than with the approaching solemnity of the Lord's Passion itself, by which the remembrance of that same night is somewhat renewed through annual celebration, lest it be erased by forgetfulness, lest, not sleeping in body but in spirit, that roaring devourer finds us. For what else does the Lord’s Passion itself commend to us in our head, Christ Jesus, if not this very temptation of life most significantly? Hence, upon the arrival of the time of His death, He said to Peter: "Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail; go and strengthen your brethren." And indeed, he strengthened us through his apostleship, his martyrdom, and his letters. Where also, admonishing about the night of which I speak as one to be feared, he taught us with the consolation of prophecy as with nocturnal light, so that we might vigilantly keep watch. "We have," he says, "the more sure prophetic word, to which you do well to attend as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts."

Fasting before the solemnity of Christ's passion is most fitting.

Let our loins, therefore, be girded and our lamps burning, and we be like men expecting their Lord when He will return from the weddings. And let us not say to one another: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. But all the more, because the day of death is uncertain and the day of life is troublesome, let us fast and pray, for tomorrow we die. A little while, He says, and you will not see me; and again a little while, and you will see me. This is the hour of which He said: You will be sorrowful, but the world will rejoice: that is, this life full of temptations, in which we are exiled from Him. But again, He says, I will see you, and your heart will rejoice; and your joy no one shall take from you. In this hope of the most faithful Promiser, even now we rejoice somewhat, until that most abundant joy comes, when we shall be like Him, because we will see Him as He is, and our joy no one shall take from us. For of this hope we have also received the so gracious and gratuitous pledge of the Holy Spirit, who in our hearts works inexpressible groans of holy desires. For we have conceived, as Isaiah says, and brought forth the spirit of salvation. And the woman when she gives birth, the Lord says, "she is in sorrow because her hour has come; but when she has brought forth the child, there is great joy, because a man is born into the world. This will be the joy which no one shall take from us; into which eternal light we will be transferred from this conception of faith. Now therefore let us fast, and pray, as the day of birth is at hand.”

A day now of toil and sorrow.

The reason for establishing the forty-day fast. The whole body of Christ spread throughout the world, that is, the whole Church does this, and that unity which says in the Psalm: "I have cried to You from the ends of the earth, when my heart was in anguish." Hence it now becomes clear to us why the solemnity of this forty-day humiliation has been instituted. For the one who cries out from the ends of the earth, when his heart is in anguish, cries out from the four parts of the world, which Scripture frequently commemorates: East and West, North and South. Through this whole [process], the Decalogue of the Law, no longer to be feared merely by the letter, but to be fulfilled by the grace of charity, was proclaimed. Hence, by multiplying ten by four, we see forty is completed. But still in the labor of temptation, with pardon for sins. For who fulfills perfectly: "You shall not covet?" Hence one must fast and pray; nevertheless, one must not cease from good works. To this labor, the reward named by the denarius is rendered at the end. However, just as the ternary is derived from three, and the quaternary from four; so too the denary is derived from ten: which, when joined to the forty, is given as the reward for labor. The figure of the number fifty signifies the time of that joy, which no one will take away from us: of which we do not yet have the realization in this life; but still, after the solemnity of the Lord's passion from the day of His resurrection through fifty days, during which we relax our fasts, we celebrate this in the praises of the Lord with the sounding Alleluia.

Fasting for a period of forty days, why it was instituted.

Now therefore, in the person of Christ, so that you are not outwitted by Satan, I urge you, dearest ones, to propitiate God with daily fasts, more bountiful alms, and more fervent prayers. Now is the time when both married men should abstain from their wives, and married women should abstain from their husbands, so that they may devote themselves to prayers: although they should do this on certain days throughout the whole year; and the more frequently, indeed the better: because he who immoderately desires what is permitted, offends the one who granted it. For indeed, prayer is a spiritual matter, and therefore it is the more acceptable, the more it fulfills its nature in effect. Moreover, it is performed with greater spiritual work, the more the soul that offers it is suspended from carnal pleasure.

The time of Lent is for abstinence and prayer.

For forty days Moses, the administrator of the Law, fasted; for forty days Elijah, the most excellent of the Prophets, fasted; for forty days the Lord Himself fasted, bearing witness from the Law and the Prophets. From then, He appeared on the mountain with these two. But we, who cannot perpetuate such a long fast, so as to take nothing in the way of nourishment for so many days and nights, as they did, let us at least do what we can; so that, except on the days when the custom of the Church prohibits fasting for certain reasons, we may please the Lord our God with either daily or frequent fasting. But can abstinence from food and drink not be continuous for so many days, as it can not be from conjugal intercourse? Since we see many of both sexes, in the name of Christ, keeping their members dedicated to God entirely immune from this matter. I think it is not a great thing that the chastity of married couples might be kept for the whole Paschal solemnity, which virginity can keep for a whole lifetime.

Observers of the delights of Lent rather than the religious.

Indeed now that issue, although I ought not to admonish, since I have most strongly recommended the time for humbling the soul as much as I could; yet because of the errors of men, who through vain seductions and depraved customs do not cease to inflict troublesome care for you upon us, I cannot be silent. There are some observers of Lent who are indulgent rather than religious, seeking new delicacies rather than chastising old desires; they strive to surpass the tastes and varieties of whatever foods with abundant and precious preparations of diverse fruits: they fear the vessels in which meats are cooked as if they were unclean, but they do not fear the indulgence in their own flesh for their belly and throat: they fast not to diminish usual gluttony by temperance, but to increase immoderate greed by deferring. For when the time for refreshment arrives, they rush to rich tables just like cattle to the trough; they overload their hearts with more numerous courses and distend their bellies; they provoke their palate with artificial and foreign varieties of seasonings, so that even abundance may not restrain it. Finally, they take in so much by eating as they cannot digest by fasting.

Lent is the occasion of a new joy.

There are also those who abstain from wine in such a way that they seek out other drinks from the pressing of other fruits, not for the sake of health, but for the sake of pleasure: as if Lent were not a holy observance of pious humility, but an occasion for new indulgence. For how much more honorable is it, if the weakness of the stomach cannot tolerate drinking water, to be sustained by the usual and moderate wine, rather than seeking wines that do not know the vintage, that do not know the presses; not so that a purer drink may be chosen, but so that moderation may be condemned? And what is more absurd than to procure such delights for the flesh at a time when the flesh ought to be more strictly chastised, so that the very desire of the throat does not want to pass by Lent? What could be more inappropriate than in the days of humility, when the food of the poor is to be imitated by all, to live in such a way that if one were to live like this all the time, the wealth of the rich might hardly sustain it? Beware of these things, most beloved: consider what is written: Do not follow your desires. If this most salutary commandment must be observed at all times, how much more during these days, when it is so shameful if our desire is given rein to unusual enticements, that one is rightly blamed who has not restrained even the usual ones?

Both good works are commended: giving and forgiving.

Especially remember the poor, so that what you save by living more frugally, you may store up in the heavenly treasure. Let the hungry Christ receive what the fasting Christian spares. Let the self-discipline of the willing become the sustenance of the needy. Let the voluntary poverty of the rich become the necessary abundance of the poor. Also, let there be in a placid and humble mind the merciful ease of forgiving. Let him who has done the injury ask for forgiveness; let him who has received the injury grant forgiveness: that we may not be possessed by Satan, whose triumph lies in the dissension of Christians. For this too is an almsgiving of great profit, to remit a debt to a fellow servant, so that it may be remitted to you by the Lord. Both works of goodness the heavenly master commended to his disciples, saying: Forgive, and you shall be forgiven; give, and it shall be given to you. Remember that servant, to whom his lord restored all his debt, because he did not repay the mercy to his fellow servant who owed him a hundred denarii, which he had received for the ten thousand talents he owed. In this kind of good work, there is no excuse, where the whole capability consists in will alone. Someone might say: For fear of a stomach ache, I cannot fast. He might even say: I want to give to the poor; but I have nothing to give, or I have so little that I fear I will need if I give. Although in these works, people often make false excuses for themselves, because they do not find true ones. Nevertheless, who is there who can say: Therefore, I did not forgive the one asking forgiveness, because my health prevented me, or because I lacked the hand to extend? Forgive, that you may be forgiven. The flesh has no part in this work, nor is any member of one’s flesh taken up to assist the soul, to fulfill what is asked. It is done by will, and perfected by will. Do it confidently, give confidently, you will feel no pain in your body, nor lack anything in your home. Now truly, brothers, see how evil it is that one does not forgive a repentant brother, who is commanded to love even his enemy. And so it is written: Do not let the sun set on your anger; consider, dearest ones, whether someone should be called a Christian who at least in these days does not want to terminate enmities, which he never ought to have engaged in.