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The time has come, beloved, through fasting we can experience the fruits of repentance. True, summer and autumn are intended for collecting fruits, while winter and spring are for sowing. But any time is suitable for fasting and prayer. “The bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast” (Matthew 9:15). And so, if on other days we left this matter unattended, now the time favors us to work in this field. I call fasting a field, since it disposes us all to work and radiance; he does not push away either women, or old people, or young men, or even small children, but opens the doors to everyone, accepts everyone, in order to save everyone, like the Ninevites. The sowing of fasting is wonderful, because it suppresses our sins, like weeds, and raises and grows truth, like a flower. The work of fasting is wonderful because it lightens our soul from the burden of sins and makes the burden of Christ’s commandments light. “Take My yoke upon you;... for My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:29–30). The yoke (of Christ) is faith, obligatory for everyone. The burden is the fulfillment of His commandments, burdening the shoulders of the soul with deeds and assessed in heaven. Thanks to fasting, the legislator Moses became famous: after spending forty days without food, he saw God talking with him face to face, he saw a cloud that overshadowed him, and from it he heard God speaking useful things to him; (thanks to fasting, he saw) a pillar of fire that shone at night and guided the Israelites during their wanderings in the desert, the opened gates of heaven, angelic bread descending to earth, a man feeding on the manna of God, a rock cut by a rod and flowing water, a sea giving birth to strange food, as if spewing out quails from its womb and feeding the people. Moses saw many other signs, thanks to the fact that he was diligent in fasting. Fasting abolishes death. The Savior said: “This generation is driven out only by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21; Mark 9:29). But there is nothing worse than demons. The demon is the last insurmountable limit; the demon is a plague, the worst of all evils; it produces ridicule in the public assembly, humiliation in the home, confusion in the church, devouring of the flesh, weakness of the soul, daily sorrow, fetters of the mind, obstacles in business. Great is the demon's anger. But fasting and prayer prevail over all types. Praying and singing psalms, David drove out the demon that (possessed) King Saul: “The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit troubled him” (1 Samuel 16:14); and when David played, the king felt better. And to what extent King David fasted, listen to what he himself writes in the psalms: “My knees are weak from fasting, and my body has lost fat” (Ps. 109:24). If Adam had resisted fasting (and not eaten) from the tree, he would not have been expelled from paradise; if Eve had not eaten (the fruits of the forbidden tree), misled by the serpent, she would not have led into the world of death; If Esau had not forgotten fasting, he would not have lost his birthright, would not have exchanged his glory for one meal, and would not have become his brother’s slave. Do you want to see the power of fasting? Go to the Ninevites, who through fasting gained their common salvation. In fact, when God wanted to destroy them for their sins, He sends the prophet Jonah and tells them: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed” (Jon.3:4)! Thus, God’s love for mankind proclaims, as if with a trumpet, what is destined to happen, and predicts death for those who are guilty before Him - not so that they hasten to flee the city, but so that, while remaining in the city, they repent, so that they awaken and become more attentive to admonition. He did not say: fast and I will save you; did not declare: repent and you will receive mercy; but he hid His love for mankind and announced a threat, so that no one would say: He forced them to fast and repent and give honor to God. And what happens under coercion is accepted without much favor. (In a completely different way, it is accepted that) “not with grief and not with compulsion; For God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7). “Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed.” The sentence is short; Without a trial, the sentence imposed is fast approaching. What's left to do? Where to look for salvation? Shouldn't we counter this threat with military force? But who can argue with God? The messenger (of punishment) is false. And if God threatens so much, they say to themselves, then how can we avoid such a disaster? What kind of fight should we prepare for? Who will fight to save us? Who will persuade God to stop His wrath against us all? Which mediator will we entrust to persuade Him to reconcile? We all turn out to be sinners. Being enemies of God, we will not be heard by Him. What should we do? Where to run from the face of the Lord? Let us, Ninevites, resort to fasting, says their king, sprinkle ashes on our heads, let our sheep and oxen neither eat nor drink: and let us see if God will not have mercy on us? This is how the Ninevites reasoned - and, having established fasting as the most reliable arrow, they prepared prayers like fragrant incense, shed tears of repentance like streams of water, and each abandoned their evil path - and with all this they achieved that God was reconciled with them. The three-day fast ascended to heaven, reached the Lord and won salvation from Him (to the inhabitants of the city). God gave life to everyone - both people and animals. Repentance triumphed, and with it fasting. See that you do not despise this institution, but adhere to it, stay awake, and grow in yourself the fruits of piety. So, let us all pray with one accord, that we too may be delivered from the wrath we deserve and attain the kingdom of heaven, through the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and classified in the Minya edition as Spuria.