Омилия IX 17 .

Truth and firm belief, consistent with our God-bearing Fathers, are the ultimate goal of divine dogmas and intensive work on them and contemplation of God. But for active virtue this is not the limit, but rather, it is the beginning, which, if not combined with the corresponding end, will become the cause of even greater condemnation for the one who has taken it upon himself. “He who knows the will of his master,” it is said, “and does not do it, will suffer many punishments” (Luke 12:47). Thus, for the concept of active virtue, its understanding and truth do not suffice, but active goodness represents the end of it. Consequently, if we see people who are steadfast in a certain goodness and who turn this into action and who improve in goodness through good deeds and who do not allow even in their thoughts to deviate from the right belief, then we will no longer talk to them much about righteousness, chastity, abstinence and similar things. For who does not know that each of these virtues is good, and especially a temperate life, which, as everyone knows from experience, brings the greatest benefit to both soul and body? But since many know this, and know it well, but passion and anger prevail over their good disposition, as the Apostle says: “I see the law in my hearts warring against the law of my mind, and taking me captive through the law of sin that is in my hearts” (Rom. 7:23), then we constantly exhort you, brethren, to encourage you to take up the fulfillment with an uncorrupted and right disposition. good works, so that a good ending may be added to the knowledge of sin. “Knowledge is good,” says David, “to all who do” (Ps. 110:10). And: “His righteousness is upon the sons of sons, who keep His covenant and remember His commandments to do” (Ps. 103:18). And Paul: “Those who hear the law are not righteous before God, but those who do the law will be justified” (Rom. 2:13). The Lord of both of them (says): “If you know this, blessed are you if you do” (John 13:17). So, let us actively adhere to the wonderful work of fasting and abstinence; by good deeds we will confirm our disposition towards them. Let us actively show what kind of fruit they bear, for a tree is known by its fruit. But the farmer must also be the first to receive from the fruits. “Understand what I say” (2 Tim. 2:6), says the Apostle. Thus, among other virtues, each purifies and beautifies either the soul or the body, or rather, one certain part of the soul or body: thus prayer and knowledge adorn and purify the mind, meekness tames anger, chastity extinguishes lust. Fasting and abstinence pacify carnal inflammation, quench furious anger and passion, create a clear sky in the soul - clean and, as it were, cloudless - cleansing it of vapors that come from a lot of food and from darkness, as a consequence of this. Through fasting and abstinence the outer man withers; as much as he withers, so much the inner man is renewed, as the Apostle says. A well-fed stomach, someone said, does not give birth to a subtle mind; therefore, narrowed by fasting and abstinence, it, of necessity, makes the mind thin. Thus, thanks to this, everything beautiful and good is accomplished. Fasting and abstinence are a double ring of walls, and those who live behind them enjoy great peace, like a citizen of Jerusalem. For Jerusalem translated means “peace.” The Babylonian prince “arch-cook” approaches this wall with war, and where he would not find these walls staunchly defending from the inside, he destroys them, introducing, like battering guns, the tricks of the chef’s art. Those behind these walls not only despise the difference in food, but for the sake of greater economy they thresh the bread themselves, or better yet, they themselves, thanks to abstinence, overturn the tent of Midian. For this is what the story of Gideon prefigured: “Behold the dough of barley bread,” they say, “rolling in the heap of Midian” (Judges 7:13). Barley bread shows modesty and abstinence even in the necessary food of those who fought with Gideon. “And he fell against the tabernacle of Midian, and beat her, and turned her,” it says. The Midian tent, overturned with barley dough, of course, will (in our comparison) be an seething lust of the throat and belly, the fierce demands of which are cut off by fasting and an unpretentious meal corresponding to fasting. Daniel - the man of desires - not only killed the dragon with a cake, the god of those whose god is the belly, but also for many weeks without eating the coveted bread or drinking wine, he saw new visions and was rewarded with the coming of the Archangel. This is what Daniel did; and the lustful and ungrateful people said: “Who will feed our meat?” (Numbers 11:4). But after they had filled themselves with meat to such an extent that it began to come out of their nostrils, they were struck with a very great ulcer. “For,” it says, “God was angry with the people, and their satiety turned into cholera” (Num. 11:33). And the “coffins of lust” that are spoken of in that place (Num. 11:34) are a monument to divine wrath against those people. Let us, looking at this monument, flee gluttony, embrace abstinence, let us love these days of fasting, as they make the body obedient to the soul and ease the mind, which quickly rises to God. John the Baptist of Grace was content with locusts and wild honey throughout his life. Peter ate only pickles, olives, wolf beans (lupin) and peeled greens. What should we say about Paul, who says: “In hunger and thirst, in hunger abound” (2 Cor. 11:27)? The period of forty days of fasting does not constitute your entire life for you; Moreover, day after day, the sunset announces to you that the end of the fast is approaching. Oh, isn’t it easy and convenient for everyone to abstain from food?! Only let there be satiation corresponding to fasting, because in this way he who moderately abstains from food and moderately satiates himself will not be far behind those who do not eat. But perhaps you spare the flesh and flee from fasting, as from a carrier of exhaustion; but - on the contrary! – it is satiety that leads to gout and migraines and other diseases; and fasting is the mother of health; so that not only does the fornicator sin against his body, but the glutton also sins in the same way, making him weaker and more sickly. Since intemperance manifests itself through all feelings, let us impose abstinence on all of them. If you fast in food, your eyes are seduced by adultery in the secret places of your soul, and by curiosity and slander; hearing - to those who perceive outrages and prodigal songs and unkind slanderous whispers; and other feelings that are consistently harmful, then what is the benefit of fasting? - Of course, none! For you flee from one type of evil, in order to thereby flee from that other evil, to which you give entry into your soul, allowing this first evil. For, since we are made up of soul and body, not only from the body, but also from the soul, which is multi-membered (for in another way it has as members the nourishing principle (το θρεπτικον), the power of desire, irritability and the rational principle), then that is only true fasting, which extends to everything, and cleanses everything, and heals everything; for sweet, brothers, and blissful is the healing of the soul by fasting; and therefore our Fathers established it for us during these days. So, if we begin to recklessly evade fasting, then punitive punishments await us, both cutting and burning; for that which cannot be cured, Christ will cut up and consign to unquenchable fire for eternal punishment. For, just as then, without fasting in paradise, we were expelled into this painful life, so now, if we do not fast and do not, to the best of our ability, live abstinently, we will be cast into the unquenchable and unbearable Gehenna. But, “turn back, you backsliding sons,” says the prophecy (Jer. 3:14). Nothing contributes to the propitiation of God to those who turn (from sin to God) to such an extent as fasting, as we are taught by the example of the conversion of the Ninevites; and nothing kills so much as gluttony, as the One who speaks about the converted prodigal son shows: “This son of mine was dead, and is alive: and he perished, and was found” (Luke 15:24). He loved the pig-like life and enjoyed the pig's dirt, becoming equal to them and becoming like them, laying aside his godlikeness. According to the words of the great Job, he says that he not only became like cattle, but also wet areas, completely insensitive susak, papyrus and reeds, in which the omnivorous leviathan rests. Because this spiritual whale lives in damp places. Driving away this dampness with an abstinent life, David says: “My strength has dried up”, “and my bones have dried up”; “My knees are weary of fasting, and my flesh is changed for the sake of oil” (Ps. 21:16, 102:4, 109:24). Therefore, entrusting himself entirely to Him, in everything, and even in heartfelt meditation, walking before Him and having Him before his eyes in all his deeds, he changed the “change of the right hand of the Most High” (Ps. 77:11, i.e., received mercy from God and was freed from grief, which he calls “the change of the right hand of the Most High”). So, beloved, let us also imitate this, and not only avoid a loose (soft) and relaxed life, but as if in the eyes of God and being before Him, let us do our fasting, and psalmody, and prayer, knowing that neither fasting, nor psalmody, nor prayer in themselves can save us, but doing them before the eyes of God saves us; for just as the sun warms what it illuminates, so the eyes of the Lord, looking, sanctify us. This is accomplished in the face of God when the mind looks at Him with restraint, and, because of looking at Him, fasting, and the singing of psalms, and prayers are performed; but when, during prayer and psalmody, the spirit at times stretches out to God, but at times it declines and becomes restless, then we must understand that we have not yet completely surrendered ourselves to God, and the whole purpose of what we do is not in the law of God; therefore, to the extent that we retreat from works of righteousness, we cannot remain in the sight of God. “The wicked will not abide before Your eyes,” it says (Ps. 5:6). But we, who lie wounded, will call on the Lord, who is able to put a plaster on our wounds and bind them up. So, let us not give here, I pray, any relaxation in fasting and prayers, and with tears and in all ways we will call upon Him until He approaches and heals us; Let us also demonstrate by deeds that we are worthy to have the Bridegroom Christ, Whom, now separated from us and residing in the heavenly villages, we await with firm hope. “When the Bridegroom is taken away from them,” He says, “then they fast” (Matthew 9:15). From this it is obvious that those whom Christ calls must spend their entire lives in abstinence and fasting, awaiting His Coming with good hope. Let us especially fast and stay awake during these days, awaiting the annual day of the Resurrection of Christ, so that we may glorify His pure and pure Passion, and through them we may gain the immortal and blessed life that the Lord has made for us. May we all be worthy of this blessed and immortal life by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom befits all glory, honor and worship, together with His beginningless Father and the Most Holy and Good and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. PG.151:104–112. Homilia IX. In tempore jejunii et orationis. You might be interested in: