Homily 43 #

On the Fourth Sunday of Lent: A teaching of St. John Chrysostom on fasting, prayer, and almsgiving.

Come now, children of the Church, that I may give you the customary instruction on fasting, prayer, and almsgiving for your edification. Behold, beloved, the greater part of the fast has already passed. Each of you knows the labor you have undertaken for God, both by day and by night during this holy season, and you hope to receive a reward from Him—for without labor, no one is crowned.

If, brothers, you have till now remained in idleness, then let us rouse ourselves in the days that remain, through fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, that we may attain to those who labored from the beginning.

Prayer, indeed, has great power before God, for by it every virtue is perfected. If you offer prayer with your whole heart, it rises to God like incense. For David the prophet said: “Let my prayer be set forth before Thee as incense”.

But if you do not give your prayer wings, it will not ascend to God. And the wings of prayer are fasting and almsgiving.

Fasting is not only abstaining from food, but turning away from all evil deeds and loosing every bond of injustice. Forgive the wrong done by your neighbor—for the Lord says, “Ye shall not fast for strife and debate” (Isaiah 58:4).

If you abstain from meat, then also abstain from wine, and from quarrels, and from anger. Have you skipped supper? Yet you sit late into the night judging others and speaking what is unseemly. But this is not the kind of fast I have chosen, says the Lord.

What profit is there in hungering with the body, but multiplying wickedness in the soul? O man, be your own judge: expose your own deeds and sins. Seek from the writings of the Fathers what they have established concerning the fast, and strive to fulfill it in deed.

Hunger is a good helper to man. Had Eve hungered from the tree, we would not now be in need of this fast. But because we did not fast from the fruit, we fell from Paradise; therefore now let us fast, that we may return again to Him.

For fasting made the prophets mighty. Fasting fulfills the law and guards the soul. Fasting restrains the body and gathers together every good work. Fasting is an invincible weapon against enemies, a strength to those who endure suffering, and a force that drives away demons. Fasting is a vessel of purity, a support for priests in their sacred work, a fortress for monks, a terror to evil spirits, and an adornment to bishops—for without fasting it is impossible to perform the holy services worthily.

Fasting lifts prayer to heaven, giving it wings for its ascent on high. Fasting raises servants to noble rank. Fasting is the mother of health, a guide to youth, the beauty and dignity of old age, and a helper to those who dwell in the wilderness.

When a husband sees his wife fasting, he also keeps himself in virtue; and when a wife sees her husband fasting, she imitates his piety. No one has ever impoverished his household by frequent fasting. Hunger makes the cooks and knives idle, but the table of one who fasts frequently is not diminished, and his children are not enslaved to the cravings of food.

Sins are cleansed through almsgiving and faith; and through prayer and fasting we are delivered from evil. The more you mortify the flesh through hunger, the more you strengthen your soul before God.

Therefore, brothers, strive to complete the course of the fast with virtue. Know this: those who expect a king or prince to visit adorn their houses with great care and honor. And you, brother, receiving Christ into the house of your soul through Holy Communion, cleanse your body by fasting, purify it by thirst, adorn it with humility, that your hands may hunger from grasping, your ears from listening to evil speech.

Let your lips and your tongue hunger from shameful words and unseemly talk, and your eyes from gazing upon what belongs to another. If you fast, do not judge your neighbor. Be reconciled with your enemy and envy no one.

What profit is there in hungering with the body, yet committing evil deeds? What help is there in abstaining from food, yet falling into fornication? What good is it to afflict your body, and show no mercy to widows and orphans? What benefit is there in refusing to wash your own body, yet not clothing the naked with your excess?

“This is not the fast that I have chosen,” saith the Lord, “but that you would forsake all unrighteousness: wrath, anger, envy, slander, drunkenness, and all other evils, that you may be saved.”

If someone refrains from bread but gives way to wrath, this is not human but beastly. If one lies on the bare earth but does not depart from evil, such a one is worse than cattle. For it is not brute abstinence that will save us, unless we also depart from iniquity.

To our God be glory, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.