Things Good, Bad, and Indifferent

To this Abbot Theonas began his reply as follows. It is indeed right for us, even when we cannot see the reason, to yield to the authority of the fathers and to a custom of our predecessors that has continued through so many years down to our own time, and to keep it with constant care and reverence, as handed down from antiquity. But since you want to know its reasons and grounds, hear in a few words what we have heard handed down by our elders on this subject. But before we bring forward the authority of Holy Scripture, we will, if you please, say a little about the nature and character of fasting, so that afterward the authority of Holy Scripture may support what we say. [a]

The divine Wisdom has pointed out in Ecclesiastes that for everything, that is, for all things that are happy and for those thought unfortunate and unhappy, there is a right time. It says: “For all things there is a time, and a time for everything under heaven: a time to bring forth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pull up what is planted; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to send away; a time to scatter and a time to collect; a time to keep silent and a time to speak; a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.” And further on: “For there is a time,” it says, “for everything and for every deed.” So it lays down none of these things as always good, but only when one of them is done fittingly and at the right time. The very things that turn out well when done at the right moment are found useless or harmful if they are attempted at a wrong or unsuitable time. The only exceptions are the things that are good or bad in their own nature, which can never become their opposite: for example, justice, prudence, courage, temperance and the rest of the virtues; or, on the other side, those faults whose description cannot possibly be changed or fall under the other heading. But things that can sometimes turn out either way, so that they are found to be good or bad according to the character of those who use them, we consider useful or harmful not absolutely, in their own nature, but only according to the mind of the doer and the fitness of the time.