On the Fast of the Tenth Month, First Sermon

If, dearly beloved, we understand the beginning of our creation faithfully and wisely, we will find that man was made in God’s image so that he might imitate his Creator, and that our race reaches its highest natural dignity when the form of the divine goodness is reflected in us as in a mirror. And certainly the Savior’s grace is daily restoring us to this form, as long as what fell in the first Adam is raised up again in the second. And the cause of our restoration is nothing else but the mercy of God. We would not have loved him unless he had first loved us and scattered the darkness of our ignorance by the light of his truth. The Lord foretold this through holy Isaiah when he said, “I will bring the blind into a way they did not know, and make them walk in paths they were ignorant of. I will turn darkness into light for them, and the crooked into the straight. These words I will do for them, and I will not forsake them.” And again he says, “I was found by those who did not seek me, and I appeared openly to those who did not ask for me.” And the apostle John teaches us how this has been fulfilled, when he says, “We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true, and may be in him who is true, his Son”; and again, “Let us therefore love God, because he first loved us.” So it is that God, by loving us, restores us to his image. And in order to find in us the form of his goodness, he gives us the means by which we ourselves may also do the work he does: he kindles, that is, the lamps of our minds, and sets us on fire with his love, so that we may love not only himself but also whatever he loves. For if among men the lasting friendship is the one based on likeness of character, even though such sameness of will is often aimed at wicked ends, how much ought we to long and strive to differ in nothing from what pleases God! The prophet speaks of this: “For wrath is in his indignation, and life in his good pleasure.” For we will not otherwise attain the dignity of the divine majesty unless we imitate his will. [a]

And so, when the Lord says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” let the faithful soul put on the unfading love of its Author and Ruler, and submit itself wholly to his will, in whose works and judgments true justice and tender compassion never fail. For even when a man is worn out with labors and many misfortunes, he has good reason to endure everything, knowing that adversity will either prove him good or make him better. But this godly love cannot be perfect unless a man loves his neighbor too. Under that name must be included not only those connected with us by friendship or nearness, but absolutely all people with whom we share a common nature, whether they are enemies or allies, slaves or free. For the one Maker fashioned us, the one Creator breathed life into us. We all enjoy the same sky and air, the same days and nights; and though some are good and others bad, some righteous and others unrighteous, yet God is generous to all and kind to all, as Paul and Barnabas said to the Lycaonians about God’s Providence: “who in generations gone by let all the nations walk in their own ways. And yet he did not leave himself without witness, doing them good, giving rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling our hearts with food and gladness.” But the wide reach of Christian grace has given us still greater reasons for loving our neighbor. Reaching to every part of the whole world, it looks down on no one and teaches that no one is to be neglected. And with full right he commands us to love our enemies and to pray to him for our persecutors. For every day he grafts shoots of the wild olive from among all nations onto the holy branches of his own olive tree, and makes people reconciled instead of enemies, adopted sons instead of strangers, righteous instead of ungodly, “so that every knee may bow, of things in heaven, of things on earth and of things under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.” [e]

So, since God wishes us to be good because he is good, none of his judgments ought to displease us. For not to give him thanks in all things, what is that but to blame him in some degree? Human folly too often dares to grumble against its Creator, not only in time of want but also in time of plenty: when something is not supplied, a man complains, and when certain things are in abundance, he is ungrateful. The owner of rich harvests looked down on his well-filled barns and groaned over his plentiful grape harvest; he did not give thanks for the size of the crop, but complained of its poorness. And if the ground has been less fruitful than usual in the seed it has raised, and the vines and the olives have failed to yield their fruit, the year is accused and the elements blamed, and neither the air nor the sky is spared. Yet nothing better suits and reassures the faithful and godly disciples of the Truth than to keep lifting up praise to God, steadily and tirelessly, as the apostle says: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in all things give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus in all things for you.” But how will we share in this devotion unless the changes of fortune train our minds in constancy, so that the love directed toward God is not puffed up in prosperity nor faints in adversity? Let what pleases God please us too. Let us rejoice in whatever measure of gifts he gives. Let the one who has used great possessions well use small ones well too. Plenty and scarcity can be equally for our good, and even in spiritual progress we will not be cast down by how small the results are, so long as our minds do not become dry and barren. Let the soil of our heart produce what the earth did not. To the one who does not fail in good will, the means to give are always supplied. So, dearly beloved, in all works of godliness let us use what each year gives us, and let hard seasons not hinder our Christian kindness. The Lord knows how to refill the widow’s vessels, which her devout act of hospitality had emptied. He knows how to turn water into wine. He knows how to satisfy five thousand hungry people with a few loaves. And he who is fed in his poor is able, when he receives, to multiply what he increased when he gave. [h]

But there are three things that belong most of all to religious practice: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Every time is acceptable for practicing them, yet that time ought to be kept more zealously which we have received as made holy by the tradition of the apostles. And this tenth month is such a time: it brings round to us again the occasion when, by ancient custom, we may give more careful attention to the three things I have spoken of. For by prayer we seek to propitiate God, by fasting we put out the lusts of the flesh, and by alms we redeem our sins. And at the same time God’s image is renewed in us throughout, if we are always ready to praise him, unfailingly intent on our purification, and unceasingly active in caring for our neighbor. This threefold round of duty, dearly beloved, brings all the other virtues into action. It reaches God’s image and likeness and unites us inseparably with the Holy Spirit. For in prayer faith remains steadfast, in fasting life remains innocent, and in almsgiving the mind remains kind. So let us fast on Wednesday and Friday, and on Saturday let us keep vigil with the most blessed apostle Peter, who will be pleased to aid our prayers, our fasting and our alms with his own prayers, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.