On the Fast of the Seventh Month, Sixth Sermon

Dearly beloved, there is nothing in which divine Providence does not help the devotion of the faithful. For the very elements of the world also serve the exercise of mind and body in holiness, since the distinct and varied round of the days and months opens for us the different pages of the commands, and so the seasons too speak to us in some way of what the sacred institutions require. And so, since the course of the year has brought the seventh month back to us, I am sure that your minds are spiritually stirred to keep the solemn fast. For you have learned by experience how well this preparation purifies both the outer and the inner parts of a person, so that by abstaining from what is lawful, it becomes easier to resist what is unlawful. But do not limit your plan of abstinence, dearly beloved, to subduing the body or to eating less food alone. For the greater benefits of this virtue belong to that chastity of the soul which not only crushes the lusts of the flesh but also despises the vanities of worldly wisdom, as the apostle says: “Take care that no one deceives you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men.” [a]

So we must hold back from food, but much more must we fast from errors, so that the mind, given over to no fleshly pleasure, may be taken captive by no falsehood. For in our day, as in days past, there is no lack of enemies of the truth who dare to stir up civil wars within the catholic church, so that by drawing the ignorant into agreement with their ungodly teachings, they may boast of growing numbers through those they have been able to cut off from the body of Christ. For what is so opposed to the prophets, so contrary to the Gospels, so at odds with the apostles’ teaching, as to preach a single nature in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was born of Mary, and who, apart from all time, is co-eternal with the eternal Father? If only man’s nature is to be acknowledged, where is the Godhead that saves? If only God’s, where is the humanity that is saved? But the catholic faith, which stands against all errors, refutes these blasphemies too, all at once. It condemns Nestorius, who divides the divine from the human, and it denounces Eutyches, who makes the human nothing in the divine. For the Son of the true God, himself true God, who has unity and equality with the Father and with the Holy Spirit, has also been pleased to be true man. After his conception by the Virgin Mother he was not separated from her flesh and her childbearing. He so united humanity to himself as to remain unchangeably God, and so imparted Godhead to man as not to destroy him but to enhance him by glorifying him. For he who became “the form of a slave” did not cease to be “the form of God.” He is not one joined to the other, but one in both, so that ever since “the Word became flesh,” our faith is shaken by no change of circumstance. Whether in the miracles of power or in the humiliation of suffering, we believe him to be both God who is man and man who is God. [b]

Dearly beloved, make this confession with all your heart and reject the wicked lies of the heretics, so that your fasting and almsgiving may not be defiled by any contact with error. For our offering of the sacrifice is pure and our gifts of mercy are holy when those who perform them understand what they are doing. When the Lord says, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you,” you ought to share in the holy table in such a way that you have no doubt at all about the reality of Christ’s body and blood. For what is believed by faith is taken in the mouth, and it is useless for those who dispute what they receive to answer Amen. And when the prophet says, “Blessed is he who considers the poor and needy,” the praiseworthy distributor of clothing and food among the poor is the one who knows that he is clothing and feeding Christ in the poor. For Christ himself says, “As long as you did it to one of my brothers, you did it to me.” And so Christ is one, true God and true man, rich in what is his own, poor in what is ours, receiving gifts and giving gifts, a partner with mortals and the one who gives life to the dead, so that in “the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, of things on earth, and of things under the earth, and every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father,” living and reigning with the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen. [e]