Saint Maximus, Bishop of Turin in Italy – Sermon on the Fast at the Beginning of Quadragesima.

Sermon 35. On the Fast at the Beginning of Quadragesima{1}.

1. The holy Apostle presents testimony from the prophets when he says: At an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you (Cor. 6.2; Isa. 49.8). And this follows: Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation (Cor. 6.2). Hence I also testify to you that these are the days of redemption, that this is the time, as it were, of heavenly medicine, when we shall be able to heal every stain of our vices and all the wounds of our sins if we faithfully implore the physician of our souls and do not, as people scarcely worthy of the undertaking, despise His precepts. For a person wearied of his illness has found healing when he very carefully observes his doctor’s orders; but if he does one thing when another is ordered, then the transgressor and not the physician is guilty if the sickness is aggravated. But the physician is the Lord Jesus Christ, who says: I will kill and I will give life (Deut. 32.39){2}. For the Lord kills – in a certain manner – before He gives life. First, by baptism He kills in us murders, adulteries, crimes, and robberies, and with that, by the immortality of eternity, He gives life to us who are like new persons. For we die to our sins through the bath, but we are reborn to life through the Spirit, as the holy Apostle says: For you have died to your sins, and your life is hidden with Christ (Col. 3.3). For in baptism you have been buried with Him in death (Rom. 6.4). Now we have been killed in a certain manner when we cease to be what we have been. By a new kind of piety both death and life are at work in one and the same person, for the lust of sins dies and the order of virtues comes to life. In one and the same person the impious and the adulterer are slain so that one who is merciful and chaste might be reborn; idolatry is destroyed so that religion might be generated; the fornicator and the drunkard are annihilated so that the continent and the sober might come to birth. Thus, therefore, the Lord kills in order to make alive, thus He slays in order to make good, thus He strikes in order to correct. This is, then, the extent of His severity toward His servants – that in them sins be punished, the soul preserved, detestable vices abstained from, and the best virtues nourished. Thus far we notice that, by the Lord’s kind slaying, many have been converted inasmuch as they have made progress to what is better, going from very bad to very good, so that when you see them you would think that they were changed persons, although you would not see that they were changed in appearance. For, to the extent that what we were previously is destroyed, removed, and annihilated in us, let us believe that what we are since then has been born anew. Hence this second birth signifies that the former life has come to an end.

2. But He says: I will strike and I will heal (Deut. 32.39). Clearly the Lord strikes sinners by His precepts in order to heal them, He inflicts blows with His commandments in order to correct, He orders fasts, imposes continence, threatens judgment, and applies a healing remedy by instilling a dismal dread of Gehenna, so that while we fear future things we may correct what is present. It was thus that, by striking the apostle Paul, He restored him to health. For, when he was an impious and blasphemous persecutor hastening to Damascus to destroy the churches, suddenly He struck him with the terror of a heavenly flash so that He might fill him with the light of gospel splendor. And He punished him with blindness in his fleshly eyes so that He might illuminate the sight of his spiritual eyes. He terrified him with weakness of body so that He might heal him with the zeal of faith. Rising from the ground, then, Paul to be sure saw neither people nor sky with his external eyes, but by the eyes of his soul he saw Christ and heaven{3}. Having been struck by the Lord in that way was of such profit to him that from a Jew he became a Christian, from a blasphemer an apostle, and from Saul Paul; and so much did he change the old man with his habits that he even changed his name as well{4}.

3. Since we have a physician of this sort, then, who heals by striking and gives life by causing death, let us be subject to Him in all patience for the sake of our health, so that whatever He sees in us that is shameful, whatever is filthy because of our sins, whatever is evil-smelling because of our ulcers He might remove, lop off, and cut away, so that when all the wounds of the devil have been cut away He might cause to remain in us only what is of God. But this precept of His is first, that during these 40 days we give our attention to fasts, prayers, and vigils. For by fasts the wantonness of the body is subdued, by prayers the devout soul is nourished, and by vigils the snares of the devil are repelled. When this time has been filled up with the keeping of these commandments, then the soul, purged and wearied by so many observances, is, upon coming to baptism, refreshed with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Whatever in it that the heat of different maladies had dried up is moistened with the dew of heavenly grace so that, as the corruption of the old man is removed, it may acquire the character of a new youth. And in marvelous fashion holiness follows upon sinfulness, righteousness upon wickedness, and infancy upon old age in one and the same person; and by a new kind of birth someone else is reborn from the very one who sinned.

4. Thus Elijah, with a fast that was drawn out for 40 days and nights{5}, merited to allay the prolonged and extreme drought of the whole world{6} with a shower and to moisten the arid dryness of the earth with the bounty of a heavenly rain{7}. We know in fact that this occurred as a figure of ourselves{8} so that we also who are fasting during the course of these 40 days might merit the spiritual rain of baptism, that a heavenly shower from above might pour down upon the arid ground of the whole world for our brethren, and that the inundation of the saving bath might wet the prolonged drought of the Gentiles{9}. For whoever suffers drought and heat in his soul does not experience the moisture of baptismal grace{10}. Fasting these 40 days and nights holy Moses too merited to speak with God, to stand and stay with Him, and to receive the precepts of the law from His hand{11}. For although this human condition prevented him from seeing God, yet the grace of his fasting drew him into close contact with the Divinity. For to fast frequently is a portion of God’s virtues in ourselves, since God Himself always fasts{12}. He is more familiar, intimate, and friendly with the person in whom He sees more of His works, as Scripture says: And Moses spoke with God face to face like one speaking with his friend (Exod. 33.11). Hence the Lord Jesus Christ also, when He was about to receive the glory of the resurrection, consecrated His virtues by a fast of 40 days and nights in order to show that bread was not the life of human beings but that the commandments were{13}. And so{14} with these fasts of 40 days God is appeased, the heavens are opened, and hell is shut. Therefore we too, beloved brethren, ought to fast continually and devotedly in this space of time so that the Lord might be propitiated by us, the heavens opened to us, and hell not prevail{15}.

 

The Sermons of St. Maximus of Turin, trans. by B. Ramsey, New York 1989, p. 83-86.

 

1 On the observance of Quadragesima, or Lent, in Turin in the time of Maximus cf. Callewaert passim; and on its baptismal content in particular, cf. Langgartner, “Die Taufe bei Maximus von Turin” 76- 80. Callewaert is unfortunately hampered in not having had a critical edition of the sermons. From §§3-4, where baptism is referred to as a forthcoming event, it appears that the present sermon was addressed primarily, if not necessarily exclusively, to catechumens. On the penitential aspect of the sermon cf. Fitzgerald 470-72.

2 On the image of Christ as physician, which is very common, cf. R. Arbesmann, “The Concept of ‘Christus medicus’ in St. Augustine,” Traditio 10 (1954) 1-28; DS 10.891-901.

3 Cf. Acts 9.1-19

4 Cf. Sermon 50.2.

5 Cf. 1 Kings 19.8.

6 Cf. 1 Kings 17.1.

7 Cf. 1 Kings 18. 41-45.

8 Cf. 1 Cor. 10.6

9 A scriptural justification for the 40-day period of fasting, which was introduced in the first half of the fourth century, is common: cf. RAC 7.515.

10 Cf. Sermon 52.2.

11 Cf. Exod. 24.18; 31.18; Deut. 9.9-11.

12 Cf. Sermon 81.3 ad fin. The idea of fasting as somehow relating the faster to the Divinity is a commonplace in both pagan and early Christian literature: cf. R. Arbesmann, “Fasting and Prophecy in Pagan and Christian Antiquity,” Traditio 7 (1949-51) 1-71. But the notion that one will be made close to God because God Himself fasts – or is empty of food – is unusual, although it is quite understandable; it is reminiscent of the recommendation of virginity based upon the divine virginity in Gregory of Nyssa, De virg. 1-2; Ambrose, virginibus 1.5.21.

13 Cf. Matt. 4.2-4. But Christ’s fast in the desert did not take place immediately before His resurrection, as is suggested here.

14 The itaqua in Mutzenbecher appears to be a misprint for itaque.

15 Cf. Matt. 16.18.

17.03.2024