Saint Basil the Great of Caesarea
Homilies On Fasting
「4th c. 」Saint Basil of Caesarea, “Homily 1 and 2 on Fasting,” in Christian Fasting: A Theological Approach, by Kent Berghuis (Online at Bible.org);「from the preface: Known by the latin De jejuniom, the first and only translation of the First Homily is by Reginald Cardinal Pole, appended to his Treatise of Lustification in 1569. The second was never translated into English. A third homily on fasting in the Basilian corpus is universally regarded as inauthentic.」
It’s outrageous that you don’t rejoice over the health of your soul, but grieve over changing foods. You appear to be giving favors to the pleasure of your stomach than to the care of your soul. While getting filled up does a favor for the stomach, fasting returns benefits to the soul. Be encouraged, because the doctor has given you a powerful remedy for sin. …It is truly fitting to call it by this honorable name of medicine.
Whatever kinds of diet human inventiveness later discovered, those in paradise had not yet come to understand. There wasn’t the drinking of wine yet, nor the eating of meat, nor anything clouding the human mind.
What’s easier to the stomach? A plain diet that carries you through the night, or rich foods that weigh you down like a rock when you lie down? But even more than troubling you when you lie down, doesn’t it frequently turn on you like an enemy, tearing through and causing you stomach contractions?
But let the word walk you through history, passing through the antiquity of fasting. All the saints have protected it, like an inheritance passed down from the fathers. They in turn passed it down, like a father passing something down to a child. So we are the successors of this long line, and this possession has been entrusted to us.
Wine wasn’t in paradise; there was not yet any slaughtering of animals, not yet any eating of meat.
Fasting gives birth to prophets, she strengthens the powerful. Fasting makes lawmakers wise. She is a safeguard of a soul, a stabilizing companion to the body, a weapon for the brave, a discipline for champions. Fasting knocks over temptations, anoints for godliness. She is a companion of sobriety, the crafter of a sound mind.
Count the domestic benefits by considering the following things. No one has been deserted by those in the house on account of fasting. There’s no crying over the death of an animal, certainly no blood. Certainly nothing is missed by not bringing an unmerciful stomach out against the creatures.
The knives of the cooks have stopped; the table is full enough with things growing naturally. The Sabbath was given to the Jews, so that “you will rest,” it says, “your animal and your child.”…Give rest to your cook, give freedom to the table keeper, stay the hand of the cupbearer. For once put an end to all those manufactured meals! Let the house be still for once from the myriad disturbances, and from the smoke, and from the odor of burning fat, and from the running around up and down, and from serving the stomach as if it were an unmerciful mistress!
As thirst makes the water sweet, and coming to the table hungry makes what’s on it seem pleasant, so also fasting heightens the enjoyment of foods. For once fasting has entered deep into your being, and the continuous delight of it has broken through, it will give you a desire that makes you feel like a traveler who wants to come home for fellowship again. Therefore, if you would like to find yourself prepared to enjoy the pleasures of the table, receive renewal from fasting.
Whose bodies fell in the desert? Wasn’t it those who desired to eat flesh? While those same people were satisfied with manna and water from the rock, they were defeating Egyptians, they were traveling through the sea, and “sickness could not be found in their tribes.” But when they remembered the pots of meat, they also turned back in their lusts to Egypt, and they did not see the Promised Land. Don’t you fear this example? Don’t you shudder at gluttony, lest you be shut out from the good things you are hoping for?
Now if there is even a certain kind of food for angels, it is bread, as the prophet says: “Man ate the bread of angels.” It’s neither flesh, nor wine, nor whatever those who are slaves to the stomach anxiously seek out.
So no one should leave himself off the list! People of every race, of all ages, and all different ranks are counted among those who fast. The angels are writing down the names of those who fast in each church. See to it that you don’t forfeit the angelic register through a little pleasurable food, and make yourself liable as a deserter, since you have been enlisted as a soldier by the scriptures.
So now, at such a time as this, let’s receive her graciously and joyously into our homes for our own good. Let’s obey the word of the Lord and not be like the gloomy-faced hypocrites, but rather just letting the simple brightness of the soul show clearly.
