Basilius Magnus, Homiliae

The saying of the holy and blessed father of ours, Basil, concerning fasting, chapter 1. 1. "Blow the trumpet of the new month," the feast of your idleness—this is a commandment of the prophet. But for us, higher than any place and mightier than any musical instrument, the scripture teaches us concerning these coming days of the feast. For we have learned the grace of fasts from the prophet Isaiah, who cast aside the shadow of that Jewish fast and revealed to us the true fast. For he says: "Do not fast for judgment and strife, but loose every bond of wickedness." And again, the Lord says: "Do not be a glutton, but wash your face." Now then, let us be as we have been taught. Let us not become gluttons on account of these coming days, but let us be radiant toward them, as is fitting for the saints. For by idleness no one becomes crowned; by gluttony no one puts on the crown of victory and adornment. Do not become a glutton when you are being healed, for it is evil not to rejoice in the health of the soul, but to grieve over the lack of foods, and that you might have greater joy in the filling of the belly than in the care and radiance of the soul.

For satiety grants benefit only to its own belly, but fasting purifies and brightens the soul. Rejoice, for the medicine of the good physician is given to you, a medicine that drives away sin; for just as those worms that settle in the bodies of children are cut off by a strong medicine, so also fasting, when it enters the soul, drives out sin that has settled in the depth of the soul—provided that this fasting is truly worthy of being called fasting. 2. For this reason the Lord says: "Anoint your head and wash your face. Let this word be said to you in secret: he who anoints is considered anointed, and he who washes is considered cleansed. But you should understand these words spiritually, concerning the inner man: wash your soul from sins, anoint your head with the ointment of holiness, so that you may become a partaker of Christ, and thus approach fasting. Let not your face be gloomy, like that of the hypocrites; for the face becomes gloomy when the mind of the inner man, by a sorrowful expression, darkens the outer man and conceals him by falsehood. And that man is a hypocrite who puts on a foreign face before the assembly of men.

When one is a servant and often changes the face of the lord, and a poor man the face of a king, so also in this world, as in a theater, many change their lives into various appearances for the sake of showing off to men, when they have one thing in their heart and appear to men with a different face. Therefore, do not change your face; as you are, so appear to men. Do not change your face for the sake of fasting, so that you might be thought of as a faster and bring glory upon yourself. For neither from mercy done before men is there any benefit, nor from fasting that is done openly, because every good work that is done for the sake of showing off to men—the grace of such a thing is not preserved for the future eternal life, but is given here through the praise of men. Therefore, shine brightly with the gift of fasting, for fasting is a gift from the beginning, which never grows old, never becomes aged, but is always renewed and flourishes.

3. Do not think that I speak of the oldness of fasting from the chosen? Even the chosen one is old in fasting. Wait a little and you will find the truth of my word: Do not think of that day which was commanded to Israel on the seventh month, on the tenth day of its own, even if that was the beginning of fasting. Come then and investigate its oldness, for it is not newly acquired, but it is a treasure of the fathers. Every primordial work is honorable; let the magicians of fasting be ashamed. Fasting was given to us in paradise, for Adam received this first commandment: "Do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil." And this word is a commandment of fasting: if Eve had fasted then from that tree, this fasting would not be necessary for us now, for "the healthy have no need of a physician, but the sick." But since you became weak through sin, let us now be healed through repentance. And repentance is not accomplished without fasting, for since Adam transgressed the commandment, that command was given to him which says: "Cursed be the earth; may it bring forth thorns and thistles for you." Understand then, O man, that hardship is commanded for you and not pleasure; through fasting, appease God toward you.

4. Because we did not fast, we were cast out of paradise. Now then let us fast, so that we may go there again. Do you not see Lazarus, how by means of fasting he entered paradise? Do not imitate that disobedience of Eve, do not again receive the serpent as counsellor, which would counsel you to the mercy of the flesh and entice you to eat. Do not plead weakness and infirmity of the body, for it is not I who speak these excuses, but He who knows all things speaks them. Tell me, are you unable to fast? And are you able to be sated and to rot the body with that heaviness of eating? How so? For physicians do not prescribe to the weak the eating of various foods, but rather they enjoin fasting and abstinence. And how is it? You who are able to be sated and bear that heaviness of eating, say that you are unable to fast?

What is easier for the body and lighter: to pass the night lightly with a slender meal, or to lie down weighed down by a multitude of foods? And not just lying down, but even more so the tossing and turning, when the belly is distended from the multitude of foods and surfeited? Or have you yourself somewhere said that a ship weighed down by a heavy cargo more easily escapes the waves than one equipped with a light cargo? For that ship, weighed down by that great weight of cargo, is overwhelmed by the rising of even small waves, while the one that has a cargo according to its own measure is easily turned upon the waves, for there is nothing to hinder it. Likewise, the body of a man, weighed down by repletion, is easily cast down into diseases, while the one that receives light and measured food repels even an approaching illness, like waves that have arisen, and if it has any weakness, it is freed from that as well early on. Or is excessive eating more fitting for the weak than a moderate deficiency? Even sitting, you say somewhere, is heavier than running, and rest is heavier than struggle.

For the power of our nature quickly masters a light and moderate meal and turns it to the benefit of a man, but when it receives a multitude and variety of foods and thereafter cannot overcome them, it brings forth from them various diseases upon the man. 5. But let us turn back again to the first word, so that we may speak of that antiquity of fasting and how all the saints, as a dwelling and an inherited patrimony, thus received and preserved it. For each father bequeathed it to his own child, and for this reason, from one to the next, all received it, until this treasure reached even us. In paradise there was no wine, nor the eating of meat. After the flood, wine came into being; after the flood, God commanded: "Eat everything, like the grass of the field." Since the hope of perfection was cut off, then God granted pleasure as a consolation. But the image of inexperience with wine is Noah, who did not know the use of wine, for men were not accustomed to its drinking. And for this reason, since neither had he seen anyone else, nor was he himself experienced, he fell into the affliction of wine. For Noah planted a vineyard and drank of its fruit and became drunk, not because he was a drunkard and intemperate, but because he was inexperienced in the measure of its drinking.

Thus, the drinking of wine is a newly acquired thing, and the honor of fasting is ancient. For Moses approached that mountain through fasting. For if he had not been fortified by fasting, how would he have dared to enter the mist upon that mountain, from which smoke arose? Through fasting, he received that commandment of God, written on the tablets by the finger of God, and on that mountain, fasting became the guide of legislation. But gluttony turned that people to idolatry, for it is written: "One sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to sing." The forty days of supplication and fasting of that servant of God were rendered useless by a single multitude, for those God-written tablets, which fasting had brought down, were shattered by drunkenness, because the lawgiver did not deem it fitting that a drunken people should receive the law of God. In the blink of an eye, that people, to whom God had taught through those great gifts, fell into idolatry through the gluttony of the Egyptians. Consider both of these together, and see how fasting leads a man to God, and how pleasure becomes the destroyer of life.

Consider, what was it that defiled Esau and made him a slave to his own brother? Was it not a single meal, for the sake of which he gave away his birthright? And did not fasting, together with prayer, grant Samuel to his mother? Or who made Samson invincibly strong? Was it not fasting, by which he approached his mother’s womb? Fasting gave birth to him, fasting raised him, fasting strengthened him, as an angel commanded his mother, saying: Let her not eat anything that comes from the vine, and let her not drink wine or mead. Fasting begets prophets, strengthens the mighty, and makes wise the rulers. Fasting is a good guardian of the soul and a wall for the body, a sure and strong weapon for warriors, and a tester of ascetics. It dispels temptations, it is an anointing of the fear of God, a procurer of sobriety, a bestower of chastity; in battles it appears victorious, in peace and tranquility it teaches stillness; it sanctifies monks, and perfects priests for priestly service in purity, for it is impossible without fasting to assemble for priestly service, not only now, in this true ministry of the mystery, but also in the service of the ancient law, which was a type of this one.

This did Elijah, the beholder of that great wonder, for by a forty-day fast he purified his own soul and thus became worthy to see the Lord in the caves, as it is possible for a man to see Him. By fasting he gave back to that woman her child, and through fasting he became stronger than death. And again, that voice which issued from the mouth of the faster thundered against that rebellious people for three years and six months, for he chose the affliction of his own head in order to bend that unbending heart of the stiff-necked ones. Because of this he said: "The Lord is alive, if there is water on the earth apart from that which comes from my mouth." And he brought fasting upon the whole people through that famine which he wrought with divine zeal, so that by means of judgment and intermission he might dispel that iniquity born of satiety. But behold Elisha: what was his life like? How did he conduct himself with that Shunammite woman? Or how did he receive the prophets? Did he not sustain himself with wild herbs and a little flour? When they ate that herb which is called "olippi," and those who partook of it were on the verge of death, would not that deadly poison have been dispelled by the prayer of that faster? And thus fasting was found to be such that it led all the saints toward the divine life.

There is a nature of wood, which is called amiantos, which is unburnable by fire, for as long as it is in the fire, it is like a pearl, but when it is taken out of the fire, it appears as if washed by water, so much more brilliant. Such were the bodies of those three youths in the Babylonian fire. And from fasting they were untouched, for in that great furnace of fire, like gold, they were unharmed by that fire and were stronger than gold, for that fire did not melt them, but preserved them untouched in that flame, which none could withstand, which was kindled with naphtha and pitch and kindling, and which was raised to a height of forty-nine cubits, and around it everything was burnt, until it consumed many Chaldeans. And into such a fire they entered, and by fasting those youths subdued it. The breeze of the wind with the sun was given to them in that fierce fire, for the fire did not even dare to touch their hair, because their hair had grown by fasting.

7. And Daniel, that man worthy of lamentation, who for three weeks ate no bread and drank no water, and even taught fasting to the lions, when he entered that den. For just as against stone, or rock, or some other resistant substance, those lions were unable to bring their teeth near him. Thus, as a file wears down iron, so fasting wore down that man's body and rendered it untouchable by the lions, for they could not open their mouths over that holy one. Fasting dried up the power of fire, silenced the mouths of lions; fasting elevates prayer to heaven and creates wings for it to ascend to God. Fasting is a guide to tranquility, a mother of chastity, a teacher of youths, an ornament of the elderly, a good companion for travelers, an unerring housemate for dwellers. A husband is not deceived when he sees his wife in fasting, nor does his wife again suffer from jealousy when she sees her husband in fasting. Where has anyone ruined his household by fasting?

Count the treasures of your day, and count them after this, and you will see that by fasting nothing is diminished from your house. By fasting, no livestock mourns death, there is no blood anywhere, nor is there any command issued, born from that violent belly; the knife of the cooks is blunted. The Sabbath was given to the Jews for rest, and it says: so that your guard and your servant may rest. Let fasting be a rest for those above and beyond the labors of your slaves and servants, and for those who tirelessly strive as slaves of the belly. Give rest to your cook, grant leisure to your steward, stay the hand of the wine-pourer, and let that one also be stilled who prepares those varied and delicate foods. Let your house be calmed from its many disturbances, from its smoke and steam and the sizzling of pans, and from those who go up and down, who serve the belly as if it were an evil lord. Even tax collectors sometimes grant a little rest to those who are under their authority.

Let the envious one grant his servants a little rest, and let him offer to us for these few days the sacrifice which he always demands and is never satisfied; which he receives today and forgets tomorrow; when he is sated, then he speaks about fasting and praises it, but when he is empty, those words are forgotten. 8. Fasting knows not the nature of a loan; the table of the faster is not burdened by the accumulation of debts; the orphaned child of the faster is not disturbed by the paternal feasts, like serpents coiled around. And again, fasting is also a cause of joy, for just as to a thirsty man the drinking of water seems sweet, so to a hungry man every food seems pleasant and sweet. For when fasting interposes itself and cuts away that heaviness of many foods and surfeit, desire for eating arises in you. And therefore, if you wish your table to be sweet and desirable, take upon yourself the labor of fasting.

But you are so enslaved by excessive pleasure that you squander the pleasure of your own self and do not understand, and from that boundless love of taste you render the taste of that food insipid and destroy it, for there is no such desirable thing which, when satiety with it is added, is not held in contempt; whereas satiety with that whose acquisition is not excessive is desirable. For this reason our Creator also arranged that our life should change from one thing to another, so that we might be grateful for the good things given to us. Do you not see that the sun is brighter after the night, and wakefulness is sweeter after sleep, and health is more desirable after the afflictions of illness? Likewise, eating is more desirable after fasting, both for the rich and for the poor and the needy.

Fear the parable of that rich man, for he consigned himself to the fire of this life by his gluttony, because it was not for injustice, but for his intemperance and dissipation that he was condemned to be consumed in that fire of punishment. Now, therefore, water is necessary, so that we may quench that fire. And fasting is not only useful for the sake of that future eternity, but it is also more beneficial for the body, for great dissipation is the cause of illnesses and falls, when nature is disturbed and the body, in its heaviness of bulk, cannot sustain itself. Behold and beware, lest now you do not think of taking water, and later you regret it for the sake of a single drop, like that rich man. No one has ever been drowned by the drinking of water. No one's head has ached from water; no one's feet, accustomed to water, have needed other feet for walking; nor have anyone's feet been contracted from water, nor have anyone's hands been rendered useless by water. For those who are dissipated cannot even endure moderation, and because of this, a lingering illness of the body afflicts them, whereas the complexion of one who fasts is comely.

He is not ruddy with shame, but is adorned with that seemly and pure modesty; his eyes are cast down, his steps are composed, and he has the form of prudence, not defiled by a dissolute laugh; he has measure in speech, and purity of heart. Remember those saints of old, for whom this world was not even worthy, who "clothed themselves in hair-shirts and goatskins, lacking, afflicted, tormented," and emulated their way of life. If you wish, that you too might have a portion with them. What gave Lazarus rest in the bosom of Abraham? Was it not fasting? Likewise, the life of that great John was but fasting, who had neither a body, nor a table, nor land for plowing, nor oxen for drawing the plow, nor a mill, nor a baker, nor anything else of this life. For this reason, among the greatest of the offspring of the mother [Church], John the Baptist is not inferior, and again the blessed Paul: along with their other afflictions, fasting was also a boast; for this reason, he was snatched up to the third heaven.

But the Lord Himself, for our sake, constrained even those flesh which He put on, by fasting, and thus, by standing against the devil, He united the ends, so that He might teach us to subdue and tame our flesh by fasting, and thereby be strengthened in temptations. And again, by means of hunger, He set His hand against the adversary, for He was already beyond the height of divinity, if He had not been humbled by that deficiency toward human nature; but when He ascended to heaven, He took nourishment, so that He might confirm the nature of His risen body. But you are not ashamed of the dissolution and corruption of your flesh, while you do not at all care for your mind, which you waste away with hunger for life-giving and divine teachings. Or do you not know that, just as in battle, the endurance of one combatant, by its vigor, brings about the defeat and victory of the other? So too, he who inflicts suffering on the flesh weakens the soul, and again, he who is devoted to the soul subdues the flesh, for these are opposed to each other.

Therefore, if you wish your mind to be strong, subdue your flesh by fasting, for the apostle says this: "As the outer man decays, the inner man is renewed." And again he says: "When I am weak, then I am strong." Are these perishable foods not to be despised? Do you not long for that table of the heavenly kingdom without sin, which fasting here prepares for you? Do you not know that by excessive satiety you increase the tormenting worm upon yourself? For who ever received any communion of divine grace through pleasure and indulgence? When Moses received the second tablets, a second fast also helped him; and if the Ninevites had not even turned the beasts to fasting, would they not have been destroyed by the wrath of destruction? Or what kind of strength did the desert dwellers have? Was it not from those who sought flesh? Until they had that manna and the water flowing from the rock, they conquered the Egyptians, they walked upon the sea; there was no weakness in their tribes until they remembered that flesh of the quails and turned back by their desire to Egypt, and they no longer saw that promised land. Are you not afraid of this example?

Do not shrink from satiety, lest it cast you out from those eternal goods. For even the wise Daniel would not have seen his visions had he not purified his soul by fasting, for rich foods, like forms of mist, send up vapors and, like a thick cloud, obscure the radiances that come upon the pure mind from the Holy Spirit. And as for the food of angels, if indeed they have any, it is bread, as the prophet says: "A man ate the bread of angels," not meat. Nor wine, nor those other kinds procured by the slaves of the belly. Fasting is armor against the array of demons, for "this race is driven out by nothing else, but by prayer and fasting." Now these are the goods of fasting, while surfeit and satiety are the beginning of blasphemy, for together with drunkenness and gluttony and those various pleasures of taste, every form of impurity cleaves. From this men become beasts, trembling at the stirring and agitation that enters the soul through flatulence. Through gluttony, perversions of nature arise, for men seek womanhood with women and women seek manhood with men.

But fasting also knows the measure of marriages and of that which is forgiven through repentance; it punishes excess and, through condemnation, knows how to make one idle, so that they may abide in prayer. 10. Do not set the limit of that goodness of fasting only by abstention from foods, for true fasting is estrangement from evils. "Release every bond of impurity," forgive your neighbor your anger, forgive him his debts. "Do not keep [fast] for judgment and slander." You do not eat flesh, but you devour your brother; you abstain from wine, but you cannot overcome slander; you are patient until evening in tasting, but you spend that day in courts. Woe to those who are drunk with wine alone. Anger is drunkenness of the soul, for it renders it senseless and mad like wine; and again, grief is drunkenness, for it too swallows up the mind; fear, again, is another drunkenness, when it occurs where it should not; for it is said: "From fear of the enemy, deliver my soul." And thus every passion that darkens the mind may rightly be called drunkenness.

Understand the fierce man: how he is consumed by that passion, he is not master of himself, he is ignorant of himself and ignorant of those near him; like a night-fighter, he attacks everyone, leads everyone astray, acts without foresight, and is difficult to restrain. He reviles, strikes, shouts, swears, cries out, bursts forth, and raves. Flee from this drunkenness and do not lay hold of wine; do not hasten to quench the excessive drinking of wine with the drinking of water, lest drunkenness become a deliberate part of your fast. For entry into fasting is not achieved by drunkenness, just as righteousness is not achieved by sin, nor purity by defilement. And to say it all at once: entry into virtue is not achieved by wickedness; the door that leads to fasting is different. For drunkenness leads to defilement, while fasting is led to by contentment with insufficiency. That horseman is tested beforehand and spurs his own horse; that faster fasts beforehand. Do not first gather drunkenness for those five days, as if out of vengeance for those days and as if deceived by that steward, for you are vainly vengeful, you burden the flesh, and you do not console insufficiency.

That treasure is not to be entrusted; you pour it into a vessel that has been emptied of filth, for that wine is poured out and follows its own path, but nothing else remains for you from it except only sin. The slave flees from the master who strikes him, but you remain with that wine which continually strikes your head. A good measure of wine is that which is useful for the body. If the cup goes beyond the limits, you come home with a head weighed down, with belching, with vomiting, and you are ruined by that wine's dregs; everything spins around you, everything seems like a pit. Drunkenness brings sleep, the brother of death, and again—a waking state resembling dreams. 11. Do you know whose reception you think to contain within yourself? He who said: "Let me and the Father come and make our abode with him." Now why do you first receive drunkenness and close the door to the Lord for entering into you? Why do you allow the enemy to seize the stronghold of your walls first? Drunkenness does not receive the Lord; drunkenness drives away the Holy Spirit. For just as smoke disperses bees, so drunkenness drives away spiritual graces. But fasting is the beauty of the city, the quieting of districts, the peace of houses, the prudence of possessions. Do you wish to see its honor?

Understand today’s evening and tomorrow’s morning, and you will see the city changed from turmoil and rebellion into calm. But I pray that this present day may be made like tomorrow in tranquility, and that tomorrow may lack nothing of today’s brilliance. And may the Lord, who has brought us to this turning of the year, grant us that, as of athletes, we may show within these struggles firmness and the power of endurance, and that we may hasten to that crowned day, that Lord of days—now the memorial of the life-giving Passion, and thereafter that eternal recompense for our deeds—the righteous judgment of Christ, for it is to Him that glory belongs now and forever, unto the ages of ages. Amen.