Homilia de jejunio

Hesychius, presbyter of Jerusalem, concerning fasting. The root and foundation of the pious is fasting according to God, accomplished with reverence and holy prayers and almsgivings. For God does not desire abstinence from bread and water, but abstinence from evil deeds: "For it is not what enters the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth, that defiles a person." Let us fast, beloved, a fast that is fitting for God, concerning which the Lord says: "But when you fast, anoint your head" through good works and almsgivings, "and wash your face," removing every filth of sin. There is a blameworthy fast and there is a praiseworthy fast. Many who fasted committed murders, and many who fasted saved others. The Ninevites fasted and were saved, and through fasting they turned aside the wrath of God. And a sentence pronounced against them was prevented by fasting; for the prophet says: "Yet three days and Nineveh will be overthrown." He did not say "after three days and Nineveh will be overthrown"; for if he had said "after three days," it would have been overthrown, but "yet three days," showing this: "I have endured you for so long a time and you did not repent. I endure you yet three days, and if you do not repent within the three days, then the city will be overthrown." And they did not repent for so long a time, except through the three days, that is, through the Father and Son and Holy Spirit.

The Jews fasted and took counsel to kill the apostle Paul. Jezebel proclaimed a fast and killed Naboth and took the vineyard of the poor man. Fasting and murder—what kind of fasting is this? Daniel fasted when he was thrown into the lions’ den; for when he was cast into the den, he cried out to Christ, saying, “From the depths I have cried out to you, Lord; Lord, hear my prayer.” And seeing the lions on the right and on the left, he again cried out, saying, “Do not deliver to the beasts a soul that confesses to you.” Observe that the Lord does not abandon those who hope in him. The earthly king sealed the den, but the heavenly king sealed the mouths of the lions. The fire fasted in the furnace and did not use the fellow servants for food, but having fasted, it leaped out of the furnace, yielding to the three on account of the fourth. The whale fasted in the sea when it received Jonah in the chambers of its belly; for holding the prophet as a deposit, it displayed the sign of fasting. Having become a ship instead of a ship for the shipwrecked man, it carried the stranger through the sea and the deep and great fear, and, so as not to destroy the stranger in the chambers of its belly, it restored the deposit intact, delivering it to the master who had entrusted it. David fasted, and through fasting and repentance, God forgave him the sin concerning the wife of Uriah.

Elijah fasted forty days and received the keys of the heavens, and when he wished, he withheld the rain, and when he wished, he brought it through fasts and prayers. Our Savior fasted forty days and put the devil to shame, he who committed no sin and in whose mouth no guile was found. He fasted, giving us an example that through fasts we can obtain expiation of sins. Let us therefore fast, beloved, a pure fast, concerning which the apostle James says: "This is pure religion: to visit" brothers "in their affliction, to keep themselves unstained from the world." Joshua the son of Nun fasted and commanded the sun and the moon. The apostles, having nothing on earth, received authority to bind and loose, and the saying is fulfilled in them: "As having nothing and possessing all." For Peter, it is said, and John went up to the temple about the ninth hour to pray. And a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was sitting there, who had never walked. This man expected to receive something from the apostles. But Peter answered, saying to him: "What you expect to receive I do not have, but what you do not expect to receive I have. You expect to receive silver; I provide you with health, for health of body is better than immeasurable wealth. I will confess the truth to you: I have no silver or gold." For Christ handed over to us, saying: "Do not acquire gold or silver or bronze." He gave us authority, saying: "Cast out demons, heal the sick, cleanse lepers.

You have received freely; give freely.” “In the name of Jesus Christ, rise and walk.” And taking hold “of his right hand, he raised him up.” The slave raises by grasping, the master heals by word: “For a slave is not above his master.” But although medical clinics are opening throughout the world, today I see one physician set over all, Christ. O what a novel wonder! Different afflictions, in different places of medical treatment, are healed by one physician. One person, elsewhere, afflicted by a wound of sin, approaches and, having received a plaster of healing from fasting, departs. Another, elsewhere, reeking with the putrefaction of fornication, receives from the physician of souls and bodies, Christ, through it a remedy for the stench. Another, burning with the fever of avarice, obtains from fasting herbs that cool the disease. This one also knows how to make barren women pregnant quickly, and to render the unfruitful womb a fertile field, and to give prophets as the reward of fasting. For what are we taught by divine Scripture? “And Hannah was distressed,” it says, “and wept and did not eat.” But fasting provided the prophet Samuel to the barren woman. You have seen the gifts of fasting. You have seen what fruits it causes to sprout for those in need of it, how it dries up the springs of fornication, opens wombs dried up by sterility, cuts away the thorns of sin that grow from thoughts, and no longer yields the fruits of impiety.

Not only can fasting according to God do these things, but it also renders the harsh gentle and transforms the unsympathetic into compassion, softening the hardness of the unyielding as it forges them. This is not only useful for sinners, but is already suitable for the righteous at the proper time, as we have previously shown. Moses, having fasted forty days and forty nights, entered into that darkness and saw God as has happened to no other human being, according to the testimony of God himself concerning him, who says: “If a prophet arises among you for the Lord, I will be known to him in a vision and I will speak to him in sleep. Not as my servant Moses, mouth to mouth,” face to face, “as one speaks to his own friend.” This exceptional vision fasting brought as a gift to the prophet, and it transformed the face of the faster into a more divine kind of radiance of inaccessible light and gave to the prophet tablets written by the finger of God. Let us therefore approach it with cheerful countenance, greet it with joyful souls, and let us not abstain from foods but from sins.

let us hold fast. Nor, while appearing humble in face before men, let us be revealed as proud in soul before the master. And while giving to the poor, let us not rob others. And while flattering God with words, let us not in deed slaughter our brethren, always remembering the apostle who says: “Pursue peace with all and sanctification, without which no one will see the Lord.” But fasting from all evils along with foods, let us say to him: “You have mercy on all, because you can do all things, and you overlook the sins of men for the sake of repentance.” For all glory is fitting for you, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.