It follows that we should briefly treat of fasting, according to the order laid down by the Angel. And, passing over the many things that theologians dispute about fasting, we shall bring forward only those things which pertain to our purpose. Our aim is to set forth the art of living well, insofar as it paves the way to the art of dying well. For this art those three things seem to suffice which we discussed concerning prayer: necessity, fruit, and manner. The necessity of fasting depends on a twofold law, divine and human. Of the divine law the prophet Joel is witness, who says on God's part: "Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning." (Joel 2) The same is gathered from the prophet Jonah, who testifies (Jonah 3) that the Ninevites, to appease God, proclaimed a fast and sackcloth; and yet there was then no positive law on fasting. The same can be understood from the words of the Lord in St. Matthew: "But when thou dost fast, anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father, who seeth in secret, will repay thee." (Matt. 6)
Let us add one or two testimonies from the Fathers. St. Augustine speaks thus in his Letter to Casulanus: "In the Evangelical and Apostolic writings, and in the whole instrument which is called the New Testament, I find it nowhere defined by a precept of the Lord or of the Apostles on which days one ought not to fast and on which one ought." (Ep. 16) St. Leo, in his Sermon on the Fast of the Tenth Month, says: "Those things," he says, "which bore the figures of things to come came to an end once what they signified was fulfilled; but the grace of the New Testament has not removed the benefit of fasting, and by pious observance it has taken up continence as ever profitable to body and soul. For just as there remains for the Christian understanding 'Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve,' and other commandments of that kind, so what is prescribed in those same books concerning the sanctification of fasting is not made void by any interpretation." So far St. Leo, who did not mean to signify that Christians must fast at the very same times at which the Jews fasted, but that the precept of fasting handed down to the Hebrews is to be observed by Christians according to the determination of those who preside over the Church, as regards time and manner. What that determination is, is better known to all than that it should need to be declared by me. And so much for the necessity of fasting.
Now we shall readily show the fruits and benefits of fasting. First, fasting is most useful for preparing the soul for prayer and for the contemplation of heavenly things, as the Angel Raphael indicated when he said: "Prayer is good with fasting." (Tob. 12) Thus Moses prepared his soul by a fast of forty days (Exod. 34) before he dared to approach to converse with God; thus Elijah fasted forty days (1 Kgs. 19) that he might be able, in the manner he could, to converse with God on Mount Horeb; thus Daniel was prepared by a fast of three weeks to receive the revelations of God; and thus the Church instituted fasts, that Christians might be rendered more ready to attend to divine things. Moreover, the holy Fathers everywhere preach this same benefit of fasting. Let the reader consult St. Athanasius in his book On Virginity; St. Basil in his first and second discourses On Fasting; St. Ambrose in his book On Elijah and Fasting; St. Bernard in his sermon on the vigil of St. Andrew. But I shall not hesitate to quote the words of St. John Chrysostom from his first homily on Genesis, which are few but striking: "Fasting," says Chrysostom, "is the nourishment of our soul; it produces light wings for it, so that it may be borne aloft and be able to contemplate the highest things."
The second benefit of fasting is for taming the flesh; and on this account fasting greatly pleases God, who is pleased that we crucify the flesh with its vices and concupiscences, as the Apostle teaches in the Epistle to the Galatians—who also for this very reason said: "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, after preaching to others, I myself should become a reprobate." (Gal. 5) For Chrysostom and Theophylact in his commentary, and St. Ambrose in his Letter to the Church of Vercelli, expound these words as spoken of fasting. The holy Fathers preach this benefit of fasting: Cyprian in his sermon on fasting, Basil in his first discourse on fasting, Chrysostom in his first homily on Genesis, Jerome in his Letter to Eustochium on the custody of virginity, and Augustine in the thirty-first chapter of the first book of his Confessions; and the universal Church, in the office of the hour of Prime, sings from the hymn of St. Ambrose: "And may spareness in drink and food wear down the pride of the flesh."
The third benefit of fasting is for the worship of God; for God counts it an honor to Himself when we fast for His sake. For so the Apostle speaks in the Epistle to the Romans: "I beseech you to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service"—in Greek, λογικὴν λατρείαν, that is, reasonable worship. (Rom. 12) And St. Luke speaks of this worship when he says of the widow Anna: "She departed not from the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers." (Luke 2) And the great Council of Nicaea itself calls fasting a pure and solemn gift, which is offered by the Church to God, as Tertullian also says in his book on the resurrection of the flesh, where he calls late and dry meals solemn sacrifices to God. And St. Leo, in the second sermon on the fast of the tenth month: "For the complete ingathering of all the fruits," he says, "an offering of abstinence is most worthily presented to God, their most generous giver." Finally, St. Gregory in his sixteenth homily writes that through the Lenten fast the tithes and firstfruits of our life are offered to God. The fourth benefit of fasting is satisfaction for sins. The examples of Scripture show this first: the Ninevites appeased God by fasting, as Jonah testifies (Jonah 3). The children of Israel likewise appeased God and won the victory over their enemies (1 Sam. 7). The impious king Ahab in part appeased God by fasting and sackcloth (1 Kgs. 21). The Hebrews in the time of Judith and Esther found mercy with God by no other sacrifice (Jdt. 4; Esth. 4) than fasting, weeping, and mourning. The ancient Fathers constantly taught this same doctrine. Tertullian in his book on fasting: "Just as," he says, "the first use of food brought ruin, so let fasting make satisfaction to God." St. Cyprian in the sermon On the Lapsed: "Let us appease," he says, "the anger and offense of God by fastings and tears, as He Himself admonishes." St. Basil in his first homily on fasting: "Repentance without fasting," he says, "is fruitless and idle; through fasting satisfaction is made to God." St. John Chrysostom in his first homily on Genesis: "God," he says, "like an indulgent father, devised for us this healing which comes through fasting." St. Ambrose in his book on Elijah and fasting: "Fasting," he says, "is the death of guilt, the destruction of sins, the remedy of salvation." St. Jerome in his commentary on the third chapter of Jonah: "Sackcloth and fasting," he says, "are the weapons of penance, the aids of sinners." St. Augustine in the sixtieth sermon De tempore: "Let no one," he says, "fast for human praise, but for the pardon of sins." St. Leo in the fourth sermon on the fast of the seventh month teaches that God is appeased by the sacrifice of fasting. St. Bernard in his sixty-sixth sermon on the Song of Songs: "I sometimes abstain," he says, "but my abstinence is a satisfaction for sin, not a superstition for impiety."
The fifth and last benefit of fasting is that it is meritorious and avails much for obtaining divine favors. Anna, the wife of Elkanah, though barren, merited through fasting to have a son (1 Sam. 1); for so St. Jerome interprets, in his second book against Jovinian, those words of Scripture, "Moreover she wept and would take no food": "Anna," he says, "merited to fill with a son the womb that was empty of food." Sara likewise was delivered from the demon by a three-day fast, as is written in the book of Tobit. But there is a notable passage in the Gospel for the merit of fasting (Matt. 6), for thus the Lord speaks: "But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father, who seeth in secret, will repay thee" (Matt. 6). Here those words "will repay thee" mean "will repay thee with a reward"; for they are set against those other words, "They disfigure their faces, that they may appear to men to fast. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward." And so hypocrites who fast receive their reward, a merely human one; the just who fast receive their reward, a divine prize. Nor are there lacking the most illustrious testimonies of the holy Fathers. St. John the Evangelist proclaimed a solemn fast that he might merit to receive the grace of writing rightly, as St. Jerome relates in the preface to his commentary on Matthew, and the Venerable Bede, following him, on the first chapter of John. Tertullian in the book on fasting: "Fasts," he says, "merit even the knowledge of the sacraments from God." St. Ambrose in the Epistle to the Church of Vercelli: "Who are these new teachers," he says, "who exclude the merit of fasting?" St. Athanasius in his book on virginity: "Whoever," he says, "is troubled by an unclean spirit must hold it certain that by fasting the evil spirits depart in torment, dreading the power of fasting." St. Basil in his first homily on fasting: "Fasting," he says, "is useful for escaping the evils of the world to come and for obtaining good things." St. Gregory Nazianzen in the oration in praise of St. Cyprian, explaining with what arms a certain holy virgin repelled the devil from herself: "With the arms," he says, "of fasting and of lying on the ground." St. Chrysostom in his first sermon on fasting: "Fast," he says, "because you have sinned; fast, that you may not sin; fast, that you may receive; fast, that what you have received may not perish." St. Jerome in his book against Jovinian expressly argues about the merit of fasting. St. Augustine in the sixty-second sermon: "Fasting," he says, "is a remedy or a reward; that is, it obtains either the forgiveness of sins or the prize of the heavenly kingdom." St. Leo in the first sermon on the fast of the seventh month: "Through the humility of fasting," he says, "we merit divine help against all our enemies." We have, then, the necessity and the fruit of fasting; it remains to explain the manner — that is, to set forth briefly how one must fast, so that fasting may be truly profitable to us for living well and, through this, also for dying well. For many fast on all the days appointed by the Church, namely on vigils, on the Ember Days, and in Lent; nor are there lacking those who fast of their own accord in Advent, to prepare themselves devoutly for the day of the Lord's Nativity, or on Friday in memory of the Lord's Passion, or on Saturday in honor of the Virgin Mother of God. But whether they so fast as truly to obtain the fruits of fasting may not without reason be asked. The primary end of fasting is the mortification of the flesh, that the spirit may come forth the stronger. For this end it would be necessary to be nourished on scant and humble fare. And indeed Mother Church indicates this when she commands that the body be refreshed not twice in the day but only once, and refreshed not with meat or dairy foods but with herbs, vegetables, and other lighter fare. Tertullian expressed this in two words in his book on the resurrection of the flesh, when he said that the food of those who fast is "late, dry meals." Certainly they do not observe this who on the very day they fast eat no less at a single dinner than on other days at dinner and supper together, and who at that dinner seem to prepare dishes so costly, from various kinds of fish and other foods, not as the meal of mourners and penitents but as a wedding feast that will last late into the night. Those who fast in this way without doubt do not obtain the fruits of fasting.
But neither do they obtain the fruit of fasting who, though they eat less sumptuously and more soberly, nevertheless on the days of fasting do not refrain any more than on other days not consecrated by fasting from games and jests, from brawls and quarrels, from wanton song and immoderate mirth and — what is graver — from shameful deeds and crimes. Hear what the prophet Isaiah says of this kind of men: "Behold, in the day of your fast your own will is found, and you exact of all your debtors. Behold, you fast for debates and strife, and strike with the fist wickedly. Do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry to be heard on high." He rebukes them because on the days of fasting, which are days of penance, they wished to fulfill their own wills and not the will of the Lord; and because they were not only unwilling to remit their debtors' debts, as they begged God to remit their own, but would not even grant their debtors any delay. Likewise because the time which in fasting they ought to have spent in prayer to God, they spent in profane lawsuits and quarrels. Finally, because not only did they not, as was fitting, devote themselves on the days of fasting to spiritual pursuits, but adding sins to sins they wickedly struck their neighbors. These and like things pious men must beware of, if they desire their fasts to be pleasing to God and profitable to themselves, so that they may then hope for a good life and a precious death. There remains almsgiving, of the three works which the Angel Raphael praised in Tobit and proposed to us all for imitation.