I. The Lenten Fast is Incumbent on All Alike.
II. The Broad Road is Crowded the Narrow Way of Salvation Nearly Empty.
III. Satan is Incited to Fresh Efforts at This Season of the Year.
IV. Self-Examination by the Standard of God's Commands the Right Occupation
in Lent.
V. Forgiveness of Our Own Sins Requires that We Should Forgive Others.
VI. Reconciliation Between Enemies and Alms-Giving are Also Lenten Duties.
I. The Lenten Fast is Incumbent on All Alike.
On all days and seasons, indeed, dearly-beloved, some marks of the Divine
goodness are set, and no part of the year is destitute of sacred mysteries,
in order that, so long as proofs of our salvation meet us on all sides,
we may the more eagerly accept the never-ceasing calls of God's mercy.
But all that is bestowed on the restoration of human souls in the divers
works and gifts of grace is put before us more clearly and abundantly now,
when no isolated portions of the Faith are to be celebrated, but the whole
together. For as the Easter festival approaches, the greatest and most
binding of fasts is kept, and its observance is imposed on all the faithful
without exception; because no one is so holy that he ought not to be holier,
nor so devout that he might not be devouter. For who, that is set in the
uncertainty of this life, can be found either exempt from temptation, or
free from fault? Who is there who would not wish for additions to his virtue,
or removal of his vice? seeing that adversity does us harm, and prosperity
spoils us, and it is equally dangerous not to have what we want at all,
and to have it in the fullest measure. There is a trap in the fulness of
riches, a trap in the straits of poverty. The one lifts us up in pride,
the other incites us to complaint. Health tries us, sickness tries us,
so long as the one fosters carelessness and the other sadness. There is
a snare in security, a snare in fear; and it matters not whether the mind
which is given over to earthly thoughts, is taken up with pleasures or
with cares; for it is equally unhealthy to languish under empty delights,
or to labour under racking anxiety.
II. The Broad Road is Crowded the Narrow Way of Salvation Nearly
Empty.
And thus is perfectly fulfilled that assurance of the Truth, by which
we learn that "narrow and steep is the way that leads to life1 ;" and whilst
the breadth of the way that leads to death is crowded with a large company,
the steps are few of those that tread the path of safety. And wherefore
is the left road more thronged than the right, save that the multitude
is prone to wordly joys and carnal goods? And although that which it desires
is short-lived and uncertain, yet men endure toil more willingly for the
lust of pleasure than for love of virtue. Thus while those who crave things
visible are unnumbered, those who prefer the eternal to the temporal are
hardly to be found. And, therefore, seeing that the blessed Apostle Paul
says, "the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are
not seen are eternal2 ," the path of virtue lies hid and in concealment,
to a certain extent, since "by hope we were saved3 ," and true faith loves
that above all things, which it attains to without any intervention of
the flesh. A great work and toil it is then to keep our wayward heart from
all sin, and, with the numberless allurements of pleasure to ensnare it
on all sides, not to let the vigour of the mind give way to any attack.
Who "toucheth pitch, and is not defiled thereby4 ?" who is not weakened
by the flesh? who is not begrimed by the dust? who, lastly, is of such
purity as not to be polluted by those things without which one cannot live?
For the Divine teaching commands by the Apostle's mouth that "they who
have wives" should "be as though they had none: and those that weep as
though they wept not; and those that rejoice as though they rejoiced not;
and those that buy as though they possessed not; and those that use this
world as though they used it not; for the fashion of this world passeth
away5 ." Blessed, therefore, is the mind that passes the time of its pilgrimage
in chaste sobriety, and loiters not in the things through which it has
to walk, so that, as a stranger rather than the possessor of its earthly
abode, it may not be wanting in human affections, and yet rest on the Divine
promises.
III. Satan is Incited to Fresh Efforts at This Season of the Year.
And, dearly-beloved, no season requires and bestows this fortitude more
than the present, when by the observance of a special strictness a habit
is acquired which must be persevered in. For it is well known to you that
this is the time when throughout the world the devil waxes furious, and
the Christian army has to combat him, and any that have grown lukewarm
and slothful, or that are absorbed in worldly cares, must now be furnished
with spiritual armour and their ardour kindled for the fray by the heavenly
trumpet, inasmuch as he, through whose envy death came into the world6
, is now consumed with the strongest jealousy and now tortured with the
greatest vexation. For he sees7 whole tribes of the human race brought
in afresh to the adoption of God's sons and the offspring of the New Birth
multiplied through the virgin fertility of the Church. He sees himself
robbed of all his tyrannic power, and driven from the hearts of those he
once possessed, while from either sex thousands of the old, the young,
the middle-aged are snatched away from him, and no one is debarred by sin
either of his own or original, where justification is not paid for deserts,
but simply given as a free gift. He sees, too, those that have lapsed,
and have been deceived by his treacherous snares, washed in the tears of
penitence and, by the Apostle's key unlocking the gates of mercy, admitted
to the benefit of reconciliation8 . He feels, moreover, that the day of
the Lord's Passion is at hand, and that he is crushed by the power of that
cross which in Christ, Who was free from all debt of sin, was the world's
ransom and not the penalty of sin.
IV.self-Examination by the Standard of God's Commands the Right Occupation
in Lent.
And so, tha the malice of the fretting foe may effect nothing by its
rage, a keener devotion must be awaked to the performance of the Divine
commands, in order that we may enter on the season, when all the mysteries
of the Divine mercy meet together, with preparedness both of mind and body,
invoking the guidance and help of God, that we may be strong to fulfil
all things through Him, without Whom we can do nothing. For the injunction
is laid on us, in order that we may seek the aid of Him Who lays it Nor
must any one excuse himself by reason of his weakness, since He Who has
granted the will, also gives the power, as the blessed Apostle James says,
"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, Who giveth to all liberally
and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him9 ." Which of the faithful
does not know what virtues he ought to cultivate, and what vices to fight
against? Who is so partial or so unskilled a judge of his own conscience
as not to know what ought to be removed, and what ought to be developed?
Surely no one is so devoid of reason as not to understand the character
of his mode of life, or not to know the secrets of his heart. Let him not
then please himself in everything, nor judge himself according to the delights
of the flesh, but place his every habit in the scale of the Divine commands,
where, some things being ordered to be done and others forbidden, he can
examine himself in a true balance by weighing the actions of his life according
to this standard. For the designing mercy of God10 has set up the brightest
mirror in His commandments, wherein a man may see his mind's face and realize
its conformity or dissimilarity to God's image: with the specific purpose
that, at least, during the days of our Redemption and Restoration, we may
throw off awhile our carnal cares and restless occupations, and betake
ourselves from earthly matters to heavenly.
V. Forgiveness of Our Own Sins Requires that We Should Forgive Others.
But because, as it is written, "in many things we all stumble11 ," let
the feeling of mercy be first aroused and the faults of others against
us be forgotten; that we may not violate by any love of revenge that most
holy compact, to which we bind ourselves in the Lord's prayer, and when
we say "forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors," let us not
be hard in forgiving, because we must be possessed either with the desire
for revenge, or with the leniency of gentleness, and for man, who is ever
exposed to the dangers of temptations, it is more to be desired that his
own faults should not need punishment12 than that he should get the faults
of others punished. And what is more suitable to the Christian faith than
that not only in the Church, but also in all men's homes, there should
be forgiveness of sins? Let threats be laid aside; let bonds be loosed,
for he who will not loose them will bind himself with them much more disastrously.
For whatsoever one man resolves upon against another, he decrees against
himself by his own terms. Whereas "blessed are the merciful, for God shall
have mercy on them13 :" and He is just and kind in His judgments, allowing
some to be in the power of others to this end, that under fair government
may be preserved both the profitableness of discipline and the kindliness
of clemency, and that no one should dare to refuse that pardon to another's
shortcomings, which he wishes to receive for his own.
VI. Reconciliation Between Enemies and Alms-Giving are Also Lenten
Duties.
Furthermore, as the Lord says, that "the peacemakers are blessed, because
they shall be called sons of God14 ," let all discords and enmities be
laid aside, and let no one think to have a share in the Paschal feast that
has neglected to restore brotherly peace. For with the Father on high,
he that is not in charity with the brethren, will not be reckoned in the
number of His sons. Furthermore, in the distribution of alms and care of
the poor, let our Christian fast-times be fat and abound; and let each
bestow on the weak and destitute those dainties which he denies himself.
Let pains be taken that all may bless God with one mouth, and let him that
gives some portion of substance understand that he is a minister of the
Divine mercy; for God has placed the cause of the poor in the hand of the
liberal man; that the sins which are washed away either by the waters of
baptism, or the tears of repentance, may be also blotted out by alms-giving;
for the Scripture says, "As water extinguisheth fire, so alms extinguisheth
sin15 ." Through our Lord Jesus Christ, &c.
1 S. Matt. vii. 14.
2 2 Cor. iv. 18.
3 Rom. viii. 24.
4 Ecclus. xiii. 1.
5 1 Cor. vii. 29-31. In the last clause but one, the
Lat. runs, qui utuntur hoc mundo tanquam non utantur (as also the Vulg.
and the margin of R.V., "(as not) using to the full," though the text reads.
"as not abusing it").
6 Wisdom ii. 24.
7 The allusion is of coarse to the large number of persons
baptized every year at Easter.
8 Portas misericordioe Apostolica clave reserante ad
remedia reconciliationis admitti: no doubt confession and priestly absolution
is meant with a reference to S. Matt. xvi. 19.
9 S. James i. 5.
10 Artifex misericordia Dei.
11 S. James iii. 2.
12 Ut suas culpas habeat impunitas (some through a misunderstanding
of the argument read punitas here) quam ut plectat alienas.
13 S. Matt. v. 7, quoted in the same form in Serm. XCV.
chap. 7, q.v.
14 S. Matt. v. 9.
15 Ecclus. iii. 30.
