Lenten Blessings to You
As we begin Lent, we are reminded of St. Augustine's words to us in Sermon 205, "On the Beginning of Lent.”
In Augustine's Sermon, he urges us to fast - not just physically, but from mental and spiritual burdens as well. He urges us to fast from quarrels and discord, to fast from injustice and selfishness.
As we fast from these things, we create the space in our lives to replace these habits with positive traits. "What you deprive yourselves of by fasting, add by being generous," Augustine recommends.
Today, on Ash Wednesday at the beginning of Lent, let us heed the words of Augustine. Our prayers our with you as you journey through these 40 Days of preparation.
God Bless You from the Midwest Augustinians.
St. Augustine’s Sermon 205: On the Beginning of Lent
Today we enter upon the keeping of Lent, coming round again as it does every year; and every year too I owe you a solemn exhortation, so that the word of God, set before you by my service, may feed your minds as you set about fasting in the body; and in this way the inner self, nourished by its proper food, may undertake the chastisement of the outer, and sustain it all the more stoutly.
It goes well with our devotion, after all, that as we are very soon going to celebrate the passion of the crucified Lord, we should also make a cross for ourselves out ofthe curbing of the pleasures of the flesh, as the apostle says: But those who are Jesus Christ's have crucified their flesh with its passions and lusts (Gal 5:24).
On this cross, indeed, the Christian ought to hang continually throughout the whole of this life, which is spent in the midst of trials and temptations. The time, you see, doesn't come in this life for pulling out the nails, of which it says in the psalm, ‘Let my flesh be transfixed with nails by the fear of you’ (Ps 1 19: 120).
Flesh means the lusts of the flesh; the nails are the commandments of justice; with these the fear of the Lord transfixes those, and crucifies us as a sacrifice acceptable to him. That's why, again, the apostle says, ‘And so I beseech you, brothers, by the compassion of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God’ (Rom 12: 1). So this cross, on which the servant of God is not only not put to confusion, but in fact glories in it, saying, ‘But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world’ (Gal 6: 14); this cross, I repeat, is not just meant for forty days, but for the whole of this life, which is signified by the mystical number of these forty days. This may be because, as several authorities assert, the human being destined to live this life takes shape in the womb in forty days; or else because the four gospels agree with the tenfold law, and four times ten marks up this number, and indicates that in this life we need both parts of scripture; or for any other more probable reason which a better and brighter intelligence can find.
So it is that both Moses and Elijah and the Lord himself all fasted for forty days, to suggest to us that we are being worked upon in Moses and in Elijah and in Christ himself, that is in the law and the prophets and in the gospel itself, to ensure that we aren't conformed to this world and don't cling to it, but that instead we crucify the old self, behaving not in gluttony and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness; but let us put on the Lord Jesus, and take no care for the flesh in its lusts (Rom 13:13-14).
Live here like that always, Christian; if you don't want your footsteps to sink in the earthly quagmire, don't come down from this cross.
But now, if that is what has to be done throughout the whole of this life, how much more during these days of Lent, in which this life is not only being spent, but in addition is also being mystically signified?
So on other days your hearts should never be weighed down with drugs and drunkenness; during these days, though, you should also fast. During the other days of the year you mustn't so much as touch upon adultery, fornication, and any other forms of unlawful depravity; during these days, though, you should also abstain from your marriage partners.
What you deprive yourselves of by fasting, add by being generous to the alms you give. Let the time that was taken up with the payment of the marriage debt be spent in supplications; let the body, which was relaxing in demonstrations of carnal affection, prostrate itself in the purity of prayer; let the arms which were twined in embraces be raised and extended in orisons.
As for those of you who also fast on other days, add during these days to what you normally do. Those of you who throughout the other days of the year crucify the body by perpetual continence, cleave to your God during these days by more frequent and more earnest prayer. All of you, be of one mind and heart, all of you faithfully faithful, all of you, in this time of exile and wandering, full of heartfelt sighs and fervent love for the one, common home country. See to it that none of you envies, none of you mocks in another the gift of God which you don't have in yourself.
In the matter of spiritual goods, regard as your own what you love and admire in your brother or sister; let them regard as their own what they love and admire in you. None of us, under the pretense of self-denial, should make a point of changing, rather than cutting back on, our pleasures; looking out for special delicacies because we aren't eating meat, and for strange liquors because we aren't drinking wine; that way, under the cloak of taming the flesh we are conducting the business of pleasure. All kinds of food are indeed pure to the pure; but self-indulgent luxury is pure to nobody.
Before everything else, brothers and sisters, fast from quarrels and discord. Remember how the prophet upbraided some people and cried out, Your own wills are found on the days of your fast, because you dig your spurs into all who are under your yoke, and beat them with your fists; your voices are heard in shouting; and more to that effect. After mentioning all this, he added, That is not the fast I have chosen, says the Lord (Is 58:3-5).
If you want to shout, use the kind of shouting about which it says, With my voice I shouted to the Lord (Ps 142:1). That indeed is not a shout of quarreling, but of loving; not of the flesh, but the heart. Not such are those of whom it is said, waited for them to do justice, but they worked iniquity; and not justice, but a shout (Is 5:7). Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given you (Lk 6:37-38). These are the two wings of prayer, on which it flies to God; if you pardon the offender what has been committed, and give to the person in need.
