St. Asterius, Bishop of Amasea: On the Beginning of the Fast (Part One)

 Homily 14: On the Beginning of the Fast

St. Asterius, Bishop of Amasea (350-410)

1.  Man is a composite animal, visible body and rational and bodiless soul being the lot of what he is.  But the nature and worthiness of these two aforesaid parts are not equal in honor, but the one was created as an instrument, moved for the economy of the ruler, and the other was arranged to rule and reign, as the better does the worse.  And this one, taking its distinction from mind, and from reason, and from beautiful things, and discovering difference in them, knows God as the maker and creator of those things on feet and grasped by sense, but also of things unseen, which the bodiless mind sees through imagination.  And, hearing of righteousness and virtue, as beloved by God, it goes to philosophy, and, persuaded by those laws and instructions, it draws itself away from most bodily desires, and it draws near to God and strives, as much as it can, to become familiar with the good.  And the majority and the dominant part of sacred philosophy revolves around the aforesaid self-mastery; for here the mind, remaining untroubled and being in no way mixed up with the filth of the stomach and other things, has unhindered energy and contemplation about heavenly things and things akin to it.

2.  Therefore, whosoever are nurslings of philosophy and lovers of higher things and disciples of reason, love the present season, and, rejoicing, receive the Holy Forty Days as sobriety’s teacher, and virtue’s mother, and the nurse of the sons of God, and the educator of the disordered, and the calm of souls, and the stability of life, and truced and untroubled peace.  For the austere and august suffering of this season soothes to slumber, quenches anger and wrath, cools and restrains the billows aroused by much eating.  And as with beasts, when the sun’s fiery heat shines upon the earth, the north wind does good for the overheated, driving away the stifling heat with meek breezes, so, too, this fast bestows favor, chasing gluttony’s burning away from bodies. 

3.  But, such things benefiting the soul, the body, too, is no less helped.  For fasting dwindles the stoutness of matter, and it dismantles bulk of the body, and it abates the veins flowing with blood, and it gives a little space to the narrowness, lest one suffer a disease of the channels.  For those, when one pours much and an unmeasured amount of water into them, beyond their capacity, burst, not bearing the bulk violently entering them.  And the head has a meek and calming condition, with no quivering arteries, nor a brain darkened by an exhalation of vapors.  For the stomach’s freedom is self-mastery.  For, at that time, it is free from compulsory servitude and seething like a kettle, toiling away at digestion.  Eyes see clearly and without shadows, all that mist removed which satiety usually pours upon the eyes, and there is steadiness in the feet, and unshaken energy in the hands.  Breath is ordered and measured, hurried on by no teeming spirits within.  The speech of the faster is clear and articulate, the mind is pure, and, at that time, he truly has the image of God, when, without pain and without commotion, he displays the same energy in the flesh as in the bodiless mind.  Sleep is painless and without fantasies, and, in order to pass over many things, I will say that fasting is a peace common to soul and body, untroubled life, a steadfast way of life, a life delighting God and sorrowing the enemy.  For just as the warrior, when he sees his opponent watchful and sober, meticulously armed, and toiling away at manfulness, consider that one’s toil-loving preparation as his own defeat, so, too, the one plotting against our salvation hates all of our exactness in virtue as his own misfortune.

4.  And, therefore, know, man, that the angels are guardians of the faster’s home, and watchmen beside him.  But for him who revels in delights during the Forty Days, the demons—familiar friends of fat-fumes, and lovers of blood—are his companions in drunkenness.  And, so, even among spirits, whether holy or unclean, each one accompanies his friends and familiars, just as one sees, too, among birds.  For the dove abides near clean places and circles around farmlands, picking seeds for itself and its children, and the turtle-dove pleasurably sits on the leaves of trees, humming something pleasant and fine.  But the gluttonous crow sits before the butcher shops, screeching something heavy and unpleasant at the butchers.  Likewise let us love self-mastery, so that we might be loved by the angels, and let us hate intemperate eating, lest, through it, we throw ourselves into communion with demons.  Let no one be eager for food, nor let the disciple of virtue be a loiterer at feasts, nor the holy one, a pleasure-lover, nor the communer of the kingdom, one living fleshily.

Nota Bene: The source of this passage is PG 40:369D-373B.  The original Greek text has paragraph divisions, but no numbers; I decided to number them myself, for ease of reference.  There are a few Greek words integral to Patristic ethics that have no quick-and-easy translation, but something had to be used: so, for εγκρατεια (egkrateia), I have used "self-mastery," while, for σοφρωσυνη (sophrosyne), I have used "sobriety."  For more on those two terms, see my post here.  In §3, the "disease of the channels" (a fairly literal translation, though "disease" is more literally "suffering") seems to refer to high blood pressure, the "channels" here meaning "blood vessels."  Later in §3, there is a distinction between "breath" (asthma) and the "spirits" (pneumata), the latter of which can also be translated as "breaths."  Near the end of §3, there is a difficult-to-translate set of Greek words in the phrases "untroubled life, a steadfast way of life, a life delighted God"; the first "life" is ζωη (zoe), "way of life" is πολιτεια (politeia), and the second "life" is βιος (bios).  "Bios" usually has a specifically physical sense, while "zoe" has a more spiritual meaning; thus, Christ says that He came to give us "zoe" abundantly, not "bios" (Jn 10:10).  

Translation ©2024 Brandon P. Otto.  Licensed via CC BY-NC.  Feel free to redistribute non-commercially, as long as credit is given to the translator.