The Catechetical Homilies and Testament of St. Theodore the Studite
HOMILY 47
On Wednesday of the First Week
Concerning Fasting, Dispassion, and Purity
Fathers and Brethren: The present days of the holy fast are, among the other periods of
the year, a calm haven to which all gather and find spiritual serenity; not only
monastics, but laymen as well, the small and the great, those in authority and those in
submission, kings and priests; for this period is beneficial and salvific for every
country and age of mankind. At this time every disruption and disorder comes to a halt,
and doxology and hymnody are multiplied, charities and prayer by means of which our good
God is moved to compassion and is propitiated to grant peace to our souls and forgiveness
of sins; if only we shall sincerely turn to Him with all our heart, falling down before
Him with fear and trembling, and promising to cease from every bad habit which we might
have. But Christians living in the world have their teachers, that is, their bishops and
pastors who guide and instruct them. For even as warriors and soldiers need stimulation,
so do festers require the encouragement and consolation of teachers. And since I find
myself desired among you in the place of leadership and abbacy, then it is my obligation
to say unto you a few words concerning this soul-saving fast.
Brethren, fasting is the renewal of the soul, for the Apostle says insofar as the body
weakens and withers from the podvig (ascetic labor) of fasting, then so much is the soul
renewed day by day and is made beauteous and shines in the beauty which God originally
bestowed upon it. And when it is purified and adorned with fasting and repentance, then
God loves it and will live in it as the Lord has said: "I and the Father will come
and make Our abode with him" (John 14.23). Thus if there is such value and grace in
fasting that it makes us into habitations of God, then ought we to greet it with great
rejoicing and gladness, and not despond because of the meagerness of the food, knowing
that when our Lord Jesus Christ blessed the five loaves in the wilderness He fed five
thousand people with bread and water. He could, if He so desired, command all sorts of
manifestations to appear; but He gave us an example of restraint, so that we might be
concerned only for that which is necessary. Now at the beginning the fast seems to us a
difficult labor, but if we shall apply ourselves from day to day with ardor and
discipline, then with the help of God it will be made easier. At the same time, if we
desire that the fast be for us a true one and acceptable unto God, then together with
abstaining from food, let us restrain ourselves from every sin of soul and body, as the
sticheron instructs us in which it is said, "Let us keep the Fast not only by
refraining from food, but by becoming strangers to all sinful passions" (First
sticheron of the Aposticha, Tuesday Vespers of the First Week of Lent). Let us guard
ourselves from sloth and carelessness concerning our cell rule and church services, and
even more from vainglory and envious zeal, from malice out of spite, and from enmity, and
secret passions such as these, which kill the soul; let us guard against ill temper and
self-assertion, that is, let us not appropriate things for ourselves and indulge our
self-will. For nothing is so loved of the devil as to find a person who has not forgiven
another and has not taken advice from those able to instruct him in virtue; then the enemy
easily deludes the self-assertive and traps him in all that he does and reckons as good.
Let us vigilantly attend to ourselves, especially in regard to the desires of the
flesh; for it is just now, when we fast, that the chameleon serpent-devil fights us with
bad thoughts. Beauteous in appearance and pleasant to the taste is the fruit of sin, but
in reality it is not so. Thus sometimes the outside of the apple seems nice, but when it
is cut open rot is found within; so the desires of the flesh seem to have within them
delights, yet when a sin has been committed, it is bitter to the stomach like a two-edged
sword. Our forefather Adam suffered this when he was deceived by the devil and tasted of
the fruit of disobedience and hoped to receive life from it, but found death. Thus do all
from that time to this suffer who are deceived by the ancient serpent with bad desires of
the fleshly passions. For the devil is darkness that takes the semblance and appearance of
an angel of light. So the inventor of evil, Satan, makes evil to appear as good; and
bitter to appear as sweet; and dark, as light; and the ugly, beautiful; and he represents
death as life, and thus deludes the world and tortures it. But let us, Brethren, pay
special heed so that he will not trap us with his many and evil snares and we suffer like
birds that fall from the bait into the nooses and nets. Let us be careful to scrutinize
our mind for the craftiness of evil, and in eve~y instance be aware of evil, where it is
concealed, and shun it. Above all, let us be ardent and careful in the chanting of the
psalms and services of the Church; let us strive to keep our minds attentive to what is
being read. For as the body, when nourished by bread, grows stronger, so also does the
soul when fed by the word of God. Let us every hour of the day do prostrations, each
according to his strength and as much as he is required; let us be occupied with our
handiwork; for he that does nothing, according to the word of the Apostle, is not worthy
even of food (II Thess. 3:10). Let us be helpful to one another, for one alone is weak,
while another is strong; let us not be quarrelsome, but do only what is good; let us be
gentle of speech, peaceful, gracious, kind, meek, subm~ssive, filled with mercy and good
fruit. And may the peace of God preserve our hearts and minds, and may He vouchsafe us the
heavenly kingdom of Christ Jesus our Lord, to Whom is due glory and dominion with the
Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
HOMILY 48
On Friday of the First Week
Concerning Now We Should Adorn Our Eternal Habitation with Virtue
Brethren and Fathers! If anyone who is a layman wishes to construct a large and
magnificent home, then he gives himself no rest either day or night, but labors, worries,
and endures deprivation until he finishes the building of the house. They have such zeal
and diligence in this work that their minds and thoughts, day and night, are occupied with
nothing else but only with how the roof might be finished more beautifully and
excellently, and so that all below and all the rest might be adorned and done so that
anyone who might see it would like to have such a home. And if anyone should desire to
keep them from this work, then this would be for them so painful that it would be as if
they suffered a great offense.
What is it that I wish to say to your love, respected Brethren? Since each of us builds
and sets up for his soul not a house that is tangible and corruptible, which is made of
stone and wood, but a heavenly dwelling that is incorrupt and eternal, which is composed
of the virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit, then tell me, shall we be actually less
concerned and more slothful in constructing it than we would be in constructing a temporal
house? Would not the loss of it be hard for us to bear? And the more so, since a house
that is corruptible and temporal receives people of the flesh and thereafter when the
house has had many owners, it itself grows old, goes to ruin and collapses, but our
spiritual house, which is built of the virtues, receives the Holy Spirit, as the Apostle
says, "Ye are the temple of the living God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you" (I Cor. 3:16). And when the time comes for us to leave this world, He also
follows us into heaven, and we shall be there eternally.
The beginning of building the virtues is the fear of God, as the Divine Scriptures say,
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Ps. 110:9). And thereafter
the four great virtues, that is, wisdom, courage, chastity, and righteousness, and the
others with them, each linked to another and forming a union of love, will grow into a
holy temple of the Lord. Let us then, Brethren, build this habitation and adorn it with
the virtues so that we might have within us the Holy Spirit, and so that we may bring joy
to the holy angels and be of benefit to mankind through the accomplishment of the virtues.
And since temperance is one of the greatest virtues which we struggle to attain, then let
us render glory unto God for having vouchsafed us to complete the span of one holy week.
Our faces have changed and become pale, but there shines in us the grace of temperance.
From the gall that arises as a result of the fast, we feel in our mouths a bitterness, but
our souls are sweetened by the hope and grace of salvation. For these two, that is, the
soul and body, by nature battle against one another, and when one grows stronger, the
other becomes weaker. And so we shall rejoice, Brethren, in that we have made the better
aspect, that is, the soul, much stronger.
It may be that someone will say: Will not eating once a day ruin the perfection of
temperance? No, we need not fear this, for if it were so, then Christ would not have
commanded us in the prayer "Our Father" to ask for our daily bread; nor would
the raven have brought to the Prophet Elias food each day, and likewise the divine Paul of
Thebes; and Anthony the Great would not have considered it better to eat a little each day
rather than to remain fasting for three, four, or seven days. And it seems to me that the
cause for this is as follows: since our bodies are exhausted and weakened from daily work,
that God, Who created us as He designed, might strengthen them by daily rations and we
might fulfill the commandments of God, and would not be like a man paralyzed, as happens
with those who fast for two or three days. They cannot accomplish prostrations, nor become
experienced in readings and chanting, as they should, nor fulfill properly the other
services; we will not mention what is supernatural. Thus the daily use of nourishment,
according to the rule and order indicated, is not something imperfect, but something quite
perfect, since all that has been instituted for us by the Holy Fathers is good and
pleasing to God. O would that the Lord grant us still more health and strength of soul and
body in order to serve the living and true God, and gain the reward that awaits us in the
last day, in which may you, with all the saints from the ages, shine like the sun, having
received an inheritance in the heavenly kingdom of Christ our Lord, to Whom is due glory
and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages,
Amen.
From Orthodox Life, vol. 38, no. 1 (Jan.-Feb., 1988), pp. 4-7.
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