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concerning this, and more clearly revealing its glory, he cries aloud: Thus says the Lord Almighty: The fast of the fourth, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh shall be to the house of Judah for joy and for gladness and for good feasts. Have you all seen how fasting opens the cause of the feasts? Have you learned how it more clearly proclaims its excellent deeds and glories? Do you know how it elevates those who receive it toward spiritual longing? Do you wish to learn its purpose more clearly? Open the ears of your mind, and receive in your thoughts the spiritual songs, gushing ever-flowing streams from the fount of immortality. What do you say, O Prophet? Which Israel do you introduce? the carnal one, or the one whose mind sees God? the one made abominable by the unrestrained 56.528 sacrifices, or the one brought in through the teaching of the Apostles? the one sacrificing with the blood of rams and bulls, or the one offering a bloodless sacrifice, the one who takes away the sin of the world? the one who sacrificed to graven images instead of God, or the one snatched away from the altars and the carved idols, and mingled into a spiritual adoption? Clearly the new, the chosen people through baptism, the one purified in water and fire. For through Isaiah the prophet he openly cries out: Your new moons and sabbaths and great day I cannot bear; my soul hates your fast and idleness and your feasts. Pay attention, because He calls the newly-revealed people through the Prophet to achieve the gift of fasting; for it is not God who rejects their fast and their supplication and their new moons and their sabbaths, but because He is full of them. But through their profane deeds they themselves forsook God, and they themselves unjustly killed the chosen people who foretold the coming of his only-begotten Son, one with a wooden saw, another they brought down into a pit of mire. And why do I speak of prophets? For they themselves crucified and killed their own Master as one condemned, saying: This is the heir; come, let us kill him. Do you see the alienation with which they alienated themselves through their wicked works? The Lord, therefore, did not cast them off, but they themselves made themselves strangers to their ancestral boldness. These things the sons of Israel devised; thus the chosen people of the Lord raged, according to the ancestor of God, David, who says: Why did the nations rage, and the peoples devise vain things? and so on. Do you see, O faithful, the grace of fasting? do you see its prizes which it provides to those who possess it with an unwavering mind? do you understand how harsh and rough it proves to be for those who scorn its legislation? It is a loosed sword, standing in the vestibules of the kingdom of God, and terrifying those who do not receive it with gentleness and meekness; but again it graciously turns its back on all those who receive it with a pure conscience, leading them by the hand to an unending life, and toil-free joy, and painless delight, and granting the recompense of countless good things. And if you wish, let us collect a few things from the many and say, who, having acquired fasting, was ever occupied with the cares of life, who, having embraced it, did not rightly travel the ways of the Lord, who, having kept it, did not gently cross the earthly sea, who, having possessed it, wronged an orphan or a widow, who, having been its disciple, did not calmly pass through the pleasures of the air, who, having welcomed it, was not deemed worthy of visions and contemplations of the Lord, who, having been sweetened by it, ceased meditating day and night on the law of the Lord. Do you see its boldness? do you also see the honor with which it is clothed? how from the beginning of the world it has dominion over the devout? how its measures have been kept from the foundation of the world? how it glorifies those who honor it, and those who do not keep it

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περὶ ταύτης, καὶ τρανότερον τὴν δόξαν αὐτῆς ἀνακαλύπτων διαπρυσίως βοᾷ· Τάδε λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ· Νηστεία ἡ τετάρτη, καὶ νηστεία ἡ πέμπτη, καὶ νηστεία ἡ ἑβδόμη ἔσονται τῷ οἴκῳ Ἰούδα εἰς χαρὰν καὶ εἰς εὐφροσύνην καὶ εἰς ἑορτὰς ἀγαθάς. Εἴδετε πάντες πῶς ἀνοίγει τῶν ἑορτῶν τὴν ὑπόθεσιν ἡ νηστεία; Ἐμάθετε πῶς τρανότερον αὐτῆς καταγγέλλει τὰς ἀριστείας καὶ τὰ κλέη; Γνωρίζετε πῶς ὑψοῖ αὕτη πρὸς τὸν πόθον τὸν πνευματικὸν τοὺς εἰσδεχομένους αὐτήν. Βούλεσθε σαφεστέρως αὐτῆς τὴν ὑπόθεσιν μαθεῖν; Ἀνοίξατε τὰ ὦτα ὑμῶν τῆς διανοίας, καὶ δέξασθε τοῖς λογισμοῖς ὑμῶν τὰ πνευματικὰ ᾄσματα, βρύοντα ἐκ τῆς πηγῆς τῆς ἀθανασίας ἀείῤῥυτα νάματα. Τί λέγεις, Προφῆτα; Ποῖον Ἰσραὴλ παρεισάγεις; τὸν σαρκικὸν, ἢ τὸν νοῦν ὁρῶντα Θεόν; τὸν ἐβδελυγμένον διὰ τὰς ἀκαθέκτους 56.528 θυσίας, ἢ τὸν ἐπεισαχθέντα διὰ τῆς τῶν Ἀποστόλων διδασκαλίας; τὸν αἵμασι κριῶν καὶ ταύρων θυσιάζοντα, ἢ τὸν ἀναιμάκτως θύοντα, τὸν αἴροντα τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου; τὸν θύσαντα ἀντὶ Θεοῦ τοῖς γλυπτοῖς, ἢ τὸν ἀπὸ τῶν βωμῶν καὶ τῶν ξοάνων ἐξαρπαγέντα, καὶ εἰς υἱοθεσίαν πνευματικὴν ἀνακραθέντα; ∆ῆλον ὅτι τὸν νέον, τὸν περιούσιον διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος λαὸν, τὸν ἐν ὕδατι καὶ πυρὶ ἀνακαθαιρόμενον. Καὶ γὰρ διὰ Ἡσαΐου τοῦ προφήτου ἀναφανδὸν βοᾷ· Τὰς νεομηνίας ὑμῶν καὶ τὰ σάββατα καὶ ἡμέραν μεγάλην οὐκ ἀνέχομαι, νηστείαν καὶ ἀργίαν καὶ τὰς ἑορτὰς ὑμῶν μισεῖ ἡ ψυχή μου. Προσέχετε, ὅτι τὸν ἀρτιφανῆ λαὸν προσκαλεῖται διὰ τοῦ Προφήτου τῆς νηστείας τὸ δῶρον κατορθώσασθαι· οὐ γὰρ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀποβαλλομένου αὐτῶν τὴν νηστείαν καὶ τὴν δέησιν καὶ τὰς νεομηνίας καὶ τὰ σάββατα, ἀλλ' ὅτι πλήρης αὐτῶν. ∆ιὰ δὲ τῶν πράξεων αὐτοὶ τῶν βεβήλων κατέλιπον τὸν Θεὸν, καὶ τὸν ἐκλεκτὸν λαὸν τὸν τὴν παρουσίαν τοῦ μονογενοῦς Υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ προκαταγγείλαντα αὐτοὶ ἀδίκως ἀνεῖλον, ὃν μὲν ἐν ξυλίνῳ πρίονι, ὃν δὲ ἐν λάκκῳ βορβόρου κατήγαγον. Καὶ τί προφήτας λέγω; Αὐτοὶ γὰρ τὸν ἑαυτῶν ∆εσπότην ὡς κατάδικον ἐσταύρωσαν καὶ ἀνεῖλον λέγοντες· Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ κληρονόμος· δεῦτε, ἀποκτείνωμεν αὐτόν. Βλέπεις τὴν ἀλλοτρίωσιν, ἢν ἠλλοτρίωσαν ἑαυτοὺς διὰ τῶν ἔργων τῶν ἀτόπων; Ὁ Κύριος οὖν αὐτοὺς οὐκ ἀπώσατο, ἀλλ' αὐτοὶ ἑαυτοὺς ξένους τῆς προγονικῆς παῤῥησίας ἀπειργάσαντο. Ταῦτα οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραὴλ ἐμελέτησαν· οὕτως ὁ ἐκλεκτὸς λαὸς τοῦ Κυρίου ἐφρυάξατο, κατὰ τὸν θεοπάτορα ∆αυῒδ λέγοντα· Ἵνα τί ἐφρύαξαν ἔθνη, καὶ λαοὶ ἐμελέτησαν κενά; καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. Ὁρᾶτε, πιστοὶ, τῆς νηστείας τὴν χάριν; βλέπετε αὐτῆς τὰ βραβεῖα ἃ προξενεῖ τοῖς ἀτρέπτῳ γνώμῃ αὐτὴν κεκτημένοις; κατανοεῖτε τοὺς περιφρονοῦντας αὐτῆς τὴν νομοθεσίαν, οἷα σκληρὰ καὶ τραχεῖα δείκνυται; Ῥομφαία ἐστὶ λυομένη, ἐν προθύροις τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ βασιλείας ἱσταμένη, καὶ ἐκθαμβοῦσα τοὺς μὴ μετὰ ἐπιεικείας καὶ πραότητος αὐτὴν εἰσδεχομένους· πάλιν δὲ νῶτα δίδωσι προσηνῶς πᾶσι τοῖς μετὰ καθαροῦ συνειδότος αὐτὴν προσλαμβάνουσι, καὶ πρὸς ἄληκτον βίον, καὶ χαρὰν ἄμοχθον, καὶ τρυφὴν ἀνώδυνον χειραγωγοῦσα, καὶ μυρίων ἀγαθῶν ἀντίδοσιν χορηγοῦσα. Καὶ εἰ θέλεις, ἐκ τῶν πολλῶν ὀλίγα συλλέξαντες εἴπωμεν, τίς νηστείαν κτησάμενος, μεριμνῶν βιωτικῶν ἐσχόλασέ ποτε, τίς αὐτὴν ἀγκαλισάμενος οὐκ ὀρθῶς τὰς ὁδοὺς Κυρίου διώδευσε, τίς ταύτην φυλάξας, οὐ πράως τὸν πλοῦν τὸν γήϊνον ἐπέρασε, τίς αὐτὴν ἐσχηκὼς, ὀρφανὸν ἢ χήραν ἠδίκησε, τίς αὐτὴν μαθητεύσας, τὰς ἡδονὰς τοῦ ἀέρος οὐχ ὑπῆλθε γαληνῶς, τίς ταύτην ἀσπασάμενος οὐκ ὀπτασιῶν καὶ θεωριῶν Κυρίου κατηξιώθη, τίς αὐτῇ γλυκανθεὶς διέλιπε μελετῶν ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτὸς ἐν τῷ νόμῳ Κυρίου. Ὁρᾶτε αὐτῆς τὴν παῤῥησίαν; ὁρᾶτε καὶ τὴν τιμὴν ἣν περιβέβληται; πῶς ἐξ ἀρχῆς κόσμου δεσπόζει τῶν εὐσεβῶν; πῶς τὰ μέτρα αὐτῆς ἀπὸ καταβολῆς τοῦ κόσμου τετήρηνται; πῶς δοξάζει τοὺς τιμῶντας αὐτὴν, καὶ τοὺς μὴ φυλάττοντας