Chapter XII.

40. There follows a precept concerning fasting, having reference to that same purification of heart which is at present under discussion. For in this work also we must be on our guard, lest there should creep in a certain ostentation and hankering after the praise of man, which would make the heart double, and not allow it to be pure and single for apprehending God. “Moreover, when ye fast,” says He, “be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces,346    Vultum…videantur; Vulgate, facies…appareant. The Greek has a play on words, ἀφανιζουσι…φανῶσι (“they mar their appearance, that they may make an appearance”). that they may appear347    Vultum…videantur; Vulgate, facies…appareant. The Greek has a play on words, ἀφανιζουσι…φανῶσι (“they mar their appearance, that they may make an appearance”). unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But ye,348    Vulgate has the singular as the Greek. The Pharisees were scrupulous in keeping fast-days. Monday and Thursday were observed by the strict with different degrees of scrupulosity,—the lowest admitting of washing and anointing the head. (See Schürer, N. Zeitgesch. p. 505 sqq.). The early practice of fasting in the sub-apostolic Church is evident from the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, which enjoins it before baptism, and on the “fourth day and the Preparation Day” (vii., viii.). when ye fast, anoint your head, and wash your face; that ye appear not unto men to fast, but unto your Father which is in secret: and your Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward you.” It is manifest from these precepts that all our effort is to be directed towards inward joys, lest, seeking a reward from without, we should be conformed to this world, and should lose the promise of a blessedness so much the more solid and firm, as it is inward, in which God has chosen that we should become conformed to the image of His Son.349    Rom. viii. 29.

41. But in this section it is chiefly to be noticed, that there may be ostentatious display not merely in the splendour and pomp of things pertaining to the booty, but also in doleful squalor itself; and the more dangerous on this account, that it deceives under the name of serving God. And therefore he who is very conspicuous by immoderate attention to the body, and by the splendour of his clothing or other things, is easily convicted by the things themselves of being a follower of the pomps of the world, and misleads no one by a cunning semblance of sanctity; but in regard to him who under a profession of Christianity, fixes the eyes of men upon himself by unusual squalor and filth, when he does it voluntarily, and not under the pressure of necessity, it may be conjectured from the rest of his actings whether he does this from contempt of superfluous attention to the body, or from a certain ambition: for the Lord has enjoined us to beware of wolves under a sheep’s skin; but “by their fruits,” says He, “shall ye know them.” For when by temptations of any kind those very things begin to be withdrawn from them or refused to them, which under that veil they either have obtained or desire to obtain, then of necessity it appears whether it is a wolf in a sheep’s skin or a sheep in its own. For a Christian ought not to delight the eyes of men by superfluous ornament on this account, because pretenders also too often assume that frugal and merely necessary dress, that they may deceive those who are not on their guard: for those sheep also ought not to lay aside their own skins, if at any time wolves cover themselves there with.

42. It is usual, therefore, to ask what He means, when He says: “But ye, when ye fast, anoint your head, and wash your faces, that ye appear not unto men to fast.” For it would not be right in any one to teach (although we may wash our face according to daily custom) that we ought also to have our heads anointed when we fast. If, then, all admit this to be most unseemly, we must understand this precept with respect to anointing the head and washing the face as referring to the inner man.350    So modern exegetes (Meyer, etc.). Hence, to anoint the head refers to joy; to wash the face, on the other hand, refers to purity: and therefore that man anoints his head who rejoices inwardly in his mind and reason. For we rightly understand that as being the head which has the pre-eminence in the soul, and by which it is evident that the other parts of man are ruled and governed. And this is done by him who does not seek his joy from without, so as to draw his delight in a fleshly way from the praises of men. For the flesh, which ought to be subject, is in no way the head of the whole nature of man. “No man,” indeed, “ever yet hated his own flesh,” as the apostle says, when giving the precept as to loving one’s wife;351    Eph. v. 25–33. but the man is the head of the woman, and Christ is the head of the man.352    1 Cor. xi. 3. Let him, therefore, rejoice inwardly in his fasting353    “It hardly needs to add,” says Trench, “that Augustin everywhere interprets ‘when ye fast’ as a command.” in this very circumstance, that by his fasting he so turns away from the pleasure of the world as to be subject to Christ, who according to this precept desires to have the head anointed. For thus also he will wash his face, i.e. cleanse his heart, with which he shall see God, no veil being interposed on account of the infirmity contracted from squalor; but being firm and stedfast, inasmuch as he is pure and guileless. “Wash you,” says He, “make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes.”354    Isa. i. 16. From the squalor, therefore, by which the eye of God is offended, our face is to be washed. For we, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image.355    2 Cor. iii. 18.

43. Often also the thought of things necessary belonging to this life wounds and defiles our inner eye; and frequently it makes the heart double, so that in regard to those things in which we seem to act rightly with our fellowmen, we do not act with that heart wherewith the Lord enjoins us; i.e., it is not because we love them, but because we wish to obtain some advantage from them for the necessity of the present life. But we ought to do them good for their eternal salvation, not for our own temporal advantage. May God, therefore, incline our heart to His testimonies, and not to covetousness.356    Ps. cxix. 36. For “the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.”357    1 Tim. i. 5. But he who looks after his brother from a regard to his own necessities in this life, does not certainly do so from love, because he does not look after him whom he ought to love as himself, but after himself; or rather not even after himself, seeing that in this way he makes his own heart double, by which he is hindered from seeing God, in the vision of whom alone there is certain and lasting blessedness.

CAPUT XII.---40. Sequitur de jejunio praeceptum, pertinens ad eamdem cordis mundationem, de qua nunc agitur. Nam et in hoc opere cavendum est ne subrepat aliqua ostentatio et appetitus laudis humanae, qui duplicet cor, et non sinat mundum et simplex esse ad intelligendum Deum. «Cum autem jejunatis, inquit, nolite fieri, sicut hypocritae, tristes: exterminant enim vultum suum, ut videantur hominibus jejunantes. Amen dico vobis, perceperunt mercedem suam. Vos autem jejunantes ungite capita vestra, et facies vestras lavate, ne videamini hominibus jejunantes, sed Patri vestro qui est in abscondito: et Pater vester qui videt in abscondito, reddet vobis.» Manifestum est his praeceptis omnem nostram intentionem in interiora gaudia dirigi, ne foris quaerentes mercedem huic saeculo conformemur, et amittamus promissionem tanto solidioris atque firmioris, quanto interioris beatitudinis, qua nos elegit Deus conformes fieri imaginis Filii ejus (Rom. VIII, 29).

41. In hoc autem capitulo maxime animadvertendum est, non in solo rerum corporearum nitore atque pompa, sed etiam in ipsis sordibus luctuosis esse posse jactantiam; et eo periculosiorem, quo sub nomine servitutis Dei decipit. Qui ergo immoderato cultu corporis atque vestitus vel caeterarum rerum nitore praefulget, facile convincitur rebus ipsis, pomparum saeculi esse sectator, nec quemquam fallit dolosa imagine sanctitatis: qui autem in professione Christianitatis inusitato squalore ac sordibus intentos in se oculos hominum facit, cum id voluntate facit, non necessitate patitur, caeteris ejus operibus potest conjici utrum hoc contemptu superflui cultus, an ambitione aliqua faciat; quia et sub ovina pelle cavendos lupos Dominus praecepit; sed ex fructibus, inquit, eorum cognoscetis eos. Cum enim coeperint aliquibus tentationibus ea ipsa illis subtrahi vel negari, quae isto velamine vel consecuti sunt, vel consequi cupiunt, tunc necesse est appareat utrum lupus in ovina pelle sit, an ovis in sua. Non enim propterea ornatu superfluo debet aspectus hominum mulcere christianus, quia illum parcum habitum ac necessarium etiam simulatores saepius usurpant, ut incautos decipiant: quia et illae oves non debent pelles suas deponere, si aliquando eis lupi se contegunt.

42. Quaeri ergo solet quid sit quod ait, Vos autem 1288cum jejunatis, ungite capita vestra, et facies vestras lavate, ne videamini hominibus jejunantes. Non enim quispiam recte praeceperit, quamvis faciem quotidiana consuetudine lavemus, unctis etiam capitibus cum jejunamus, nos esse debere. Quod si turpissimum omnes fatentur, intelligendum est hoc praeceptum ungendi caput, et faciem lavandi, ad interiorem hominem pertinere. Ungere ergo caput, ad laetitiam pertinet; lavare autem faciem, ad munditiam: et ideo caput ungit qui laetatur interius mente atque ratione. Hoc enim recte accipimus caput, quod in anima praeeminet, et quo caetera hominis regi et gubernari manifestum est. Et hoc facit qui non foris quaerit laetitiam, ut de laudibus hominum carnaliter gaudeat. Caro enim quae subjecta esse debet, nullo modo est totius naturae humanae caput. Nemo quidem unquam carnem suam odio habuit, sicut Apostolus dicit, cum de diligenda uxore praecipit (Ephes. V, 25-33): sed caput mulieris vir, cui viro caput est Christus (I Cor. XI, 3). Interius ergo gaudeat in jejunio suo, eo ipso quo sic se jejunando avertit a voluptate saeculi ut sit subditus Christo, qui secundum hoc praeceptum caput unctum habere desiderat. Ita enim et faciem lavabit, id est, cor mundabit, quo visurus est Deum, non interposito velamine propter infirmitatem contractam de sordibus; sed firmus et stabilis, quoniam mundus et simplex. Lavamini, inquit, mundi estote, auferte nequitias ab animis vestris, atque a conspectu oculorum meorum (Isai. I, 16). Ab his igitur sordibus facies nostra lavanda est, quibus Dei aspectus offenditur. Nos enim revelata facie gloriam Domini speculantes, in eamdem imaginem transformabimur (II Cor. III, 18).

43. Saepe etiam cogitatio necessariarum rerum ad istam vitam pertinentium, sauciat et sordidat interiorem oculum nostrum; et plerumque cor duplicat, ut ea quae videmur cum hominibus recte facere, non eo corde faciamus quo Dominus praecipit, id est, non quia eos diligimus, sed quia commodum ab eis aliquod propter necessitatem praesentis vitae adipisci volumus. Debemus autem benefacere illis propter salutem ipsorum aeternam, non propter temporale commodum nostrum. Inclinet ergo Deus cor nostrum in testimonia sua, et non in emolumentum (Psal. CXVIII, 36). Finis enim praecepti est charitas de corde puro, et conscientia bona, et fide non ficta (I Tim. I, 5). Qui autem propter suam in hac vita necessitatem fratri consulit, non utique charitate consulit; quia non illi, quem debet tanquam seipsum diligere, sed sibi consulit: vel potius nec sibi; quandoquidem hinc sibi facit duplex cor, quo impeditur ad videndum Deum; in qua sola visione beatitudo est certa atque perpetua.