44. Jo. ev. tr. 36.1 (BA 73A:174–76); trans. Rettig, FOTC 88:81–82. (continued)
know. For Moses fasted for forty days (Ex 34:28); and Elijah, too, the same number (1 Kgs 19:8). And our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Himself brought this number to fulfillment in His fasting (Mt 4:2). Through Moses, the Law is symbolized; through Elijah, the Prophets are symbolized; through the Lord, the Gospel is symbolized. And so the three appeared on that mountain, there where He showed Himself to His disciples in the brightness of His face and garments (Mt 17:1–3). For He appeared between Moses and Elijah, in other words, so that the Gospel give witness to the Law and the Prophets. Therefore, whether in the Law or in the Prophets or in the Gospel, in terms of fasting, the number forty is recommended to us.
But there is a great and broader sort of fast: to abstain from iniquities and the illicit pleasures of the world. This is the perfect fast: "that denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we may live soberly and justly and godly in this world" (Ti 2:12). What reward, according to the Apostle, comes with this fast? He goes on to say: "looking for that blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of the blessed God and our Savior, Jesus Christ" (Ti 2:13). Therefore, in this world we celebrate, so to speak, a Lent of abstinence when we live well, when we abstain from iniquities and illicit pleasures. In order that this abstinence not come without reward, we look for "that blessed hope and revelation of the glory of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ" (Ti 2:13).45 In that hope, when hope shall pass over into reality, we shall receive a denarius as our pay, for this salary was paid to the workers laboring in the vineyard, according to the Gospel (Mt 20:2, 9–10), which I believe you remember (for not everything has to be rehashed as if for the unlearned and the inexperienced). A denarius, which gets its name from the number "ten," was paid. When joined to forty, it becomes fifty. We, therefore, celebrate with hard labor the fortyday period before Easter; we celebrate with joy, as if having received our pay, the fifty-day period after Easter.46 For, as it were, to this health-giving labor of good deeds, which belongs to the number forty, there is added a denarius of rest and happiness that it may become fifty.
(5) The Lord Jesus Himself also signified this much more clearly when He spent forty days after His resurrection on earth with His disciples. What's more, when He had ascended into heaven on the fortieth day and ten days had passed, He sent the Holy Spirit as pay (Acts 2:1–4). These things were sym-
45. Note that Augustine gives Ti 2:13 in two different wordings here: "that blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of the blessed God" (illam beatam spem, et manifestationem gloriae beati Dei) and "that blessed hope and revelation of the glory of the great God" (beatam illam spem, et revelationem gloriae magni Dei). The reason is not clear. It may be that he is paraphrasing; it may also be that he is drawing on two different versions of the Vetus Latina, simply setting them side-by-side.
46. We know that Jo. ev. tr. 11 and 12 on John were delivered during Lent, and Jo. ev. tr. 13 was given during the Easter season. This sermon too seems to have been delivered between Easter and Pentecost.