annual exhortation; and when you also owe the Lord your good works as suited
SERMON 206
ON THE BEGINNING OF LENT
Date: uncertain1
Lent—these days of humbling ourselves
1. The season of Lent has come round again, the time when I owe you my annual exhortation; and when you also owe the Lord your good works as suited to the season; not of course that they can be any use to the Lord, but they are of use to you. Even at other times, to be sure, Christians ought to be fervent in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. However, this solemn season should not only stir up those who have been slack about these things at other times, but also encourage those who at other times are zealous in these matters to engage in them even more fervently. Life in this world is the time of our humility, and is signified by these days, when Christ the Lord, who suffered once by dying, is so to say going to suffer again for us as this solemnity comes round again every year. What happened once in the whole of time that our life might be renewed, is celebrated every year, in order to be kept fresh in our memories.
So if we ought to be humble of heart out of the sincerest devotion during the whole time of this wandering exile, in which we are living in the midst of trials and temptations; how much more should we be so during these days, when as well as spending this time of humility by living it, we are also signifying it by our liturgical celebration of it? The lowliness of Christ has taught us to be lowly, because by dying he yielded to the godless; Christ's highness makes us exalted, because by rising again he has led the way for the godly. For if we have died together with him, says the apostle, we shall also live together with him; if we endure, we shall also reign with him (2 Tm 2:11-12). We celebrate one of these things now, when his passion is, so to say, drawing near; the other after Easter with appropriate devotion, when his resurrection, so to say, has been accom¬ plished. Then, you see, after these days of humbling ourselves, even though we are not yet free to enjoy the time of our exaltation by actually seeing it, it will still be a pleasure to signify it by contemplating it in advance. And so now we should be sighing and groaning more urgently in prayer; then we will enjoy the exhilaration of more copious praise.