age, the crafty traps of the devil, the toils of this world, the allurements of the
SERMON 207
ON THE BEGINNING OF LENT
Date: uncertain1
Fasting without kindness and mercy is worth nothing to the one who's fasting
1. With the help of the mercy of the Lord our God, the temptations of this age, the crafty traps of the devil, the toils of this world, the allurements of the flesh, the swirl of turbulent times, and all bodily and spiritual adversity, are to be overcome by almsgiving and fasting and prayer. Christians ought to be fervently engaged in these things throughout their lives; much more so then at the approach of the great festival of Easter, which rouses our minds as it comes round again each year, renewing in them the salutary memory of what mercy our Lord, the only Son of God, has bestowed on us, of how he fasted and prayed for us.2
"Alms," of course, comes from a Greek word meaning "mercy." What greater mercy, though, could there be toward the miserable,3 than that which pulled the creator down from heaven, and clothed the founder of the earth in an earthly body; which made the one who abides equal in eternity to the Father, equal to us in mortality, imposing the form of a servant4 on the Lord of the world; so that bread itself would be hungry,5 fullness be thirsty,6 strength become weak,7 health would be wounded, life would die?8 And all this to feed our hunger, water our drought, comfort our infirmity, extinguish our iniquity, kindle our charity. What greater mercy, than for the creator to be created, the master to serve,9 the redeemer to be sold,10 the one who exalts to be humbled,11 the one who raises up12 to be slain? We, in the matter of giving alms, are instructed to give bread to the hungry;13 he, in order to give himself to us in our hunger, first surrendered himself for us to his enemies' anger. We are instructed to welcome the stranger; he, for our sakes, came to his own place, and his own people did not welcome him.14
Let our soul, in a word, bless him who shows himself gracious to all its iniquities, who heals all its infirmities, who redeems its life from corruption, who crowns it with compassion and mercy, who satisfies its desire with good things (Ps 103:2-5). And so let us perform our alms and deeds of kindness all