Homily XX.
Matt. VI. 16.
“And when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a
sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear
unto men to fast.”
it were well to sigh
aloud, and to wail bitterly: for not only do we imitate the hypocrites, but we have even surpassed them. For I know, yea I know many, not merely fasting and making a display of it, but neglecting to fast, and yet wearing the masks of them that fast, and cloaking themselves with an excuse worse than their sin.
For “I do this,” say they, “that I may
not offend the many.” What sayest thou? There is a law of God
which commands these things, and dost thou talk of offense? And
thinkest thou that in keeping it thou art offending, in transgressing
it, delivering men from offense? And what can be worse than this
folly?
Wilt thou not leave off becoming worse than the very
hypocrites, and making thine hypocrisy double? And when thou
considerest the great excess of this evil, wilt thou not be abashed at
the force of the expression now before us? In that He did not say, “they act a part,” merely, but willing also to touch them more deeply, He saith, “For they disfigure their faces;” that is, they corrupt, they mar them.
But if this be a disfiguring of the face, to appear pale
for vainglory, what should we say concerning the women who corrupt
their faces with colorings and paintings to the ruin of the unchaste
sort of young men? For while those harm themselves only, these women
harm both themselves and them who behold them. Wherefore we should fly
both from the one pest and from the other, keeping at distance enough
and to spare. For so He not only commanded to make no display, but even
to seek to be concealed. Which thing He had done before likewise.
And whereas in the matter of almsgiving, He did not put
it simply, but having said, “Take heed not to do it before
men,” He added, “to be seen of them;” yet concerning
fasting and prayer, He made no such limitation. Why could this have
been? Because for almsgiving to be altogether concealed is impossible, but for prayer and fasting, it is possible.
As therefore, when He said, “Let not thy left hand
know what thy right hand doeth,” it was not of hands that He was
speaking, but of the duty of being strictly concealed from all; and as
when He commanded us to enter into our closet, not there alone
absolutely, nor there primarily, did He command us to pray, but He
covertly intimated the same thing again; so likewise here, in
commanding us “to be anointed,” He did not enact that we
positively must anoint ourselves; for then we should all of us be found
transgressors of this law; and above all, surely, they who have taken
the most pains
to keep it, the
societies of the monks, who have taken up their dwelling on the
mountains. It was not this then that He enjoined, but, forasmuch as the
ancients had a custom to anoint themselves continually, when they were
taking their pleasure and rejoicing (and this one may see clearly from
Davidand from Daniel); He said that we were to anoint ourselves, not that we should positively do this, but that by all means we might endeavor, with great strictness, to hide this our acquisition. And to convince thee that so it is, He Himself, when by action exhibiting what He enjoined in words, having fasted forty days, and fasted in secret, did neither anoint nor wash Himself: nevertheless, though He did not these things, He most assuredly fulfilled the whole without vainglory. It is this then that He enjoins on us likewise, both bringing before us the hypocrites, and by a twice repeated charge dissuading the hearers.