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Objection 1: It would seem that the times for the Church fast are
unfittingly appointed. For we read (Mt. 4) that Christ began to
fast immediately after being baptized. Now we ought to imitate
Christ, according to 1 Cor. 4:16, "Be ye followers of me,
as I also am of Christ." Therefore we ought to fast immediately
after the Epiphany when Christ's baptism is celebrated.
Objection 2: Further, it is unlawful in the New Law to observe
the ceremonies of the Old Law. Now it belongs to the solemnities of
the Old Law to fast in certain particular months: for it is written
(Zach. 8:19): "The fast of the fourth month and the fast of
the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth
shall be to the house of Judah, joy and gladness and great
solemnities." Therefore the fast of certain months, which are called
Ember days, are unfittingly kept in the Church.
Objection 3: Further, according to Augustine (De Consensu
Evang. ii, 27), just as there is a fast "of sorrow," so is
there a fast "of joy." Now it is most becoming that the faithful
should rejoice spiritually in Christ's Resurrection. Therefore
during the five weeks which the Church solemnizes on account of
Christ's Resurrection, and on Sundays which commemorate the
Resurrection, fasts ought to be appointed.
On the contrary, stands the general custom of the Church.
I answer that, As stated above (Articles 1,3), fasting is
directed to two things, the deletion of sin, and the raising of the
mind to heavenly things. Wherefore fasting ought to be appointed
specially for those times, when it behooves man to be cleansed from
sin, and the minds of the faithful to be raised to God by devotion:
and these things are particularly requisite before the feast of
Easter, when sins are loosed by baptism, which is solemnly conferred
on Easter-eve, on which day our Lord's burial is commemorated,
because "we are buried together with Christ by baptism unto death"
(Rm. 6:4). Moreover at the Easter festival the mind of man
ought to be devoutly raised to the glory of eternity, which Christ
restored by rising from the dead, and so the Church ordered a fast to
be observed immediately before the Paschal feast; and for the same
reason, on the eve of the chief festivals, because it is then that one
ought to make ready to keep the coming feast devoutly. Again it is the
custom in the Church for Holy orders to be conferred every quarter of
the year (in sign whereof our Lord fed four thousand men with seven
loaves, which signify the New Testament year as Jerome says
[Comment. in Marc. viii]): and then both the ordainer, and the
candidates for ordination, and even the whole people, for whose good
they are ordained, need to fast in order to make themselves ready for
the ordination. Hence it is related (Lk. 6:12) that before
choosing His disciples our Lord "went out into a mountain to pray":
and Ambrose [Exposit. in Luc.] commenting on these words says:
"What shouldst thou do, when thou desirest to undertake some pious
work, since Christ prayed before sending His apostles?"
With regard to the forty day's fast, according to Gregory (Hom.
xvi in Evang.) there are three reasons for the number. First,
"because the power of the Decalogue is accomplished in the four books
of the Holy Gospels: since forty is the product of ten multiplied by
four." Or "because we are composed of four elements in this mortal
body through whose lusts we transgress the Lord's commandments which
are delivered to us in the Decalogue. Wherefore it is fitting we
should punish that same body forty times. or, because, just as under
the Law it was commanded that tithes should be paid of things, so we
strive to pay God a tithe of days, for since a year is composed of
three hundred and sixty-six days, by punishing ourselves for
thirty-six days" (namely, the fasting days during the six weeks of
Lent) "we pay God a tithe of our year." According to Augustine
(De Doctr. Christ. ii, 16) a fourth reason may be added. For
the Creator is the "Trinity," Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:
while the number "three" refers to the invisible creature, since we
are commanded to love God, with our whole heart, with our whole
soul, and with our whole mind: and the number "four" refers to the
visible creature, by reason of heat, cold, wet and dry. Thus the
number "ten" signifies all things, and if this be multiplied by four
which refers to the body whereby we make use of things, we have the
number forty.
Each fast of the Ember days is composed of three days, on account of
the number of months in each season: or on account of the number of
Holy orders which are conferred at these times.
Reply to Objection 1: Christ needed not baptism for His own sake,
but in order to commend baptism to us. Wherefore it was competent for
Him to fast, not before, but after His baptism, in order to invite
us to fast before our baptism.
Reply to Objection 2: The Church keeps the Ember fasts, neither
at the very same time as the Jews, nor for the same reasons. For
they fasted in July, which is the fourth month from April (which
they count as the first), because it was then that Moses coming down
from Mount Sinai broke the tables of the Law (Ex. 32), and
that, according to Jer. 39:2, "the walls of the city were first
broken through." In the fifth month, which we call August, they
fasted because they were commanded not to go up on to the mountain,
when the people had rebelled on account of the spies (Num. 14):
also in this month the temple of Jerusalem was burnt down by
Nabuchodonosor (Jer. 52) and afterwards by Titus. In the
seventh month which we call October, Godolias was slain, and the
remnants of the people were dispersed (Jer. 51). In the tenth
month, which we call January, the people who were with Ezechiel in
captivity heard of the destruction of the temple (Ezech. 4).
Reply to Objection 3: The "fasting of joy" proceeds from the
instigation of the Holy Ghost Who is the Spirit of liberty,
wherefore this fasting should not be a matter of precept. Accordingly
the fasts appointed by the commandment of the Church are rather "fasts
of sorrow" which are inconsistent with days of joy. For this reason
fasting is not ordered by the Church during the whole of the Paschal
season, nor on Sundays: and if anyone were to fast at these times in
contradiction to the custom of Christian people, which as Augustine
declares (Ep. xxxvi) "is to be considered as law," or even
through some erroneous opinion (thus the Manichees fast, because they
deem such fasting to be of obligation)---he would not be free from
sin. Nevertheless fasting considered in itself is commendable at all
times; thus Jerome wrote (Ad Lucin., Ep. lxxi): "Would that
we might fast always."
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