Chapter XII.
40. There follows a precept concerning fasting, having reference to
that same purification of heart which is at present under discussion. For
in this work also we must be on our guard, lest there should creep in a
certain ostentation and hankering after the praise of man, which would
make the heart double, and not allow it to be pure and single for apprehending
God. "Moreover, when ye fast," says He, "be not, as the hypocrites, of
a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear
unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But ye,
when ye fast, anoint your head, and wash your face; that ye appear not
unto men to fast, but unto your Father which is in secret: and your Father,
which seeth in secret, shall reward you." It is manifest from these precepts
that all our effort is to be directed towards inward joys, lest, seeking
a reward from without, we should be conformed to this world, and should
lose the promise of a blessedness so much the more solid and firm, as it
is inward, in which God has chosen that we should become conformed to the
image of His Son.
41. But in this section it is chiefly to be noticed, that there may
be ostentatious display not merely in the splendour and pomp of things
pertaining to the booty, but also in doleful squalor itself; and the more
dangerous on this account, that it deceives under the name of serving God.
And therefore he who is very conspicuous by immoderate attention to the
body, and by the splendour of his clothing or other things, is easily convicted
by the things themselves of being a follower of the pomps of the world,
and misleads no one by a cunning semblance of sanctity; I but in regard to
him who under a profession of Christianity, fixes the eyes of men upon
himself by unusual squalor and filth, when he does it voluntarily, and
not under the pressure of necessity, it may be conjectured from the rest
of his actings whether he does this from contempt of superfluous attention
to the body, or from a certain ambition: for the Lord has enjoined us to
beware of wolves under a sheep's skin; but "by their fruits," says He,
"shall ye know them." For when by temptations of any kind those very things
begin to be withdrawn from them or refused to them, which under that veil
they either have obtained or desire to obtain, then of necessity it appears
whether it is a wolf in a sheep's skin or a sheep in its own. For a Christian
ought not to delight the eyes of men by superfluous ornament on this account,
because pretenders also too often assume that frugal and merely necessary
dress, that they may deceive those who are not on their guard: for those
sheep also ought not to lay aside their own skins, if at any time wolves
cover themselves there with.
42. It is usual, therefore, to ask what He means, when He says: "But
ye, when ye fast, anoint your head, and wash your faces, that ye appear
not unto men to fast." For it would not be right in any one to teach (although
we may wash our face according to daily custom) that we ought also to have
our heads anointed when we fast. If, then, all admit this to be most unseemly,
we must understand this precept with respect to anointing the head and
washing the face as referring to the inner man. Hence, to anoint the head
refers to joy; to wash the face, on the other hand, refers to purity: and
therefore that man anoints his head who rejoices inwardly in his mind and
reason. For we rightly understand that as being the head which has the
pre-eminence in the soul, and by which it is evident that the other parts
of man are ruled and governed. And this is done by him who does not seek
his joy from without, so as to draw his delight in a fleshly way from the
praises of men. For the flesh, which ought to be subject, is in no way
the head of the whole nature of man. "No man," indeed, "ever yet hated
his own flesh," as the apostle says, when giving the precept as to loving
one's wife; but the man is the head of the woman, and Christ is the head
of the man. Let him, therefore, rejoice inwardly in his fasting in this
very circumstance, that by his fasting he so turns away from the pleasure
of the world as to be subject to Christ, who according to this precept
desires to have the head anointed. For thus also he will wash his face,
i.e. cleanse his heart, with which he shall see God, no veil being interposed
on account of the infirmity contracted from squalor; but being firm and
stedfast, inasmuch as he is pure and guileless. "Wash you," says He, "make
you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes." From
the squalor, therefore, by which the eye of God is offended, our face is
to be washed. For we, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory
of the Lord, are changed into the same image.
43. Often also the thought of things necessary belonging to this life
wounds and defiles our inner eye; and frequently it makes the heart double,
so that in regard to those things in which we seem to act rightly with
our fellowmen, we do not act with that heart wherewith the Lord enjoins
us; i.e., it is not because we love them, but because we wish to obtain
some advantage from them for the necessity of the present life. But we
ought to do them good for their eternal salvation, not for our own temporal
advantage. May God, therefore, incline our heart to His testimonies, and
not to covetousness. For "the end of the commandment is charity out of
a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned." But he
who looks after his brother from a regard to his own necessities in this
life, does not certainly do so from love, because he does not look after
him whom he ought to love as himself, but after himself; or rather not
even after himself, seeing that in this way he makes his own heart double,
by which he is hindered from seeing God, in the vision of whom alone there
is certain and lasting blessedness.
Chapter XIII.
44. Rightly, therefore, does he who is intent on cleansing our heart
follow up what He has said with a precept, where He says: "Lay not up for
yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves
do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will
your heart be also." If, therefore, the heart be on earth, i.e. if one
perform anything with a heart bent on obtaining earthly advantage, how
will that heart be clean which wallows on earth? But if it be in heaven,
it will be clean, because whatever things are heavenly are clean. For anything
becomes polluted when it is mixed with a nature that is inferior, although
not polluted of its kind; for gold is polluted even by pure silver, if
it be mixed with it: so also our mind becomes polluted by the desire after
earthly things, although the earth itself be pure of its kind and order.
But we would not understand heaven in this passage as anything corporeal,
because everything corporeal is to be reckoned as earth. For he who lays
up treasure for himself in heaven ought to despise the whole world. Hence
it is in that heaven of which it is said, "The heaven of heavens is the
Lord's i.e. in the spiritual firmament: for it is not in thatwhich is to
pass away that we ought to fix and place our treasure and our heart, but
in that which ever abideth; but heaven and earth shall pass away.
45. And here He makes it manifest that He gives all these precepts with
a view to the cleansing of the heart, when He says: "The candle of the
body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall
be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full
of darkness. If, therefore, the light [lamp] that is in thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness!" And this passage we are to understand in such
a way as to learn from it that all our works are pure and well-pleasing
in the sight of God, when they are done with a single heart, i.e. with
a heavenly intent, having that end of love in view; for love is also the
fulfilling of the law. Hence we ought to take the eye here in the sense
of the intent itself, wherewith we do whatever we are doing; and if this
be pure and right, and looking at that which ought to be looked at, all
our works which we perform in accordance therewith are necessarily good.
And all those works He has called the whole body; for the apostle also
speaks of certain works of which he disapproves as our members, and teaches
that they are to be mortified, saying, "Mortify therefore your members
which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, covetousness," and
all other such things.
46. It is not, therefore, what one does, but the intent with which he
does it, that is to be considered. For this is the light in us, because
it is a thing manifest to ourselves that we do with a good intent what
we are doing; for everything which is made manifest is light. For the deeds
themselves which go forth from us to human society, have an uncertain issue;
and therefore He has called them darkness. For I do not know, when I present
money to a poor man who asks it, either what he is to do with it, or what
he is to suffer from it; and it may happen that he does some evil with
it, or suffers some evil on account of it, a thing I did not wish to happen
when I gave it to him, nor would I have given it with such an intention.
If, therefore, I did it with a good intention,-a thing which was known
to me when I was doing it, and is therefore called light,-my deed also
is lighted up, whatever issue it shall have; but that issue, inasmuch as
it is uncertain and unknown, is called darkness. But if I have done it
with a bad intent, the light itself even is darkness. For it is spoken
of as light, because every one knows with what intent he acts, even when
he acts with a bad intent; but the light itself is darkness, because the
aim is not directed singly to things above, but is turned downwards to
things beneath, and makes, as it were, a shadow by means of a double heart.
"If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that
darkness!" i.e., if the very intent of the heart with which you do what
you are doing (which is known to you) is polluted by the hunger after earthly
and temporal things, and blinded, how much more is the deed itself, whose
issue is uncertain, polluted and full of darkness! Because, although what
you do with an intent which is neither upright nor pure, may turn out for
some one's good, it is the way in which you have done it, not how it has
turned out for him, that is reckoned to you.
