Selected Sermons, Volume 2

SERMON 7: On Quinquagesima

SERMON 7 On Quinquagesima1 hen god changed himself from Lord into Father,2 he wanted to rule by love rather than power, and he preferred to be loved rather than to be feared;3 he warned us with fatherly affection not to lose anything from a very noble endeavor. Thus the evangelist states: When you fast, do not become sad like the hypocrites; for they disfigure their faces in order to show people they are fasting. I tell you truly: they have received their reward (Mt 6.16). 35 1. It is likely that this sermon, which treats Mt 6.16–23, was delivered at the beginning of Lent. See Franco Sottocornola, L’anno liturgico nei sermoni di Pietro Crisologo (Cesena: Centro studi e ricerche sulla antica provincia ecclesiastica Ravennate, 1973), 66 and 431. There is some debate about whether the season of Quinquagesima, anticipating the Lenten fast, was actually the practice in Ravenna at this time. The titles are the creation of a later editor and not of Chrysologus himself. It is likely that Quinquagesima is a scribal interpolation, here and at Sermon 7a, in place of Quadragesima (“Lent”), used at Sermon 8.1 (see n. 1 there). Convincing in his argumentation is Franco Sottocornola in his L’anno liturgico, 202–4. Quinquagesima did not make its appearance formally in the West until the sixth century. Because Chrysologus elsewhere (e.g., Sermons 11.4 and 166.9 [FOTC 17.58 and 275]) insists on the fast of forty days for Lent and emphasizes the Biblical symbolism for the forty-day period and never draws out the symbolism for the fifty days in this or Sermon 7a, the only sermon that contains Quinquagesima in the body of the text, it is unlikely that these two sermons are evidence for an early appearance of Quinquagesima in Ravenna. Like Sermon 7a, then, this sermon also was delivered at the beginning of Lent. For another example of the term Quinquagesima, however, probably referring to fourth/fifth century Christians in Italy who wanted to begin the Lenten fast early , see Maximus of Turin, Sermon 50.1 (CCL 23.197). For more on this topic, see D. J. Froger, “Les anticipations du jeune Quadragésimal,” Mélanges de science religieuse 3 (1946): 207–34. 2. See Sermon 5.2, where Christ is referred to as the Father of Christians (FOTC 17.44–45, although this English translation does not clearly bring out this point). For another likely example from an earlier writer, see Melito of Sardis, On Pascha 9 in OECT, trans. S. G. Hall (Oxford: Clarendon, 1979), 6–7. 3. While this is a favorite theme in Chrysologus’s sermons, it is found earlier, for example, in Ambrose, Letter 74.10 (FOTC 26.409). Hypocrisy is a subtle evil, a secret illness, a hidden poison; it is an adulteration of virtue and a worm that consumes sanctity. All things hostile mount their assault with their own strength, fight with their own arms, and attack openly. They are guarded against as easily as they are seen. Hypocrisy pretends to be free of danger, feigns prosperity, deceives carefully, and in its cruel craft it lops off the virtues with virtue as its sword; it kills fasting by fasting, by praying it makes praying empty, and it debases mercy by mercy. Hypocrisy, like a fever, boils up within while being cold without.4 What dropsy is for the body, hypocrisy is for the soul. That is, dropsy gets thirsty by drinking, and, even in its drunken state, hypocrisy is still thirsty.5 2. Do not become sad like the hypocrites; for they disfigure their faces in order to show people they are fasting. Hypocrisy, while it desires to captivate the eye, becomes itself captive to the eye. For they dis- figure their faces. And if faces are disfigured, what will be left to adorn the body? Thus it is with reason that the Lord said: If the light in you is darkness, how pervasive is that darkness? (v.23) Hypocrite , although your face is unwashed, your skin is dirty, your expression is sad, your appearance disfigured: you have thereby found praise from people, but from God you have lost the bene fit of your fast. Hypocrite, you have toiled by fasting, only to have the toil of your fast gain you nothing. Hypocrite, you have entered the waters of abstinence, you have ridden the waves of self-denial, you have swum the sea...