Hypocrisy And Fasting

Ubi Deus Dominum mutavit in patrem voluit charitate magis quam potestate regnare et amari maluit quam timeri: unde paterno monuit affectu, ne quid nobus de labore justissimo deperiret. Evangelista sic ait: Cum autem jejunatis, nolite fieri sicut hypocritæ, tristes; exterminant enim facies suas, ut videantur hominibus jejunantes. Amen dico vobis, quia perceperunt mercedem suam. Hypocrisis subtile malum, secretum virus, venenum latens, virtutum fucus, tinea sanctitatis. Adversa omnia nituntur viribus suis, armis suis pugnant, impugnant palam: unde et caventur tam facile quam videntur. Hypocrisis secura simulat, fallit prospera, curiosa mentitur, et crudeli arte virtutes truncat mucrone virtutum: jejunium jejunio perimit, oratione orationum evacuat, misericordiam miseratione prosternit. Hypocrisis cognata febri frigido poculo propinat ardorem. Quod corporibus est hydrops, hypocrisis animabus, hoc est: hydrops bibendo sitit, hypocrisis inebriata sitit. Exterminant enim facies suas, ut videantur hominibus jejunantes. Hypocrisis dum cupit captivare oculos, oculis fit ipsa captiva. Exterminant enim facies suas. Et si facies exterminant, ornamentum corporis quod manebit? Vere sicut Dominus dixit: Si lumen quod in te est, tenebrae sunt, ipsae tenebrae quantae erunt? Hypocrita, sit licet tibi facies inculta, neglecta cutis, tristis vultus, exterminatus aspectus, nec ab hominibus invenisti laudem et apud Deum fructum jejunii perdidisti. Hypocrita, elaborasti jejuniis ut labor tibi jejunii non prodesset. Hypocrita, abstinentiae fluctus intrasti, continentiae conscendisti undas, enatasti jejunii pelagus, et in ipso portu jejunii naufragasti: quia non comparasti lucrum, sed mercatus es vanitatem, qui de Dei credito humanum negotium perfecisti. Hinc est quod Deo redditurus es rationem, qui ab hominibus percepisti miserae laudis usuram. Fratres fugiendum est virus, pestilentia cavenada, quae de remediis creat morbos, conficit de medicina languorem, sanctitatem vertit in crimen, placationem facit reatum, generat de propitiatione discrimen. Fugiamnus hypocrisim, fugiamus, fratres: sit nostrum de simplicitate jejunium, de innocentiae sit sanctum, de puritate purum, de sinceritate sincerum, sit hominibus occultum, ignotum diabolo, Deo notum. Thesaurum qui non abscondit, prodit; virtutes proditae non manebunt. Virtutes sicut proditores suos deserunt: sic suos instant custodire custodes. Sanctus Petrus Chrysologus, Sermo VII, De Hypocrisi Et Eleemosyna Source: Migne PL 52.205a-206b

When God changed from Lord to Father, He wished to reign more by love than power, and preferred to be loved than feared, whence He gave us warning with paternal affection, lest something be lost to us in a most righteous labour. Thus the Evangelist says: 'When you fast do not be like the wretched hypocrites, who mar their faces that they seem to men to be fasting. Truly, I say to you that they have received their reward.' 1 Hypocrisy is a subtle evil, a secret poison, a hidden venom, a mask of the virtues, a worm of sanctity. All things adverse strive with their strength and fight with their own arms, they assail openly and are easily guarded against when seen. Hypocrisy simulates safety, feigns prosperity, lies with diligence, and with cruel art it cuts away the virtues with the sword of the virtues. It destroys fasting with fasting, empties prayer with prayer, casts down mercy with mercy. Hypocrisy is known to approach with a hot drink in a cold cup. What dropsy is to the body, hypocrisy is to the soul, that is, dropsy thirsts in drinking, hypocrisy in having drunk to drunkenness. 'They mar their faces, that they seem to men to be fasting.' Hypocrisy when it desires to captivate the eye, is made captive by the eye. 'They mar their faces.' And if they mar their faces what ornament of the body will remain? Truly as the Lord said, 'If the light in you is darkness, how great the darkness will be?' 2 Hypocrites, let your faces be dirty, your flesh neglected, your appearance wretched, your demeanor marred, you shall not have praise from men unless you have destroyed the fruit of fasting with God. Hypocrite, you exert yourself in fasting so that you gain nothing from fasting. Hypocrite, you enter into the waters of abstinence, you set off over the waves of continence, you pass through the sea of fasting, and you are shipwrecked in the port of fasting, because you do not acquire profit but have bought vanity, which from the credit of God you brought to an end in human affairs. So you shall return your account to God, you who have practiced usury on men with your vile fraud. Brothers, one must flee this poison, one must be wary of this plague which creates disease from medicine, concocts sickness from balms, turns holiness into crime, makes what is pleasing vile, and brings forth division from reconciliation. Let us flee hypocrisy, let us flee it, brothers; let our fast be from simplicity, from innocence let it be holy, from purity pure, from honesty honest, from men hidden, from the devil concealed, known to God. A treasury which is not hidden is betrayed, virtues betrayed perish. As virtues desert their betrayers, so they guard those who guard them. Saint Peter Chrysologus, from Sermon 7 On Hypocrisy And Alms 1 Mt 6.16 2 Mt 6.5