Lenten Meditation -- Third Tuesday of Great Lent

 

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“Do not fast to quarrel and fight, but loose every bond of iniquity” [Is. 58:4, 6]. And the Lord [adds]: “Do not be gloomy, but wash your face and anoint your head” [Mt. 6:16–17]. So let us acquire the disposition that we have been taught, not looking gloomy on the days [of fasting] we are currently observing, but cheerfully disposed toward them, as is fitting for the saints. No one crowned is despondent; no one glum holds up a trophy. Do not be gloomy while you are being healed. It is absurd not to rejoice in the soul’s health, and rather to sorrow over the change in food and to appear to favor the pleasure of the stomach over the care of the soul. After all, while self-indulgence gratifies the stomach, fasting brings gain to the soul. Be cheerful since the Physician has given you sin-destroying medicine.

—St. Basil the Great, First Homily on Fasting (Translated by Susan R. Holman and Mark DelCogliano in On Fasting and Feasts)