Verses 6–7. “Is not this the fast that I have chosen?” (so the Vulgate adds). “Loose the bonds of impiety, untie the bundles that oppress; let those who are broken go free, and break every burden. Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the poor and wandering into your house” (the Vulgate adds your). “When you see the naked, clothe him, and do not despise your own flesh.”
The Septuagint (LXX) reads: “Is not this the fast that I have chosen, says the Lord: but loose every bond of injustice, undo the obligations of violent contracts; release those who are broken into freedom, and tear up every unjust document. Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the poor without shelter into your house. If you see the naked, clothe him, and do not despise those of your own seed.”
After he has taught what kind of fasting he rejects, he shows what kind he gladly accepts. “Loose,” he says, “the bonds of impiety; untie the bundles that oppress,” or, as the Septuagint translates more clearly, “the obligations of violent contracts,” which some of our writers, misled by the ambiguity of a word—that is, συναλλαγμάτων (synallagmátōn, “transactions”)—have interpreted as exchanges instead of promissory notes. What is meant, however, are bundles of documents in which the accusations of moneylenders are contained, and by which the poor are oppressed through debt—something that in all cities is either the cause or the greatest fuel of sedition. Hence even the Roman people seized neighboring hills and demanded new tablets, which the Greeks call χρέων ἀποκοπάς (chreōn apokopás, “cancellations of debts”).
The prophet therefore does not command that no one should demand what is owed—especially what he has given justly and seeks back justly—otherwise he would be an advocate of popular revolt. Rather, where the obligation is unjust, where the poor are oppressed by fraud, there the bundles of contracts and every bond of injustice are to be broken.
Or this may be said: since the discourse is about fasting, and fasting involves affliction and humiliation of the soul, and bodily affliction seeks forgiveness of sins, divine Scripture teaches us to forgive our debtors so that our heavenly Father may forgive us our debts (Mark 11). Ancient history tells of the seventh year of release, or the fiftieth year—which is the true Jubilee—when all possessions returned to their owners, slaves recovered their former liberty, and all obligations commonly called contracts were rendered void (Leviticus 25 and 27). And if this is prescribed in the old Law (Exodus 21), how much more in the Gospel, where in Matthew 5 all good things are doubled, and we are commanded not eye for eye, tooth for tooth, but to offer the other cheek to the one who strikes us.
And so that we may understand what we said above—that “all your debtors” is written of creditors and joined to debtors—it is expressed more clearly: “Let those who are broken go free,” that is, those who are broken by poverty and afflicted by want; do not allow them, once freed, to beg. “And break every burden by which they are oppressed.” For this the Septuagint more clearly translated: “and tear up every unjust document,” which Symmachus rendered: “and break every false obligation.”
But it could happen that someone might say: I have no debtors; what should I do so that my fast may be accepted? What follows answers this: “Break your bread for the hungry.” Not many loaves—lest you plead poverty—but one loaf; and not even all of it, but a portion of the bread which, if you were not fasting, you yourself would eat, so that your fast may not be profit for your purse but nourishment for your soul. And he beautifully adds your, lest you make almsgiving from robbery: “The redemption of a man’s soul is his own wealth” (Proverbs 13:8). And elsewhere: “Honor the Lord from your just labors” (Proverbs 3:9).
But if you have no bread and there is a great multitude of hungry, give from what causes you no loss—where there is no expense: “bring the poor without shelter into your house.” Or, as it is in the Hebrew, into a house, so that if you do not have your own, you may bring them into a lodging which you possess either by rent or by favor.
“If you see the naked, clothe him.” This too the Lord spoke in the Gospel: “He who has two tunics, let him give to the one who has none” (Luke 3:11). He did not command one tunic to be torn and divided—as many do for the sake of popular applause—but rather that the other not be kept, increasing the precepts of justice, so that he even declared that a cup of cold water given would have its reward. “And do not despise your own flesh,” he says; for every human being is our flesh. And according to the Gospel parable of the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and was wounded by robbers, that one is called neighbor who showed mercy (Luke 10).
Or, according to the Septuagint which says, “Do not despise those of your own seed,” let us understand those of your own seed as those of whom the Apostle teaches that almsgiving is to be done to all, “but especially to those of the household of faith” (Galatians 6). For those are our flesh and our seed who are born with us from the same parent. To these the Savior also extended his hand, saying: “My mother and my brothers are those who do the will of my Father” (Mark 3:34–35).
And that we may know that the Lord of the Old and New Testament is one and the same, the Lord himself speaks in the Gospel of those who will stand on the right at the day of judgment: “Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was sick and in prison and you visited me; I was a stranger and you brought me into your house; I was naked and you clothed me” (Matthew 25:34ff.). And when they humbly say that they did nothing for the Lord and Savior, he answers: “As long as you did it to one of the least of my brothers, you did it to me.”
According to the tropological sense, we may say this: whoever fasts from all evils and wishes his fast to be regarded must not only turn away from evil but also do good, so that he may loose every bond of iniquity by which the simple among the faithful are bound through the frauds of heretics—εἰς στραγγαλιάς (eis strangaliás, “unto strangling bonds”), the obligations of violent dealings, which the prophet also shows in the Psalm, saying: “Those who turn aside to obligations, the Lord will lead away with the workers of iniquity” (Psalm 125[124]:5). For all who are bound by the chains of heretics turn aside from the Lord and, like an ox led to sacrifice, choose and exchange truth for falsehood.
Such people, therefore, who are broken in judgment, let the ecclesiastical man release, and let him dissolve and tear apart every writing of heretics, concerning whom the prophet here says: “Woe to those who write iniquity, writing wickedness; who rob the judgment of the poor of my people” (Isaiah 10:1–2), so that they may by no means keep simple people entangled in their snares. And when he has done this, let him break his bread for the hungry of the Church—just as the Lord, breaking the loaves, gave them to the apostles, which he left not whole as they were in the Law, but broken and fragmented in the Gospel, in seven baskets and twelve baskets, so that they might have something to distribute to the poor (Matthew 15).
Those whom you see lacking the warmth of faith, shivering in the cold of unbelief outside the Church and wandering as strangers—bring them into the house of the Church, and clothe them with the garment of incorruption, so that, clothed in the tunic of Christ, they may no longer remain in the tombs, as we read of the man possessed by a legion of demons who dwelt among the graves. And when you have done these things and your generosity has been made known to all, above all do not despise the household of faith.
Verses 8–9. “Then your light shall break forth like the morning, and your healing shall quickly arise” (the Vulgate adds more quickly); “your justice shall go before your face, and the glory of the Lord shall gather you. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say: Behold, I am here.”
The Septuagint reads: “Then your light shall break forth, and your healings shall quickly arise, and your justice shall go before you, and the glory of God shall surround you. Then you shall cry, and God will answer you; while you are still speaking, he will say: Behold, I am here.”
When you have not done the things which the previous discourse narrated, and you do those which we have now said, then your fast will be acceptable, and your morning light will break forth—namely, the Sun of justice, of whom the prophet Malachi speaks in the person of God the Father: “For you who fear my name, the Sun of justice shall arise, and healing in his wings” (Malachi 4:2). There he is called Sun, here Light. For just as morning light dispels darkness, so the light of knowledge and truth drives away all errors.
“And your healings,” he says, “shall quickly arise.” For this Aquila, rendering word for word, put: “And the scar of your wound shall quickly be covered,” so that the wounds of our sins, at the rising of the Sun of justice, may be quickly closed with a scar. Because the Septuagint translated τὰ ἰάματά σου (ta iámatá sou, “your healings”), Latin interpreters, misled by the similarity of the word, put ἱμάτια (himátia, “garments”). Hence many, deceived by the falsity of the translation, use this testimony to prove the resurrection of the body, wishing the garment of the soul to be understood as the body which is to arise on the day of resurrection.
“And your justice shall go before you,” according to what Jacob says: “My justice shall answer for me tomorrow” (Genesis 30:33 LXX). And it shall be fulfilled what is written: “Behold the man and his work.” And “the glory of the Lord shall surround you” like a most beautiful garment, so that you may be glorified before God and before men.
*“Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say: Behold, I am here”—*not by voice but by deed, not by words but by benefits. This is confirmed according to the letter in the Gospel, when the leper said to the Lord: “If you will, you can make me clean,” and the Lord answered, saying: “I will; be clean.”
Verse 10. “If you remove from your midst the chain, and cease to point the finger and speak what is useless; when you pour out your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then” (the Vulgate omits then) “your light shall rise in darkness, and your darkness shall be like midday.”
The Septuagint reads: “If you remove from yourself the bond and the pointing of the finger and the word of murmuring, and give your bread to the hungry from your soul, and satisfy the humbled soul, then your light shall rise in darkness, and your darkness shall be like midday.”
The Hebrew word מוֹטָה (mōṭāh), which in Jeremiah is interpreted as iron yoke (Jeremiah 28), is read twice in the present chapter. In the place above, where according to the Septuagint we said “loose the obligations of violent contracts,” know that for the one word mōṭāh they put violent contracts, for which Aquila rendered error, Symmachus declination, and Theodotion κλοιόν (kloión, “collar”). Again, in the present place, where we translate “if you remove from your midst the chain,” the Septuagint translated σύνδεσμον (sýndesmon, “bond” or “binding”). Aquila again interpreted error; Symmachus, agreeing with Theodotion, rendered falling collar. This is said concerning the variety of interpretation.
Otherwise, the sense is connected with what precedes: your morning light shall arise for you, your healings shall quickly arise, your justice shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall crown you; and when you pray, he will immediately hear you and show himself present—provided that, in addition to the former works, you also add these, namely, that you remove from yourself the obligation and chain by which your soul is bound. Of this Peter also spoke to Simon: “For I see you are in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity” (Acts 8:23). And Paul grieved when he saw the city of Athens bound by idolatry. For “each one is bound by the cords of his own sins” (Proverbs 5). Concerning these bonds of the soul, David also prayed in the Psalm: “Cleanse me from my hidden faults, O Lord, and spare your servant from those of others” (Psalm 19[18]:13).
It is difficult to find anyone who is not bound by these chains; rare is the soul that does not have this most grievous collar placed around its neck, dragging it down to earthly works so that it looks not to heaven but to earth. This is also related in the Gospel about the woman whom Satan had bound for eighteen years, so that she was bent over and could not look upward (Luke 13).
If, therefore, he says, you remove from the midst of your heart this chain and scatter such bonds, and σχειροτονίαν (cheirotonían), which the other three interpreters with one voice rendered as pointing of the finger, so that you not only do not think or do evil yourself, but do not even slander your neighbor, nor point out individuals as if with the finger, nor speak what is useless to your soul—considering not your own evils but the errors of others—then you will receive what the following discourse adds.
Many of our people understand χειροτονίαν (cheirotonían) as ordination of clergy, which is accomplished not only by invocation of the voice but by the imposition of the hand; lest, as we have laughed at in some cases, a secret invocation of the voice ordain clerics without their knowledge. Thus they take this as a testimony from Paul to Timothy: “Lay hands hastily on no one, nor share in the sins of others” (1 Timothy 5:22). For it is a light sin to cast pearls before swine and give what is holy to dogs (Matthew 7): to grant the order of clerical office not to holy men and those most learned in the law of God, but to one’s own followers, ministers of base offices, and—what is more shameful—at the prayers of women. In this, the wisdom of Christ speaking in the Apostle is to be considered: to show the danger of ordination he joins the torments of sinners: “Nor share in the sins of others.” For just as in the ordination of the wicked, the one who appoints them shares in their sins, so in the ordination of the holy, the one who chooses the good shares in their righteousness.
It follows: “and the word of murmuring”—to be understood in common with if you remove from yourself. The word of murmuring is when God speaks against us: “Let the murmuring of this people cease from me, and they shall not die.” And we attribute our sins to God, making excuses for sins, and say: The heat of the body overcame me; the impulses of youth conquered me; I was created by God in this way; poverty compelled me to steal.
Therefore, if we do not do those things that were forbidden, and we do those that were commanded—so that we give to the hungry not merely our bread, as above, but our soul, helping them in whatever ways we can, and giving not as if out of sadness or necessity but from the heart, receiving rather than giving a benefit, “for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7)—so that we not merely refresh the hungry or afflicted soul in part, but satisfy it, and grieve with those who grieve and weep with those who weep (Romans 12)—then our light will rise in darkness: he who says, “I am the light; I have come into the world so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness but may have the light of life” (John 12:46).
For “the lamp of our body is the eye; if it is simple, the whole body will be full of light. But if what should be light turns into darkness, then the whole body will be dark, and it will be said to us: If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness” (Matthew 6). Let us consider by how many virtues we may reach the light of God, so that darkness may be turned into midday, and let us say with the Bride: “Where do you pasture, where do you rest at midday?” (Song of Songs 1:6).
CONTINUE
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