The terror of the strict inquest, which Zephaniah calls the trumpet,^[1] blessed Job designates thundering.^[2] Joel, also viewing it, says, Let all the inhabitants of the land be troubled, for the Day of the Lord comes; for it is nigh at hand, a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of cloud and whirlwind. For the Day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who shall sustain it? But how incomprehensible and unimaginable that greatness with which he shall come in his second coming! In some degree we estimate correctly if we consider with heedful reflection the momentous circumstances of his first advent. Surely the Lord came to die, and the impoverishment and punishments of our flesh he underwent in his own body that he might redeem us from death. Before he came to the stock of the cross he suffered to be bound, to be spit on, to be mocked and to be beaten with blows on his cheek. Observe to what disgraceful treatment he consented to come for our sakes, and yet, before he permitted himself to be laid hold of, he questioned his persecutors, saying, Whom do you seek? To that they answered, Jesus of Nazareth. And when he said to them directly, I am he, he only uttered a voice of the mildest answer, and at once prostrated his armed persecutors to the earth.^[3] What then shall he do when he comes to judge the world, if by one utterance of his voice he struck down his enemies even when he came to be judged? What is that judgment which he exercises as immortal, that a single utterance of it could not be endured when he was about to die? Who may sustain his wrath when his very mildness even could not be sustained? So then, let the holy man consider it and say, And while we scarcely hear a little drop of his words, who shall be able to look on the thundering of his majesty?^[4]

Terrible is an unfruitful season, and the loss of the crops. It could not be otherwise, when people are already rejoicing in their hopes and counting on their all but harvested stores. Terrible again is an unseasonable harvest, when the farmers labor with heavy hearts, sitting as it were beside the grave of their crops, which the gentle rain nourished but the wild storm has rooted up, with which the reaper does not fill his hand or the binder of sheaves his bosom.^[1] Nor have they obtained the blessing which passers-by bestow upon the farmers. Wretched indeed is the sight of the ground devastated, cleared and shorn of its ornaments, over which the blessed Joel wails in his most tragic picture of the desolation of the land and the scourge of the famine.^[2] Another prophet wails as he contrasts with its former beauty its final disorder and thus discourses on the anger of the Lord when he smites the land: before him is the Garden of Eden, behind him a desolate wilderness.

And so he will deserve to fulfill, likewise, those other words that have a bearing in this connection: buried together with him by baptism unto death. For what purpose? That as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life.^[1] He who is dead must be buried, and he who is buried in the likeness of death must rise again by the grace of God in Christ. No longer, because of sin, should he bear about in the inner man a countenance like a blackened kettle,^[2] but, after his sins have been made manifest by fire and pardon has been granted through the blood of Christ, he should shine forth in newness of life, by the justifications of Christ, more precious than any jewel.

The holy apostle of the Lord, reprehending the Greeks, will show you, Because that, when they know God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but [they] became vain in their imaginations, and changed the glory of God into the likeness of corruptible man, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator.^[1] And verily this is the God who in the beginning made the heaven and the earth.^[2] But you do not know God and worship the heaven, and how shall you escape the guilt of impiety? Hear again the prophet speaking: The sun shall suffer eclipse, and the heaven be darkened. But the Almighty shall shine forever: while the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and the heavens stretched out and drawn together shall be rolled as a parchment skin [for these are the prophetic expressions], and the earth shall flee away from before the face of the Lord.^[3]

But since these are light perceived by the senses, which are said in Moses to have come into existence on the fourth day, they are not the true light because they enlighten the things on the earth. The Savior, on the other hand, is the light of the spiritual world because he shines on those who are rational and intellectual, that their mind may see its proper visions. Now I mean he is the light of those rational souls which are in the sensible world, of which the Savior teaches us that he is the Maker, being, perhaps, its directing and principal artificer, and, so to speak, the sun of the great Day of the Lord.^[1]

Therefore he called the beginning of time not a first day but one day, in order that from the name it might have kinship with eternity. For the day that shows a character of uniqueness and nonparticipation with the rest is properly and naturally called one. If, however, the Scripture presents to us many ages, saying in various places age of age and age of ages,^[1] still in those places neither the first nor the second nor the third age is enumerated for us. By this, differences of conditions and of various circumstances are shown to us but not limits and boundaries and successions of ages. The Day of the Lord is great and very terrible, it is said.

When a maidservant is rebelling but then sees her master coming, she grows humble and returns to her good behavior. So too the paralytic’s body had revolted like the maidservant, and this caused the paralysis. But when the body saw its master coming near, it returned to its good behavior and resumed its proper discipline. And the word of Christ accomplished all this. Yet the words were not mere words but the words of God, of which the prophet said, The works of his words are mighty. For if God’s words made humankind when they did not exist, much more will they make humanity whole again and restore it to health even though it has grown feeble and weak with disease?

In notable fashion has Scripture spoken of a day, not the first day. Because a second, then a third day, and finally the remaining days were to follow, a first day could have been mentioned, following in this way the natural order. But Scripture established a law that twenty-four hours, including day and night, should be given the name of day only, as if one were to say the length of one day is twenty-four hours in extent. In such fashion, also, is the generation of men reckoned, which is understood to include that of women also. Because what is secondary is bound up with what is primary, the nights in this reckoning are considered to be component parts of the days that are counted. Therefore, just as there is a single revolution of time, so there is but one day. There are many who call even a week one day, because it returns to itself, just as one day does, and one might say seven times revolves back on itself. This is the form of a circle, to begin with itself and to return to itself. Hence Scripture speaks at times of an age of the world. Although in other passages there is a mention of an age, there Scripture seems to mean the diversities in public and private affairs: For the Day of the Lord is great and glorious. And elsewhere: What avail is it to you to seek the Day of the Lord?^[1] And here is meant darkness and not light, for it is clear that that day when innocence will gleam forth and guilt be tormented is dark to those who are conscious of evil deeds and unworthy acts. Moreover, Scripture teaches us that the everlasting day of eternal reward is to be one in which there is no interchange or intermission of day and night.

I, the angel of repentance, am telling you, Do not fear the devil. For I have been sent, he said, to be on the side of you who repent with your whole heart and to steady you in the faith. Put your faith in God, you who despair of your life because of your sins, you who add to your sins and make your life burdensome. Trust that if you turn to the Lord with your whole heart and do righteousness^[1] for the rest of your life, serving him uprightly in accordance with his will, he will provide a remedy for your previous failings, and you will obtain the power of mastering the devil’s snares. Do not be in the least afraid of the devil’s threats, for they are as powerless as a dead man’s sinews. Listen to me: Fear him who has power to save and to destroy. Keep all the mandates, and you will live to God. I said to him, Sir, I have now gained strength in all the justifications of the Lord, because you are on my side. I know that you will break down all the devil’s power and we shall have the mastery over him and overcome all his snares. Sir, I now hope, with the Lord’s help, to be able to keep these mandates you have given. You will keep them, he said, if your heart is made pure to the Lord. All those, also, who cleanse their hearts of the vain desires of this world will keep them and will live to God.

Our Lord and Savior exhorts us through the prophet and advises us how we ought to come to him after much negligence, saying, Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord who made us;^[1] and again, Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. If we notice carefully, dearest brethren, the holy days of Lent signify the life of the present world, just as Easter prefigures eternal bliss. Now just as we have a kind of sadness in Lent in order that we may rightly rejoice at Easter, so as long as we live in this world we ought to do penance in order that we may be able to receive pardon for our sins in the future and arrive at eternal joy. Each one ought to sigh over his or her own sins, shed tears and give alms in such a way that with God’s help he may always try to avoid the same faults as long as he lives. Just as there never has been, is not now and never will be a soul without slight sins, so with the help and assistance of God we ought to be altogether without serious sins.

Let each one confess his sin, I beseech you, brethren, while he who has sinned is still in this world, while his confession can be admitted, while the satisfaction and remission effected through the priest is pleasing with the Lord. Let us turn to the Lord with our whole mind, and, expressing repentance for our sin with true grief, let us implore God’s mercy. Let the soul prostrate itself before him; let sorrow give satisfaction to him; let our every hope rest upon him. He himself tells how we ought to ask. He says, Return to me with all your hearts, in fasting and in weeping, and in mourning, and rend your hearts, not your garments. Let us return to the Lord with a whole heart; let us placate his wrath and displeasure by fastings, weepings and mournings, as he himself admonishes.

Rend your hearts, not your garments, that is, have recourse to thoughts of compunction, soften the obduracy of your thinking, accept beneficial advice, abandon the way of vice and travel by that way which leads directly to God. After all, many are the founts of compassion and mercy that flow from him, and in his exercise of longsuffering he is not in the custom of putting his threats into effect. In fact, he indicated as much by saying repenting of the troubles, that is, by instilling dread by the threats of punishment, and by the changes in human beings for the better transforming the threats into something pleasant. The God of all, you see, does not intend one thing at one time and another thing at another, or like us repent of what he does. Rather, while making threats he has mercy within himself, and he offers it to those who are sorry for their sins, and while making promises of good things he knows those who are good and those who are unworthy of his gifts, extending them to the former and giving to the latter the opposite of what he promises.

How well does the holy prophet teach that the seeds of good works must be watered by a river of tears! No seeds germinate unless they are watered; nor does fruit come forth from the seed if deprived of the aid of water. Accordingly, we too, if we wish to keep the fruits of our seeds, let us not stop watering our seeds with tears that must be poured out more from the heart than from the body. Therefore it is said to us through the prophet that we rend our hearts and not our garments, something we can do when we recall that we ourselves, even if not in deed, frequently sin at least in thought. Because the earthly tent burdens the thoughtful mind^[1] and our land does not cease to produce thorns and thistles for us. We are unable to get to eating our bread, unless we will have been worn out by weariness and the sweat of our brow.

Another disease is added to the original cause and a new wound inflicted, and all that is contrary is applied, all that is dangerous is drunk. Under this evil especially does this brotherhood toil, adding new sins on top of old faults. Therefore it has burst forth into vice, and more grievously still, is now racked by a most destructive wasting disease. What then shall I now do, I who as priest am compelled to cure? It is very late in such cases. But even so, if there is any one of you who can bear to be cut and cauterized, I can still do it. Behold the scalpel of the prophet: Return, he says, to the Lord your God and together with fasting and weeping and mourning rend your hearts. Do not fear this incision, dearly beloved. David bore it.^[1] He lay in filthy ashes and had his appearance disfigured by a covering of rough sackcloth. He who had once been accustomed to precious stones and to the purple clothed his soul in fasting. He whom the seas, the forests, the rivers used to serve, and to whom the bountiful land promised wealth, now consumed in floods of tears those eyes with which he had beheld the glory of God. This ancestor of Mary, the ruler of the Jewish kingdom, confessed that he was unhappy and wretched. ^[2] CAPTIVITY AND REPENTANCE. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: The prophet in effect says what you need to do. I know, however, that you will not really repent before you are deported. But, when you would have done penance for your sins after being punished by captivity, then God will take care of you and will bring you back to your land. ^[1]

We should enter his house in sackcloth and lament night and day between the porch and the altar, in piteous array, and with more piteous voices. [We should] cry aloud without ceasing on behalf of ourselves and the people, sparing nothing, either toil or word, which may propitiate God. [We should] say, Spare, O Lord, your people, and give not your heritage to reproach, and the rest of our prayer; surpassing the people in our sense of the affliction as much as in our rank, instructing them in our own persons in compunction and correction of wickedness, and in the consequent longsuffering of God, and cessation of the scourge. Come then, all of you, my brethren, let us worship and fall down, and weep before the Lord our maker;^[1] let us appoint a public mourning in our various ages and families; let us raise the voice of supplication. Let this, instead of the cry which he hates, enter into the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth. Let us anticipate his anger by confession;^[2] let us desire to see him appeased, after [his wrath]. Who knows, he says, if he will turn and choose again, and leave a blessing behind him?

Since, as I said, there are many kinds of proclamations, let us listen to the trumpet blast of the prophet: Blow a trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast. This is a warning trumpet, and it earnestly commands us that when we fast, we should do it in a holy manner, for God is holy and has pleasure in his holy people.^[1] Not everyone, however, who calls upon God honors him. Some defile him—although they don’t actually defile him: that’s impossible. But they do defile their own consciences concerning him. The apostle Paul tells us how it is that some people dishonor God: those who break the law dishonor God.^[2] So the prophet said, in order to point out those who pollute the fast, Sanctify a fast. Many people, though they go through the motions of a fast, are still polluted in their hearts because they do evil against their brothers and sisters or because they dare to cheat. And many, if nothing else, think more highly of themselves than of their neighbors, thereby committing a great offense.

If these [vessels] were approved by the Lord it was at a time when the priests had to offer victims and when the blood of sheep was the redemption of sins. They were figures typifying things still future and were written for our admonitions upon whom the ends of the world are come.^[1] But now our Lord by his poverty has consecrated the poverty of his house. Let us, therefore, think of his cross and count riches to be but dirt. Why do we admire what Christ calls the mammon of unrighteousness?^[2] Why do we cherish and love what it is Peter’s boast not to possess?^[3] Or if we insist on keeping to the letter and find the mention of gold and wealth so pleasing, let us keep to everything else as well as the gold. Let the bishops of Christ be bound to marry wives, who must be virgins.^[4] Let the best-intentioned priest be deprived of his office if he bears a scar and is disfigured.^[5] Let bodily leprosy be counted worse than spots on the soul. Let us be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth,^[6] but let us slay no lamb and celebrate no mystic Passover, for where there is no temple,^[7] the law forbids these acts. Let us pitch tents in the seventh month^[8] and noise abroad a solemn fast with the sound of a horn.

He addressed them piously. Have you not read, he said, what divine authority has prescribed to a sinful people through the prophet: ‘Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping,’ and a little later: ‘Sanctify a fast,’ he says, ‘call an assembly, gather the congregation,’ and all that follows? Therefore, fulfill with worthy actions what you teach, that you may perhaps escape the evil of the present time. And let nobody, on any account, go out on his field as if he could ward off the locusts by human effort, lest God’s wrath be provoked even more. Without delay everybody gathered in the church, and they all, each in his place, recited the psalms, as was the custom. Every age and sex, even those who could not yet speak, offered a prayer to God with tears, alms were given unceasingly, and every good work that the present emergency demanded was carried out as had been prescribed by the servant of God.

Devout fasting has a very great value for gaining the mercy of God and for strengthening human frailty. We know this from the teaching of holy prophets, dearly beloved. They insist that the arousal of divine justice—which the people of Israel frequently brought upon themselves in punishment for their wickedness—could not be placated except by fasting. Joel the prophet warns us in saying, The Lord God says these things: ‘Turn to me with all your heart, in fasting, in weeping and in mourning. Rend your hearts, and not your garments. Be converted to the Lord your God, because he is merciful and patient and magnanimous and rich in mercy.’ At another point, the same prophet says, Make a holy fast, preach healing, call together the people, make holy the assembly. This exhortation, dearly beloved, is what we must embrace in our times also. We must of necessity preach the remedy of this healing, so that Christian devotion in the observance of that ancient means for sanctification might acquire what the Jewish transgression lost.

Who will cry aloud, Spare your people, O Lord, and do not give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them? Noah, Job^[1] and Daniel stood together as men of prayer. Who will pray for us, that we might have a slight respite from warfare and recover ourselves?

Joel, the prophet, offers evidence about [the devil] with these words: And I will remove far off from you the northern one, and I will drive him into the land thirsty and desert, and I shall expel his face into the nearest sea and his hinder parts into the utmost sea. We thank you, Lord, for this arrangement. What would the devil do if free, when he afflicts the world when bound?

David said that the Lord would reign from the tree.^[1] Elsewhere too the prophet predicts the fruit of this tree, saying, The earth has given its blessings^[2]—of course that virgin earth, not yet irrigated with rains or fertilized by showers, out of which humanity was of old first formed, out of which now Christ through the flesh has been born of a virgin. And the tree bears its fruit—not that tree in paradise, which yielded death to the first humans, but the tree of the passion of Christ, whence life, hanging, you did not believe!

For the fig tree, on account of its sweetness and richness, represents the delights of humankind, which they had in paradise before the Fall. Indeed, not rarely, as we shall afterwards show, the Holy Spirit^[1] takes the fruit of the fig tree as an emblem of goodness. But the vine, on account of the gladness produced by wine and the joy of those who were saved from wrath and from deluge, signifies the change produced from fear and anxiety into joy. Moreover, the olive, on account of the oil which it produces, indicates the compassion of God, who again, after the deluge, bore patiently when people turned aside to ungodliness, so that he gave them the law and manifested himself to some, and nourished by oil the light of virtue, now almost extinguished.