St Athanasius the Great LETTERS, Part I, Complete

Translated by Cardinal Newman.

St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print

This Part: 128 Pages

Page 108

6. Now wicked men hunger for bread like this, for effeminate souls will hunger; but the righteous alone, being prepared, shall be satisfied, saying, 'I shall behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when Thy glory is seen by me [4175] .' For he who partakes of divine bread always hungers with desire; and he who thus hungers has a never-failing gift, as Wisdom promises, saying, 'The Lord will not slay the righteous soul with famine.' He promises too in the Psalms, 'I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread.' We may also hear our Saviour saying, 'Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled [4176] .' Well then do the saints and those who love the life which is in Christ raise themselves to a longing after this food. And one earnestly implores, saying, 'As the hart panteth after the fountains of waters, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God! My soul thirsteth for the living God, when shall I come and see the face of God?' And another; 'My God, my God, I seek Thee early; my soul thirsteth for Thee; often does my flesh, in a dry and pathless land, and without water. So did I appear before Thee in holiness to see Thy power and Thy glory [4177] .'

7. Since these things are so, my brethren, let us mortify our members which are on the earth [4178] , and be nourished with living bread, by faith and love to God, knowing that without faith it is impossible to be partakers of such bread as this. For our Saviour, when He called all men to him, and said, 'If any man thirst, let him [come] to Me and drink [4179] ,' immediately spoke of the faith without which a man cannot receive such food; 'He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water [4180] .' To this end He continually nourished His believing disciples with His words, and gave them life by the nearness of His divinity, but to the Canaanitish woman, because she was not yet a believer, He deigned not even a reply, although she stood greatly in need of food from Him. He did this not from scorn, far from it (for the Lord is loving to men and good, and on that account He went into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon); but because of her unbelief, and because she was of those who had not the word. And He did it righteously, my brethren; for there would have been nothing gained by her offering her supplication before believing, but by her faith she would support her petition; 'For He that cometh to God, must first believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that seek Him;' and that 'without faith it is impossible for a man to please Him [4181] .' This Paul teaches. Now that she was hitherto an unbeliever, one of the profane, He shews, saying, 'It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs [4182] .' She then, being convinced by the power of the word, and having changed her ways, also gained faith; for the Lord no longer spoke to her as a dog, but conversed with her as a human being, saying, 'O woman, great is thy faith [4183] !' As therefore she believed, He forthwith granted to her the fruit of faith, and said, 'Be it to thee as thou desirest. And her daughter was healed in the self-same hour.'

[4175] Ps. xvii. 15.

[4176] Prov. x. 3; Matt. v. 6; Ps. cxxxii. 15, he notices the various reading of the LXX, on the latter, Exp. in Ps. in loc.

[4177] Ps. xlii. 1; lxiii. 1, 2.

[4178] Col. iii. 5.

[4179] John vii. 37.

[4180] Ib. 38

[4181] Heb. xi. 6.

[4182] Matt. xv. 26.

[4183] Ib. 28

Previous Page / First / Next Page of Athanasius - LETTERS

St Athanasius the Great Home Page ||| More Church Fathers

Elpenor's Free Greek Lessons

Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/letters.asp?pg=108