St Athanasius the Great LETTERS, Part I, Complete

Translated by Cardinal Newman.

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Page 63

I. Festal Letters.

Letter I.--For 329. Easter-day xi Pharmuthi; viii Id. April; AEr. Dioclet. 45; Coss. Constantinus Aug. VIII. Constantinus Caes. IV; Praefect. Septimius Zenius; Indict. II.

Of Fasting, and Trumpets, and Feasts.

Come, my beloved, the season calls us to keep the feast. Again, 'the Sun of Righteousness [3884] , causing His divine beams to rise upon us, proclaims beforehand the time of the feast, in which, obeying Him, we ought to celebrate it, lest when the time has passed by, gladness likewise may pass us by. For discerning the time is one of the duties most urgent on us, for the practice of virtue; so that the blessed Paul, when instructing his disciple, teaches him to observe the time, saying, 'Stand (ready) in season, and out of season [3885] '--that knowing both the one and the other, he might do things befitting the season, and avoid the blame of unseasonableness. For thus the God of all, after the manner of wise Solomon [3886] , distributes everything in time and season, to the end that, in due time, the salvation of men should be everywhere spread abroad. Thus the 'Wisdom of God [3887] ,' our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, not out of season, but in season, 'passed upon holy souls, fashioning the friends of God and the prophets [3888] ;' so that although very many were praying for Him, and saying, 'O that the salvation of God were come out of Sion [3889] !'--the Spouse also, as it is written in the Song of Songs, was praying and saying, 'O that Thou wert my sister's son, that sucked the breasts of my mother [3890] !' that Thou wert like the children of men, and wouldest take upon Thee human passions for our sake!--nevertheless, the God of all, the Maker of times and seasons, Who knows our affairs better than we do, while, as a good physician, He exhorts to obedience in season--the only one in which we may be healed--so also does He send Him not unseasonably, but seasonably, saying, 'In an acceptable time have I heard Thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped Thee [3891] .'

[3884] Mal. iv. 2.

[3885] 2 Tim. iv. 2. The due celebration of the feast is spoken of as producing a permanent beneficial effect on the Christian. Cf. Letter 4.

[3886] Eccl. iii. 7. Cf. S. Cyril. Homil. Pasch. V.

[3887] 1 Cor. i. 24.

[3888] Wisd. vii. 27.

[3889] Ps. xiv. 7.

[3890] Cant. viii. 1.

[3891] Isa. xlix. 8.

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