Numbers 28

Therefore, we know that above all faith should commend us to God. When we have faith, let us strive for our works to be perfect. For this is a full and perfect sacrifice, as the Lord himself teaches us, saying: 'You shall offer to me your gifts and offerings on my feast days, without detracting or dividing them; but offering them in full, intact, and perfect.' Now, the feast day of the Lord is where the grace of perfected virtues resides. Those who are truly perfect are those whose mind, having conquered the allurements of worldly anxieties and bodily pleasures, is free from the world and dedicated to God, not diminishing anything from the straight path of their direct intention, nor dividing the times of their own affections now to luxury, now to labor. Therefore, only the wise celebrate this solemnity, no one else. For it is difficult to find a soul immune to such passions.

If the observance of the sacrifices and the legal ordinances, which were given to the people of Israel as a figure, could have stood firm right up to the present time, they would without doubt have shut out the faith of the Gospel, through which, from the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the nations are converted to God. For there was in those things which were then observed a certain magnificent religion, full of every reverence, which even at the very first glance would astonish the beholder. For who, seeing that which was called the sanctuary or holy place, and gazing upon the altar, and upon the priests standing by to complete the sacrifices, and beholding the whole order by which all these things were carried out, would not have supposed this to be a most complete rite by which God the Creator of all ought to be worshipped by the human race? But thanks be to the coming of Christ, who, tearing our souls away from this spectacle, has brought them over to the consideration of the heavenly and to the contemplation of spiritual things, and has indeed destroyed those things that seemed great upon the earth, and has transferred the worship of God from the visible to the invisible and from the temporal to the eternal. But in truth the Lord Jesus Christ himself requires both ears that may hear these things and eyes that may see them. Hence we too, now having in our hands the law given through Moses, and wishing to show that it is a spiritual law, require from you such ears and such eyes as look not to those things that have been destroyed, but that seek these things there where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, and that savor the things which are above, not the things which are upon the earth. Let it suffice, then, that these things have been set forth by us in the place of a preface for the things that are to be said.

But now let us come at last to the things that are written. "And the Lord spoke to Moses," it says, "saying: Command the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: My offerings, my gifts, my victims, for an odor of sweetness, observe to offer them to me on my feast days. And thou shalt say to them: These are my victims, which you shall offer to the Lord." No one offers anything of his own to God, but what he offers is the Lord's, and a man does not so much offer his own things as render back to Him the things that are His own. Therefore, wishing to write laws concerning the sacrifices and gifts to be offered to Him by men, the Lord first of all discloses the true nature of those very things that were to be offered, and says: "My offerings, my gifts, my sacrifices, for an odor of sweetness, observe to offer to me on my feast days." "These offerings," He says, "concerning which I am about to command you that you offer them to me on my feast days, are my gifts," that is, they are given to you by me; for from me the human race receives all that it has. Therefore, lest anyone in offering gifts should believe that he confers some benefit upon God, and through this become impious in the very act in which he seemed to worship God — for what is so impious as for a man to think that he bestows something upon God as upon one in need? — of necessity, as we have said, He first teaches man, so that he may know that whatever he offers to God he rather renders back to Him than offers. But let us also see how He says: "which you shall offer to me on my feast days." Does God, then, have His feast days? He does. For to Him human salvation is a great festivity. I think that through each and every one of the believers, through each one who is converted to God and advances in faith, a festivity arises for God. How greatly, do you think, does it gladden Him when he who had been unchaste becomes chaste, and he who had been unjust cultivates justice, and he who had been impious is made pious? All these conversions of each individual generate festivities for God. Nor is there any doubt that our Lord Jesus Christ also, who for our salvation poured out even his own blood, keeps the greatest festivity when He sees that it was worth the labor that He humbled Himself and, taking the form of a servant, became obedient even unto death. The Holy Spirit likewise keeps festival, when He sees more temples prepared for Himself in those who are converted to God. For what shall I say of the angels, to whose festivity of rejoicing all are said to draw near who are converted to the Lord? Or is it not for them a great festivity, when they rejoice in heaven over one sinner doing penance more than over ninety-nine just who have no need of penance? The angels therefore also keep a feast day, rejoicing over those who, fleeing the fellowship of demons, hasten through the exercises of the virtues to associate themselves with the angelic fellowships. Perhaps it may seem wonderful, what I wish to say: we, it appears, give to God and to the angels causes for festivity and gladness; we, placed on earth, furnish to heaven an occasion of joy and exultation, when, walking upon the earth, we have our conversation in the heavens, and through this without doubt generate a feast day for the heavenly powers. But just as our good acts and the progress of the virtues beget joy and festivity for God and the angels, so I fear lest our evil conversation bring in lamentations and mournings not only to the earth but also to heaven, and perhaps human sins strike even God Himself with grief. Or is not that the voice of one mourning, when He says: "It repenteth me that I made man upon the earth"? And likewise that word of our Lord and Savior in the Gospel, where He says: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that stonest the prophets and killest those sent to thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and thou wouldst not!" And do not think that it was said only of the men of old that they stoned the prophets: I too today, if I do not hear the words of the prophet, if I spurn his admonitions, stone the prophet and, as far as in me lies, kill him, whose words, namely, I do not hear, as though he were dead. But that too is the voice of God lamenting the human race, in which it is said through the prophet: "Woe is me, for I am become as one who gathers stubble in the harvest and as gleanings in the vintage, for there is no ear of corn nor cluster of grapes to eat of the firstfruits! Woe is me, O my soul, for the reverent man has perished from the earth, and there is none among men to set them right!" These are the voices of the Lord mourning the human race. For He came to gather the harvest and found stubble instead of a harvest, and He came to gather the vintage, but found few clusters instead of a vintage — the Apostles, namely, whom unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us as a seed, and unless the grain of wheat had fallen into the earth to bring forth much fruit, we should have become as Sodom and been made like to Gomorrah. To the angels of God also, as we said above, there comes joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance. It is certain that where joys are held for good things, there mourning is held for the contrary; if therefore they rejoice over the one converted, they must needs mourn over the one sinning. Therefore, because Jerusalem sinned a great sin, according to what is written in the Lamentation, she is become an object of commotion, and all her festivities and her solemn days have perished, because in the holy place and on the day of festivity they killed my Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore He says to them: "Your new moons and your sabbaths and your feast days my soul hateth." Here indeed, where the command is about the offerings, where as yet there are no sins, He says "my feast days"; but where there is sin, the Lord says not "my," but "your" feast days. All these things, however, in which God is said to mourn or rejoice or hate or be glad, are to be understood as spoken by Scripture figuratively and after the manner of men. For the divine nature is far removed from every affection of passion and change, ever abiding, immovable and unshaken, upon that summit of blessedness.

Since, therefore, we have in our hands the laws of the feasts, and the discourse is now about them, let us inquire more diligently what the order of the festivals is, so that from the very orders and the rite of the sacrifices we may be able to gather how each one, out of his own acts and holy conversations, may be able to prepare a festivity for God. The first, then, of God's festivals is that which is called "unceasing"; for the command is about those things which are to be offered unceasingly and without any interruption at all in the morning and evening sacrifices. Therefore, in commanding the rites of the festivals, He did not come first at once to the festival of the Passover, nor to that of the unleavened bread, nor to that of tabernacles and the others concerning which He gives command, but He set this one first, in which He commands the unceasing sacrifice to be offered — so that whoever wishes to be perfect and holy may recognize that a festivity is not to be kept to God sometimes and sometimes not, but the just man ought always and unceasingly to keep a feast day. For the sacrifice which is commanded to be offered unceasingly, both in the morning and in the evening, indicates this: that in the law and the prophets, which show the morning time, and in the evangelical teaching, which shows the evening, that is, the coming of the Savior at the evening of the world, one should persist with unceasing attention. Such festivals, then, the Lord calls His own: "And you shall observe my feast days." It is therefore the Lord's feast day, if we offer Him sacrifice unceasingly, if we pray without intermission, so that our prayer ascends like incense in His sight in the morning, and the lifting up of our hands becomes to Him the evening sacrifice. The first solemnity, then, is that of the unceasing sacrifice, which by the worshippers of the Gospel ought to be fulfilled in the manner we have expounded above. But since, as the prophetic word has fully taught, the feast days of sinners are turned into mourning and their songs into wailing, it is certain that he who sins and keeps days of sin cannot keep a feast day; and therefore on those days on which he sins he cannot offer the unceasing sacrifice to God. But he can offer it who unceasingly keeps justice and preserves himself from sin. But on whatever day he interrupts this and sins, it is certain that on that day he does not offer the unceasing sacrifice to God. I am afraid to say something which is given to be understood from the Apostolic discourses, lest perhaps I seem to sadden some. For if the prayer of the just man is offered like incense in the sight of God, and the lifting up of his hands is the evening sacrifice, but the Apostle says to those who are in marriages: "Defraud not one another, except perhaps by consent for a time, that you may have leisure for prayer, and return again to the same," it is certain that the unceasing sacrifice is hindered for those who serve the necessities of marriage. Hence it seems to me that it belongs to him alone to offer the unceasing sacrifice, who has devoted himself to unceasing and perpetual chastity. But there are also other feast days for those who perhaps cannot unceasingly immolate the sacrifices of chastity.

For because they could not have borne it, if when He was giving the law for the Sabbath, He had said, "Do your good works on the Sabbath, but do not the works which are evil," therefore He restrained them from all alike for, "Ye must do nothing at all," saith He: and not even so were they kept in order. But He Himself, in the very act of giving the law of the Sabbath, did even therein darkly signify that He will have them refrain from the evil works only, by the saying, "Ye must do no work, except what shall be done for your life." And in the temple too all went on, and with more diligence and double toil. Thus even by the very shadow He was secretly opening unto them the truth.

The second festival, then, after the festival of the unceasing sacrifice, is set the sacrifice of the sabbath, and every holy and just man ought to keep also the festival of the sabbath. But what is the festival of the sabbath except that of which the Apostle says: "There remaineth therefore a sabbath-keeping," that is, an observance of the sabbath, "for the people of God"? Leaving aside, therefore, the Jewish observances of the sabbath, let us see of what sort the Christian's observance of the sabbath ought to be. On the sabbath day one ought to do no work out of all the works of the world. If, therefore, you cease from all secular works and do nothing worldly, but have leisure for spiritual works, come together to the church, lend an ear to the divine readings and expositions, think upon heavenly things, take thought for the hope to come, keep the judgment that is to come before your eyes, look not to present and visible things but to invisible and future things — this is the Christian's observance of the sabbath. But these things the Jews too ought to observe. Finally, even among them, if a smith, if a builder, and if any workman of this kind there be, he is idle on the sabbath day; but the reader of the divine law or the teacher does not cease from his work, and yet does not defile the sabbath; for so the Lord too says to them: "Have you not read that the priests too in the temple profane the sabbath and are without blame?" He therefore who has ceased from the works of the world and has leisure for spiritual acts, this is he who keeps the sacrifice of the sabbath and the feast day of the sabbaths. Nor does he carry burdens on the way; for every sin is a burden, as the prophet also says: "Like a heavy burden they have weighed upon me." Nor does he kindle a fire — that fire, namely, of which it is said: "Walk in the light of your fire and in the flame which you have kindled." On the sabbath each one sits in his own place and does not go forth from it. What, then, is the place of the spiritual soul? Justice is its place, truth, wisdom, sanctification, and all that Christ is, is the place of the soul. From which place it ought not to go forth, that it may keep the true sabbaths and fulfill the feast day in the sacrifices of the Sabbaths, as the Lord also said: "He who abides in me, and I in him." But as to what we called the true sabbaths, if we seek out more deeply what the true sabbaths are, the observance of the true sabbath is beyond this world. For that which is written in Genesis, that "the Lord rested on the sabbath day from his works," we do not see either to have been done then on the seventh day or to be done even now. For we always see God working, and there is no sabbath on which God does not work, on which He does not bring forth His sun over the good and the evil and rain upon the just and the unjust, on which He does not bring forth on the mountains hay and grass for the service of men, on which He does not smite and heal, lead down to hell and bring back, on which He does not kill and make alive. Hence the Lord too in the Gospels, when the Jews laid down a rule for Him about working and healing on the sabbath, answered them: "My Father worketh until now, and I work," showing by these words that on no sabbath of this world does God rest from the dispensations of the world and from the provisions for the human race. For He indeed made the creatures from the beginning and brought forth substances, as many as He knew, being the Founder of things, could suffice for the perfection of the world, but until the consummation of the age He does not cease from their provision and dispensation. There will be, therefore, a true sabbath, in which God will rest from all His works — the age to come, then, when grief and sadness and groaning shall flee away, and God shall be all and in all. On which sabbath may God grant us too to keep a feast day with Him and to celebrate festivals with His holy angels, offering the sacrifice of praise and rendering to the Most High our vows, which here our lips have set apart. Then perhaps also the unceasing sacrifice, of which we expounded above, will be better offered. For then the soul will better be able unceasingly to stand before God and to offer the sacrifice of praise through the great high priest, who is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

The third festival is set as the day of the new moon, on which a victim also is offered. Now "neomenia" means the new moon. This too, then, is a festival, when the moon is renewed. And it is called "new" when it has been made nearest to the sun and very closely joined to it, so that it hides beneath its brightness. But perhaps it may seem wonderful, indeed superfluous, that the divine law should command this. For what does it profit religion to observe as a festival the new moon, that is, when it is joined to the sun and cleaves to it? If these things are considered according to the letter, they will seem not so much religious as superstitious; but the Apostle Paul knew that the law does not speak of these things, nor did the Holy Spirit command that rite which seems to be observed by the Jews; and therefore he said to those who had received the faith of God: "Let no one therefore judge you in food or drink or in respect of a feast day or of a new moon or of a sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come." If, therefore, the sabbath, of which we expounded above as best we could, is a shadow of things to come, and the new moon is a shadow of things to come, it is certain that the other festivals likewise are shadows of things to come. But now let us look at the new moon. We said that the festival is called the new moon when the moon has begun to be renewed and to be made nearest to the sun and wholly joined to it. The Sun of justice is Christ; if the moon, that is, His Church, which is filled with His light, be joined to Him and cleave wholly to Him, so that, according to the word of the Apostle, "he who joins himself to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him," then it keeps the festival of the new moon; for then it is made new, when it has cast off the old man and put on the new, who is created according to God, and thus deservedly keeps the solemnity of renewal, which is the festival of the new moon. And it is then, finally, when it can neither be seen nor comprehended by human sight. For when the soul has wholly allied itself to the Lord and has wholly withdrawn into the splendor of His light, and thinks nothing at all earthly, seeks nothing worldly, nor is eager to please men, but has surrendered itself wholly to the light of wisdom, wholly to the warmth of the Holy Spirit, made subtle and spiritual — how can it be discerned by men or apprehended by human sight? For the animal man cannot understand and discern the spiritual man. And therefore most worthily will it keep the feast day and will slay to the Lord the victim of the new moon, as one renewed through Him.

In the fourth place among the festivals of God is set the solemnity of the Passover, in which festival the lamb is slain. But do you look to the true lamb, the Lamb of God, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, and say: "Our pasch, Christ, is sacrificed." Let the Jews in a carnal sense eat the flesh of the lamb, but let us eat the flesh of the Word of God; for He Himself said: "Unless you eat my flesh, you will not have life in yourselves." This which we are now speaking is the flesh of the Word of God, provided at least that we do not offer, as to the weak, herbs, or, as to children, the nourishment of milk. If we speak perfect things, if strong, if mighty, we set before you the flesh of the Word of God to eat. For where mystical discourse, where doctrinal discourse, filled with the faith of the Trinity, is brought forth solid, where, the veil being removed, the spiritual mysteries of the letter of the law of the age to come are laid open, where the hope of the soul, torn away from the earth, is cast into the heavens and set among those things which eye has not seen nor ear heard nor have they ascended into the heart of man — all these are the flesh of the Word of God; and he who can feed on them with perfect understanding and a purified heart truly immolates the sacrifice of the festival of the Passover and keeps a feast day with God and His angels.

After this, indeed joined continuously to it, follows the festival of the unleavened bread, which you will rightly celebrate if you drive out every leaven of malice from your soul and keep the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. For it is not to be supposed that Almighty God writes laws for men about leaven, and for that reason commands the soul to be exterminated from the people, if perchance it is found to have had in its house any little bit of this leaven from the sprinkled flour; and that such care was a matter of great concern to the divine Majesty, that He should say Himself so greatly offended on account of this leaven, that He commands the soul which He Himself made to His own image and likeness to be exterminated and overthrown on this account — this does not seem to me an understanding worthy of the divine laws; but rather it is this, at which God shudders and rightly shudders, if the soul be leavened with the spirit of malice, of anger, of wickedness, and swell up to shameful deeds. These God does not wish to be in the soul, and unless we cast out such leaven from the house of our soul, we shall deservedly be exterminated. But do not despise it, even if you see a small malice being leavened within you, because a little leaven corrupts the whole lump; and therefore do not be negligent even of a small sin, since from one sin another too is generated. For just as from justice justice is generated, and from chastity chastity — for if anyone first begins to be chaste in a slight degree, having received the leaven of chastity he becomes daily more chaste — so also he who has once stored up within himself even a small leaven of malice becomes daily more wicked and worse than himself. And therefore, if you wish to keep the festival of unleavened bread with God, do not suffer even a small leaven of malice to remain within you.

After this follows the sixth festival, which is called of the "new fruits," that is, when the firstfruits of the new produce are offered. For when the field has been sown and diligently cultivated, and the crop has come to maturity, then in the perfection of the fruits the festival of the Lord is kept. If, therefore, you too wish to keep the feast day of the new fruits with God, see how you sow or where you sow, that you may be able to reap such fruits from which you may make God glad and keep a feast day. This you will not be able to fulfill otherwise, unless you hear the Apostle saying: "He who sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting." If you so sow and so reap, you will truly keep the feast day of the new fruits. Finally, therefore, the prophet also admonishes, saying: "Renew for yourselves new tillage, and do not sow upon thorns." He therefore who renews his heart and his inner man from day to day, this man renews for himself new tillage and sows not upon thorns but upon the good earth, which renders him fruit thirtyfold or sixtyfold or a hundredfold. This, then, is he who sows in the spirit and gathers the fruits of the spirit. And the first of all the fruits of the spirit is joy. And he rightly keeps the feast day of the new fruits who reaps joy, especially if together he reaps also peace and patience and goodness and gentleness; and if he gather the other fruits like to these, he will most worthily keep the festival of the new fruits to the Lord.