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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
Having then found Him in the wilderness, and in a pathless wilderness (for that the wilderness was such, Mark hath declared, saying, that He "was with the wild beasts"), behold with how much craft he draws near, and wickedness; and for what sort of opportunity he watches. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
And when He had fasted. He fasted to show us that fasting is a great weapon against temptations, just as the love of delicacies was the beginning of all sin. Forty days and forty nights. He fasts as long as Moses and Elijah did, for if He had fasted longer, it would have seemed that He had taken flesh in appearance only. Afterwards He hungered. …
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
Otherwise; The sum of all wisdom is to be acquainted with the Creator and the creature. The Creator is the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; the creature is partly invisible,—as the soul to which we assign a threefold nature, (as in the command to love God with the whole heart, mind, and soul,)—partly visible as the body, which we divide into four elements; the hot, the cold, the liquid, the solid. …
Gregory the Dialogist
But since the reading is fitting for these days—for we have heard of the forty days' abstinence of our Redeemer as we begin the season of Lent—we must discuss why this very abstinence is observed for the number of forty days. For Moses fasted twice for forty days in order to receive the law. Elijah abstained for forty days in the desert. The very Author of humanity, coming to humanity, took no food at all for forty days. Let us also, as much as we can, strive to afflict our flesh through abstinence during the annual season of Lent. …
Thomas Aquinas
Then the second prelude is given, namely, the fast. And when he had fasted..., which suits both the past and the future: the past, because it is fitting for one to fast after baptism, since he should not take his ease after baptism but should exercise himself in good works: "You were called to freedom, brethren" (Gal 5:13); but through freedom he should not be dedicated to a carnal life. …
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