St. Ambrose: The Power of Fasting

Great is the power of fasting.  Moreover, so beauteous is its bravery that fasting delights even Christ: so strong, that it leads men to heaven.  And, to use human rather than divine examples, a voice sent forth from the mouth of the fasting Elijah closed heaven, due to the sacrilege of the people of the Jews (1 Kgs 17:1).  So, too, when an altar to an idol was set up by King Ahab (1 Kgs 16:32), at the word of the prophet, for three years and six months, the dew of rain did not fall upon the earth.  A worthy punishment which fittingly restrains intemperance: that heaven would be closed to the impious who polluted earthly things.  Worthy, indeed, that, at the condemnation of the king’s sacrilege, the prophet was sent to the widow in Sarepta of Sidon, who, since she offered devotion through food, merited that she alone would not feel the distress of the public aridity.  Therefore, the jug of barley did not lack, when the torrent’s flows were lacking (1 Kgs 17:8-16).

What will I weave from the rest?  Fasting, he revived the son of the widow from the realms below (1 Kgs 17:17-24); fasting, he put away the rains by speech (1 Kgs 17:1); fasting, he brought fire forth from heaven (1 Kgs 17:36-38; 2 Kgs 1); fasting, he was snatched up to heaven in a chariot (2 Kgs 2:11); and, by a fast of forty days, he acquired the divine presence (1 Kgs 19).  Therefore, the more he fasted, the more he merited.  By fasting, he made the flows of the Jordan stand still by speech, and, with a dusty footstep, he crossed the overflowing riverbank, suddenly dry (2 Kgs 2:8).  With merit, the divine sentence judged him worthy of heaven, so that he was snatched up in his body, since he lived a celestial life in the body, and exhibited a supernal manner of conversation on earth.

For what is fasting, except the celestial substance and image?  Fasting is the refection of the soul, the food of the mind is fasting, the life of angels is fasting, fasting is fault’s death, the excision of offenses, the remedy of salvation, the root of grace, it is the foundation of chastity.  By this ladder, one more quickly attains to God; by this ladder, Elijah ascended, before he ascended in the chariot.  Departing for heaven, he left this inheritance of sobriety and abstention to his disciple.  In this power and spirit--that of Elijah--John came.  Therefore, in the desert, he also spent his time in fasting.  But his food was locusts and wild honey (Mt 3:4; Mk 1:6).  And, therefore, since he was bypassing the possibility of human life through continence, he was esteemed as, not a man, but an angel.  Of him we read: Indeed, he is more than a prophet.  He is the one of whom it is written: Behold, I send My angel before your face, who will prepare your way before you (Mt 11:9-10; Mal 3:1).  Who could, by human power, ascend with fiery horses, in fiery chariots, guiding bronze chariots, except he who changes the nature of the human body into an incorruptible nature through the power of fasting?

Nota Bene: The above passage is from St. Ambrose's On Elijah and Fasting II.2-III.4 (PL 14:698A-699C).  In the first paragraph, "bravery" translates the Latin militia, more specifically meaning "military spirit" or "military courage."  

Translation ©2023 Brandon P. Otto.  Licensed via CC-BY-NC. Feel free to redistribute non-commercially, as long as credit is given to the author.