By mid-December the entire world seems to focus its attention on Christmas. Christmas music is on the radio, houses are decorated, and schools and businesses hold their annual Christmas parties. Meanwhile, the Church prepares for the joyous solemnity through the season of Advent.
In my last article, I introduced the Ember days, four traditional fasts that mark the changing of seasons throughout the year. They take place mid-September, the third week of Advent, first week of Lent, and then the week after Pentecost. Given that Advent already has a penitential character, it might seem odd that the Church traditionally has a concurrent fast right before Christmas.
The reason for this “fast within a fast” is both historical and spiritual. The Advent season is a relatively late addition to the Roman liturgical calendar. The first documented reference to the season of Advent comes from St. Gregory of Tours in 480. Nevertheless, there is no evidence of its celebration in Italy until the 8th century.[1] This is to say, in the time of St. Leo the Great, Advent was likely not yet celebrated in Rome. It is thus believed that the December Ember Days pre-existed the season of Advent.
The two observances likewise have different spiritual significance. In Advent we focus on the three “comings” of Christ: his coming in the Incarnation, his return at the end of time, and finally his coming into our hearts, particularly by Baptism and the Eucharist.
The Ember Days, however, carry a very different significance. St. Leo was convinced that since “all nature serves the Word of God for our instruction,”[2] the meaning of these fasts could be explained through meditating on nature. By December “the entire harvest had been gathered”[3] making it a fitting time to “give thanks to the divine generosity for the fruits the ground has produced to be used by human beings according to the measure of his supreme providence.”[4]Therefore the Advent Ember Days, like our American Thanksgiving, are a post-harvest celebration. But while we Americans celebrate Thanksgiving by feasting, the Church calls us to celebrate the Ember days by fasting.
St. Leo reminded his flock that all of goods have “issued forth from the generosity of divine goodness, ”[5] we should “rejoice no matter how much [the Lord] sends us.”[6] The proper attitude of a Christian is one of thanksgiving, because everything we have we have received from God.[7] This gratitude to God for his generosity should turn into generosity towards others. God, “our benefactor wants [us] to be beneficent, and he who gives so that you might have, entrusts it so that you might distribute it” [8] We are called therefore “to make use of [our] plenty in such a way as to be both more restrained toward ourselves and more lavish toward the poor.”[9] For this reason, the December Ember Days have a special emphasis on almsgiving. St. Leo urges his people to fast but stresses that charity towards one’s neighbor is more important than fasting alone. In fact, “fasting without alms does not so much cleanse the soul as afflict the flesh. It must rather be ascribed to avarice than to self-restraint when someone refrains from food in such a way as also to be fasting from compassion.”[10]
This year the Advent Ember Days are celebrated on Wednesday, December 17, Friday December 19, and Saturday December 20. If you feasted at Thanksgiving, consider fasting this week with those Christians who still observe this ancient tradition. As we prepare for the coming of Christmas, we can use this week as an opportunity to thank God for the blessings of the year and share our abundance with those less fortunate. As St. Leo says “What does not mean a lot for us can be enough for the poor.”[11] No matter how small the gift is “no mercy is worthless before God, no compassion is fruitless.”[12]
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[1] P. Guéranger, “The History of Advent,” in The Liturgical Year Vol. 1: Advent, Trans. L. Shepherd, Fitzwilliam 2013, 22 -23.
[2] Serm 19.2.
All the quotations are taken from St. Leo’s December “Ember Day” Sermons, i.e. Sermons 12 – 20: De Jejunio decimi mensis.
The translation is taken from St. Leo the Great, Sermons, trans. J.P. Freedland – A.J. Conway, Washington 1996 (Fathers of Church 93).
[3] Serm 16.1.
[4] Serm. 17.1.
[5] Serm 16.1.
[6] Serm. 12.3
[7] Cf. 1 Cor 4:7.
[8] Serm. 17.2.
[9] Serm 16.1.
[10] Serm. 15.2.
[11] Serm. 14.1
[12] Serm. 20.3.
