Sermon on Fasting (2010 translation from series of Homilies on Creation and Fall)

Author / homilist : Severian of Gabala [ translated by Robert C. Hill for IVP Ancient Christian Texts series: Commentaries on Genesis 1 - 3 (Intervarsity Press, Academic, Downers Grove, IL):
Fourth Homily on The Fourth Day of Creation [ excerpt of page 60 ] --
. . .Let us gird ourselves, then for good works, for righteousness, so that fasting may take wings: just as a bird, unless it has the cooperation of its wings, cannot fly, so too fasting has two wings, prayer and almsgiving, without which it cannot rise on high.
    Note Cornelius possessing these wings along with fasting; hence he also heard a voice coming from heaven: "Cornelius, your prayers and your alms have ascended to God" (Acts 10:4).  Imagine fasting to be a living being, dearly beloved, and likewise in wings to be almsgiving and prayer, without which it cannot rise on high.  Such a thing even if it does not speak, bellows what is righteous with a loud voice, virtue being a great supporter of righteousness -- hence the saying "Hearken, Lord, to my righteousness" (Psalm 16:1).  While first, then, the highest good consists of prayer, almsgiving, and righteous behavior, what is secure, unshakeable and the root of everything is the knowledge of God, worship of the Only-Begotten, and the confession of the Holy Spirit -- one faith, undivided, secure, total and integral. . .
     I beg you, dearly beloved, to maintain your fasting undiluted, uncontaminated, free of injustice, free of oppression.  Consider the futility of those who devote themselves to abstinence from food and pay no heed to abstinence from sins.  I do not drink wine, they say; I do not take oil; I do not eat meat.
     Well and good if done for God's sake, well done -- but let us examine the facts.  Bread, water, wine, meal, oil:  all these are God's creations; oppression, injustice, and impiety are the devil's works.  You abstain from the works of God for the sake of fasting: do you not abstain from the works of the devil for the sake of fasting?  Bread and wine and oil and all the rest are works of God, totally good, even very good; Paul says, "Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving, or it is sanctified by God's word and by prayer" (I Timothy 4:4-5).