unfittingly appointed. For we read (Matt. 4) that Christ began to
fast immediately after being baptized. Now we ought to imitate
Christ, according to 1 Cor. 4:16, "Be ye followers of me, as I also
am of Christ." Therefore we ought to fast immediately after the
Epiphany when Christ's baptism is celebrated.

Obj. 2: Further, it is unlawful in the New Law to observe the
ceremonies of the Old Law. Now it belongs to the solemnities of the
Old Law to fast in certain particular months: for it is written
(Zech. 8:19): "The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the
fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth shall
be to the house of Judah, joy and gladness and great solemnities."
Therefore the fast of certain months, which are called Ember days,
are unfittingly kept in the Church.

Obj. 3: Further, according to Augustine (De Consensu Evang. ii, 27),
just as there is a fast "of sorrow," so is there a fast "of joy." Now
it is most becoming that the faithful should rejoice spiritually in
Christ's Resurrection. Therefore during the five weeks which the
Church solemnizes on account of Christ's Resurrection, and on Sundays
which commemorate the Resurrection, fasts ought to be appointed.

_On the contrary,_ stands the general custom of the Church.

_I answer that,_ As stated above (AA. 1, 3), fasting is directed to
two things, the deletion of sin, and the raising of the mind to
heavenly things. Wherefore fasting ought to be appointed specially
for those times, when it behooves man to be cleansed from sin, and
the minds of the faithful to be raised to God by devotion: and these
things are particularly requisite before the feast of Easter, when
sins are loosed by baptism, which is solemnly conferred on
Easter-eve, on which day our Lord's burial is commemorated, because
"we are buried together with Christ by baptism unto death" (Rom.
6:4). Moreover at the Easter festival the mind of man ought to be
devoutly raised to the glory of eternity, which Christ restored by
rising from the dead, and so the Church ordered a fast to be observed
immediately before the Paschal feast; and for the same reason, on the
eve of the chief festivals, because it is then that one ought to make
ready to keep the coming feast devoutly. Again it is the custom in
the Church for Holy Orders to be conferred every quarter of the year
(in sign whereof our Lord fed four thousand men with seven loaves,
which signify the New Testament year as Jero