Psalms 109:24

"I became also a reproach unto them" [Psalm 109:24]: through the death of the Cross. "For Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." [Galatians 3:13] "They looked upon Me, and shaked their heads." Because they beheld His crucifixion, without beholding His resurrection: they saw when His knees were weakened, they saw not when His flesh was changed.

And thus also thou canst shew that all the righteous men and Prophets, either by their own will, or by God's command unto them, endured always tribulations and labours, even as the blessed David maketh known that from the severity of his fasting the very limbs of his body had become enfeebled, saying, "My knees have become sick through fasting, and my flesh faileth of fatness."

My knees are weakened from fasting. Take consolation, O monk, in fasting: since the Lord too did this. I say that when a monk fasts, he becomes stronger through fasting; and when his knees are weakened by fasting, then he is most of all strengthened. And my flesh is changed on account of oil. I seem to be saying a difficult thing, and I interpret it according to the letter, that I may edify my hearers: for even the letter edifies me. It is good to fast, it is good to flee from delicacies. Before I come to the spiritual understanding, I linger in the letter. He who says that he does not eat oil, is far from the rest of the delicacies. All this I have said, because he said, And my flesh is changed on account of oil. This I have interpreted otherwise. But what he says is this. Oil is an image of brightness; oil is, as it were, the food of light. So then the Jews too received oil from me, they received life, they received light. Let no one suppose that he says "oil" for mercy: in the Hebrew it signifies intelligible oil. It is changed not into joy, but into sadness; not that I might be found more beautiful, but that I might appear more disfigured. Therefore he says: "We saw him, and he had no beauty." Why? because his flesh was changed on account of oil. He had not the delights of the body, but of the spirit. And we too, then, when we fast, when our faces are pale, when we appear disfigured, let us recognize that we then appear more beautiful to Christ. Such soldiers Christ loves, who give themselves to fasting. Our provision and our food is fasting. Why? because in fasting is victory, and in victory is triumph. In short, the apostle too glories not in fullness, but in weakness. "For when I am weak, then I am stronger."