might find the hope of relief for the evils that press upon them. For the poor person does not need necessary things as much as the rich person does excess; nor, on the other hand, does he have as much power to practice wickedness as the latter has. If, therefore, he is both more willing and more able, it is manifest that he will do even more and greater things. God made you rich so that you might help the needy, so that you might dissolve your own sins through the salvation of others; He gave you money, not so that you might lock it up to your own destruction, but so that you might pour it out for your own salvation. For this reason, He also made the possession of it uncertain and not permanent, so that even in this way He might loosen the intensity of the madness regarding it. For if, even now, those who possess it do not have confidence in it, but, seeing many plots born from the thing itself, are yet so inflamed with desire for them, if this were added to wealth—that it were certain and not liable to fall—what would they spare? From what would they abstain? For who, tell me, was poorer than Elias? But for this very reason A he surpassed all who were rich, because he was poor and chose that very poverty from a rich mind, and he considered all the wealth of money to be less than his own greatness of soul, and not worthy of his philosophy. For if he had considered present things to be great for himself, he would not have acquired only a sheepskin. For thus he condemned the present vanity, that he looked upon gold as upon cast-away mud. For this reason, even the king had need of the poor man, and he who had so much gold gaped at the mouth of one who possessed nothing more than a sheepskin; so much more splendid than purple was the sheepskin, and the cavern of the righteous man more than royal palaces. For this reason also, as he was ascending into heaven, he left nothing else to his disciple but the sheepskin. "With this," he says, "I struggled against the devil; having taken this, arm yourself also against him." For poverty is a strong weapon and an unconquerable fortress. And Elisha received the sheepskin as a great inheritance; for indeed it was truly a great inheritance, and more precious than all gold. And that Elias was twofold; and there was an Elias above, and an Elias below. I know that you all bless that righteous man and wish that each of you were he. What then if I demonstrate to you that we have all received something else far greater than that? For Elias left a sheepskin to his disciple; but the Son of man, as He was ascending, left us His own flesh. When, therefore, we hear of the loss of money, let us not be troubled, but let us say: "Blessed be God," and we shall find wealth much greater. For truly, you will not gather as much fruit by spending your wealth on the needy, and going about seeking out the poor, and scattering your possessions to those who are hungry, as you will gain through this word. Since I do not admire Job so much for opening his house to the needy as I am astonished at and proclaim him for bearing the plunder of his goods with thanksgiving. For one who is such can, when he has calmed the waves of nature, say without tears the words of Job: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away" (Job 1:21); he shall stand with Abraham himself, he shall be proclaimed with Job for this word alone. When, therefore, the devil takes away gold from you, either through robbers or through some other pretext, glorify the Master, and you shall have gained more, and you shall give a double blow to the enemy, both because you were not vexed and because you gave thanks. For if he sees that the loss of money humbles you and persuades you to be vexed against the Master, he will never cease working this; but if he perceives that not only do you not blaspheme the God who made you, but you even give thanks to Him more for each of the terrible things that happen, he will cease bringing trials, knowing that the experience of terrible things becomes a subject of thanksgiving for you and works for you more splendid crowns; which is what also happened in the case of Job. For having taken away his goods, and having struck his body, when he saw him becoming more thankful, he no longer dared to approach, but went away having endured a shameful and inexcusable defeat, having made the athlete of God more splendid. And Job, after having bound on all the crowns of patience and courage, received back double all that had perished; but you shall receive not double and triple, but an hundredfold of all things, if you bear them nobly, and you shall inherit eternal life; of which may we all be counted worthy, by the grace and philanthropia of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
Homily 12.
Concerning Gluttony and Drunkenness.
BY MATTHEW, INTERPRETER.
Do you wish that we see what pleasure wealth and what honor it has? Let us examine the tables of the rich and of the poor, and let us ask those who are feasting, who are the ones most of all enjoying a pure and genuine pleasure—those who are lying upon their couches for a measured portion of the day, and joining dinners with breakfasts, and tearing their stomachs, and filling their senses, and sinking the ship with the excessive cargo of foods, and making the vessel take on water, just as in a shipwreck of the body sinking it, and thinking up shackles and handcuffs and tongue-locks, and binding the whole body with a bond more grievous than an iron chain, that of drunkenness and luxury—and neither choosing a genuine and pure sleep, nor being free from fearful dreams, being more miserable than those who are mad, and bringing a voluntary demon into the soul; and being set forth as laughter for a theater of servants, and knowing none of those who are present, and able neither to speak nor to hear, but being led from the couches to the bed, or those who are sober and watchful and who limit the measure by necessity, and have hunger and thirst as the greatest seasoning? For nothing so makes for pleasure and health as to reach for what is set before one while hungry and thirsty and to know satiety by demand, and not to apply more strength than the body requires. If you do not believe my word, contemplate the bodies of both and the soul of each one: are they not temperate B and luxury, and neither do they catch true and sincere sleep, nor are they free from terrible nightmares, they are more miserable than those who are insane, and they bring an inhabitant demon upon their own soul, and they are set forth as a mockery to a theater of servants, and they know none of those who are present, and are able neither to speak nor to hear, and are led sideways from their couches to the bed...
and look at the bodies of those who eat in common, are they robust, and do their senses perform their duty with great ease? whereas the others are flaccid and softer than any wax, and obsessed by swarms of diseases? For pains in the feet quickly swoop down upon them, and untimely tremors, and premature aging, and headaches and distensions, and repletions of the stomach, and extinction of appetites, and they are in constant need of physicians and continuous medicines and daily treatment. Are these, then, things of pleasure, tell me? Who among those who know what pleasure is would say so? For pleasure is then when there is enjoyment with preceding desire. For if there is enjoyment indeed, but desire nowhere appears, all pleasure perishes and vanishes. And just as a ship that has received a greater load of cargo than its capacity can hold is depressed by the weight of the burden and sinks, so also our nature and our body, if it receives more food than is sufficient for its strength, becomes overborne, and not sustaining the weight of what is imposed upon it, it is plunged into a depth of destruction, and destroys the sailors and the helmsman and the prow-man and the passengers and finally the cargo itself with all. Just as, therefore, in ships that are so disposed, not the calm of the sea, not the skill of the helmsman, not the multitude of sailors, not the equipment of instruments, not the season of the year being favorable, nor anything else can benefit a ship so tossed; so also it happens to those who abound in luxury; neither doctrine, nor exhortation, nor instruction and counsel, nor fear of future things, nor shame, nor the reproach of those who are present, nor anything else at all is able to save a soul so tossed. But he who is such becomes useless to this present life, and reprobate to every good work. From this, and from nowhere else, those who live in perpetual luxury are caught by heavy and incurable diseases; and for this reason they think they have been brought into this life, that when they have indulged in luxury and burst their belly, they may thus pass away with a body so fattened, providing a banquet from their own flesh to a worm. For they become subject to tremors and paralysis and consumption and heaviness and pains in the feet, and to many others, which physicians mention. For these kinds of tables will be constituted no better than poisonous medicines; nay, if one must speak the truth, much worse. For those indeed suddenly removed him from whom they were taken, and brought death without feeling, so as not to afflict the dying man even with trouble through this very thing; but these bring a life more grievous than innumerable deaths to those who make much of them. And other diseases indeed have many who sympathize; but those that are born from luxury and drunkenness do not suffer the onlookers, not even if they should wish to sympathize with those who are held by them; but the excess of evil bends to pity, but the cause of these diseases exasperates the one who knows it. For they were neither injured by nature, as those others, nor attacked by the snares of men; but they have proved themselves the artificers of these diseases, of their own accord casting themselves into a precipice of evils. A scorpion or a serpent sitting in one’s entrails does not so infect everything in every direction as the desire for luxury perverts and destroys everything. For those wild beasts attack the body alone; but this one, when it has sat within, destroys the soul along with the body. Since, therefore, the ruin of everything is this, and a thing altogether ridiculous, spare you yourselves the health of your body. I do not say that you should give yourselves to the harshness of life, if you yourselves are unwilling: let us abolish what is superfluous, let us amputate what is beyond necessity. For what indulgence do we deserve, if others do not even enjoy what is necessary, when they can, while we live luxuriously beyond necessity? For whom shall we say lives more sumptuously, him who eats herbs and is healthy, and has nothing unpleasant; or him who sets out a Sybaritic table, and is full of innumerable diseases? It is evident that it is the former. Let us therefore seek nothing beyond necessity, but he who can be content with vegetables, and be in good health, let him seek nothing further: but he who is weaker, and needs the service of herbs, let him not be hindered. But if some one should be weaker, and need the moderate help of meat, neither shall we prevent him. For we do not persuade these things so that we may kill and destroy men; but that we may amputate superfluities: for the superfluous is that which is beyond necessity. But if we can lead a healthy and honest life without this, that which is added is plainly superfluous. Do you not see with whom our struggle is? With incorporeal powers. By what means, therefore, being flesh, shall we overcome them? For if one who wrestles with men must eat temperately, much more he who wrestles with demons: but when we are tied to both gluttony and riches, whence shall we conquer our adversaries? For as on a cithara, if the sounds are soft and slack, and not well stretched, the excellence of art is also cut off, and constrained to serve the weakness of the strings; so also in the body, when it has obtained from us much treatment, the soul undergoes bitter slavery. Let us not, therefore, fatten the body, nor render it inert and lax through luxury. I do not say that we should exhaust ourselves or treat ourselves too harshly, but that we should take so much food as may have pleasure—true pleasure, I say—and be able to nourish the body, and exhibit it obedient to us and fitting for the functions of the soul, well-compacted and joined together. For when luxury is redundant, it cannot keep its very nails, so to speak, and its joints compacted owing to the inundation; for when an inundation has invaded, it dissolves and confuses everything. For that which is sufficient of itself is nutriment and pleasure and health; but that which is more is destruction and loathing and disease. And what is more grievous than these, it destroys the very soul also along with the body. And just as land that is very damp produces worms, so the desire implanted in the body, when it is drenched with luxury, brings forth pleasures: and when the body has become softer, it is necessary for the soul to take destruction together with it. For if those who drink refined wine are not free from reproach, what shall we say to those who undertake transmarine journeys for the sake of wine, and who move everything, so that no genus of vine may escape them? As if they had to render accounts, if they did not gorge themselves with every kind of wine. Truly, nothing is so…
B harmful as luxury. It makes pigs out of men, and even worse than pigs. For the pig indeed wallows in the mire and feeds on dung, but this man feeds on a table more abominable than that, devising illicit unions and forbidden loves. Such a man differs in nothing from one possessed by a demon; and while we might pity the demoniac, this man we turn away from and detest. Why is this? Because he draws down upon himself a voluntary madness, and makes his mouth, and his eyes, and his nose, and simply all his members, into sewers of sin. And if you look within, you will see his soul also, as if in some storm and frost, frozen and benumbed, and unable to save even the vessel because of the excess of the storm. For those who are enslaved to drunkenness and gluttony choose neither a genuine and sincere sleep, nor are they freed from fearful dreams. How, then, is it not absurd that brute animals seek nothing beyond their need, while men, who are rational and honored with the image of God, become more irrational than them, C overstepping the bounds of proportion? For how much better is the donkey than men who are in such a state? How much better is the dog? For those animals, whether it is necessary to eat or drink, know sufficiency as their limit and do not go beyond their need; and even if many often urge them, they will not consent to go out into excess. But these men have judged themselves to be less honorable even than those. And that brute animals are not forced to enjoy food beyond measure: and if someone asks, "Why?" they would say, "So that they may not die." But these men do not provide even this level of foresight for themselves; thus they consider themselves to be of less value than those, and they look on as they are constantly stormy. For they do not endure the harm from drunkenness only on the day of their drunkenness, but also after that day; and just as when a fever has passed, the damage from the fever remains, so also when drunkenness has departed, the dizziness of the drunkenness whirls in the soul and in the body. And the wretched body lies paralyzed, like a vessel after a shipwreck; but its soul, which is more miserable than the body, even when the body is dissolved, stirs up the storm and kindles desire D more vehemently. How many evils, then, befall men from drunkenness, I am ashamed to say, and I leave them to the conscience of those who know these things more accurately. For what is more shameful than a drunken man wandering about, and enduring that dire shipwreck, and causing the gifts of God to be blasphemed by the senseless? For I hear many saying, when these passions occur: "Let there be no wine." O the folly! O the derangement! Because others are sinning, do you blame the gifts of God? For did wine create this evil, O man? It is not the wine, but the wantonness of those who enjoy it poorly. Therefore say: "Let there be no drunkenness, let there be no luxury." But if you say, "Let there be no wine," you will say, progressing little by little, "Let there be no iron, because of murderers; let there be no night, because of thieves; let there be no light, because of slanderers; let there be no woman, because of acts of fornication"; and you will simply abolish everything. Do not, therefore, malign wine, but drunkenness, and the one who has used the good badly; and having taken this man while sober, describe his indecency, and say to him: "Wine was given so that we might rejoice, not so that we might behave indecently; so that we might laugh, not so that we might be laughed at; so that we might be healthy, not so that we might be sick; so that we might correct the weakness of the body, not so that we might cast down the strength of the soul." God honored you with the gift; why do you insult yourself with intemperance? For if that holy Timothy, even while possessed by sickness and enduring continuous infirmities, did not use wine until the Master permitted it, what excuse could we have, who are drunk while in health? For to him he said: "Use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent infirmities" (1 Tim. 5:23); but to each of us he would say: "Use a little wine because of your fornications, because of your frequent foul language, and the other wicked desires which drunkenness is wont to beget." Wine was given for gladness; for "wine," it says, "gladdens the heart of man" (Ps. 103:15); but you even spoil this virtue of it. For what kind of gladness is it to not be in one's right mind, and to have myriads of pains, and to see everything swirling, and to be held in terrible darkness, and, like those suffering from fever, to need those who sprinkle their heads with oil, and to work days into nights, and to turn light into darkness, and with eyes open to not even see what is at one's feet, and to pierce oneself with so many and such evils? For for those living in drunkenness and wantonness, the day is turned into the darkness of night, not because the sun is extinguished, but because their own mind is darkened by drunkenness. Those who surrender themselves to drunkenness, the more they pour the undiluted wine out for themselves, the more they are inflamed with thirst, and the consumption always becomes a fuel for the thirst; and the things of pleasure are then faded, but the thirst, having become incessant, leads those who have been made captives by it into the very precipice of drunkenness. From this especially one might be amazed at the folly of those who are addicted to drunkenness, that they do not even wish to show as much restraint toward themselves as others have toward their wineskins. For the sellers of wine do not allow those people to take more than is necessary, so that they may not burst; but these men do not consider their wretched stomach worthy even of this foresight, but when they have filled it and burst it, they fill everything up to the ears, up to the nose, up to the throat itself, thereby creating great constriction for the breath, for the power that manages the living creature. For was the throat made for you so that you might fill it up to the mouth with rotting wine and the other corruption? It was not for this, but so that you might send up holy prayers to God, and read the divine laws, and counsel your neighbors in what is profitable. For not even the violent river currents are accustomed to wear away the banks and make them subside, as luxury and excess easily undermine all the foundations of our health. For the passing of food with force both scrapes away the strength of the body, and drags down and weakens the manliness of the soul. And this is not the only terrible thing for the glutton, that he is torn apart, and bursts his own stomach, and cuts off the health of body and soul; but that it flows past and runs through more quickly, and he cannot retain the supply resulting from these things for even one day, but that having been breathed out, he is forced to inject others again. Therefore, to eat is not an evil—far be it—but gluttony, and to be gorged beyond need and to burst the stomach; just as, therefore, it is not evil to partake of moderate wine, but to surrender oneself to drunkenness, and