Homily on Gluttony and Self-Indulgence

Believe my words, for they come from a brotherly heart. Go to the elders, whose gravity renders approach to them difficult—those who by words seasoned with grace encourage the young to all virtuous deeds, and whose very countenance does harm to no one. ‘Keep thy heart with all diligence.’ Thieves watch gold night and day without ceasing; but they seize it suddenly, before you are aware. So, take heed lest the enemy, because of your forefather’s sin, should in a moment drive you forth from the delight of Paradise. For he who by stolen food deprived Adam of life, and who hoped also to deceive Jesus, will much more not refrain from preparing the same first cause of sin for you, knowing well that it is a potent poison. Gluttony shows its strength not so much in the quantity of food as in the passionate desire for dainties. If then the craving for a momentary pleasure is able to subject you to the sin of gluttony, it will easily bring death upon you. For as water conveyed through trenches causes the dry ground around tombs to bloom, so also the sin of gluttony: once it has spread into the heart, it pervades all the senses, plants the forest of evil in the heart, and makes the soul a dwelling of wild beasts. I have seen many slaves of sin recover their soul’s health, but none of them was a secret eater or a glutton. These either fall away from a temperate life and perish in the world, or they hide themselves among the abstinent and become, through their luxurious way of living, stable mates of the devil. Such men are liars, swearers, perjurers, quarrelsome, brawlers, noisy, secret feasters, servile, effeminate, murmurers, gloomy, those who hate the light—opponents of a virtuous life. In order to conceal their gluttony, they mingle among the wicked, who indeed seem to be among the saved, but in reality, are among the lost.

This vice was the cause of Adam’s death and brought the world to destruction through his belly’s longing. Noah was mocked; Ham received a curse; Esau lost his birthright and became the kinsman of the Canaanites. Lot became his daughters’ husband, his own son-in-law and father-in-law; the father became both man and grandfather, violating nature’s boundaries. The same vice made the Israelites idolaters, for which their carcasses fell in the wilderness. One of the prophets, sent by God to rebuke an ungodly king, became the prey of a wild beast for the same cause. The man whom King Jeroboam, with all his royal power, could not overcome was captured by the desire of his belly and met a miserable death. 1 Kings 13.

But Daniel, the man of desires, when he mastered his belly, obtained dominion over the Chaldeans, cast down idols, slew the dragon, tamed lions, foretold the incarnation of God, and declared hidden mysteries. The three holy youths, having conquered the lust of the belly, despised the king’s wrath; and the terrible fiery furnace which Nebuchadnezzar had heated, they entered without fear. That image of gold that was deemed a god they proved powerless. What Satan had long prepared to bring dishonour to the glory of God, they took as spoil and brought to their Master. In short: “If you master your belly, you will gain Paradise; if you do not master it, you are already the prey of death.”