Homilies on First Corinthians

And such is the course of their affairs here; but the hereafter, what words shall set before us? For as these men in this world cast their moth-eaten grain, become useless, into rivers; even so the doers of such things, on this very account become useless, God casts into the river of fire. Because as the grain by the moth and worm, so are their souls devoured by cruelty and inhumanity. And the reason of these things is their being nailed to things present, and gaping after this life only. Whence also such men are full of infinite sadness; for name whatever pleasure you will, the fear of their end is enough to annihilate all, and such an one “is dead, while he is yet alive.”

Now then that unbelievers should have these feelings, is no marvel; but when they who have partaken of so great mysteries and learned such high rules of self-denial concerning things to come, delight to dwell in things present, what indulgence do they deserve?

16. Whence then arises their loving to dwell in present things? From giving their mind to luxury, and fattening their flesh, and making their soul delicate, and rendering their burden heavy, and their darkness great, and their veil thick. For in luxury the better part is enslaved, but the worse prevails; and the former is blinded on every side and dragged on in its maimed condition; while the other draws and leads men about every where, though it ought to be in the rank of things that are led.

Since great indeed is the bond between the soul and the body; the Maker having contrived this, lest any should induce us to abhor it as alien. For God indeed bade us love our enemies; but the devil has so far prevailed as to induce some even to hate their own body. Since when a man says that it is of the devil, he proves nothing else than this; which is the extreme of dotage. For if it be of the devil, what is this so perfect harmony, such as to render it meet in every way for the energies of the self-controlling soul? “Nay,” says one, “if it be meet, how does the body blind it?” It is not the body which blinds the soul; far from it, O man; but the luxury. But whence do we desire the luxury? Not from our having a body, by no means; but from an evil choice. For the body requires feeding, not high feeding, the body needs nourishing, not breaking up and falling apart. You see that not to the soul only, but to the very body also which receives the nourishment, the luxury is hostile. For it becomes weaker instead of strong, and softer instead of firm, and sickly instead of healthful, and heavier instead of light, and slighter instead of compact, and ill-favored instead of handsome, and unsavory instead of fragrant, and impure instead of clean, and full of pain instead of being at ease, and useless instead of useful, and old instead of young, and decaying instead of strong, and slow and dull instead of quick, and maimed instead of whole. Whereas if it were of the devil, it ought not to receive injury from the things of the devil, I mean, from sin.

17. But neither is the body, nor food, of the devil, but luxury alone. For by means of it that malignant fiend brings to pass his innumerable evils. Thus did he make victims of a whole people. “For the beloved waxed fat,” says one, “and grew thick, and was enlarged, and kicked.” And thence also was the beginning of those thunderbolts on Sodom. And to declare this, Ezekiel said, “But this was the iniquity of Sodom, in pride and fullness of bread and refinements they waxed wanton.” Therefore also Paul said, “She that gives herself to pleasure, is dead while she lives.” How should this be? Because as a sepulchre she bears about her body, bound close to innumerable evils. And if the body so perish, how will the soul be affected; what disorder, what waves, what a tempest will she be filled with? Hereby, you see, she becomes unfitted for every duty, and will have no power easily to speak, or hear, or take counsel, or do anything that is needful. But as a pilot when the storm has got the better of his skill, is plunged into the deep, vessels and sailors and all: so also the soul together with the body is drowned in the grievous abyss of insensibility.

For, in fact, God has set the stomach in our bodies as a kind of mill, giving it a proportionate power, and appointing a set measure which it ought to grind every day. If therefore one cast in more, remaining undigested it does injury to the whole body. Hence diseases and weaknesses and deformities: since in truth luxury makes the beautiful woman not only sickly, but also foul to look upon. For when she is continually sending forth unpleasant exhalations, and breathes fumes of stale wine, and is more florid than she ought to be, and spoils the symmetry that beseems a woman, and loses all her seemliness, and her body becomes flabby, her eyelids bloodshot and distended, and her bulk unduly great, and her flesh an useless load; consider what a disgust it all produces.

Moreover, I have heard a physician say that many have been hindered from reaching their proper height by nothing so much as luxurious living. For the breath being obstructed by the multitude of things which are cast in and being occupied in the digestion of such things, that which ought to serve for growth is spent on this digestion of superfluities. Why need one speak of gout, rheum dispersed every where, the other diseases hence arising, the whole abomination? For nothing is so disgusting as a woman pampering herself with much food. Therefore among the poorer women one may see more of beauty: the superfluities being consumed and not cleaving to them, like some superfluous clay, of no use and benefit. For their daily exercise, and labors, and hardships, and their frugal table, and spare diet, minister unto them much soundness of body, and thence also much bloom.

18. But if you talk of the pleasure of luxury, you will find it to go no farther than the throat: since as soon as it has passed the tongue, it is flown away, leaving behind in the body much that is disgusting. For do not I pray look on the voluptuaries at table only, but when you see them rise up, then follow them, and you will see bodies rather of wild beasts and irrational creatures than of human beings. You will see them with headache, distended, bound up, needing a bed and a couch and plenty of rest, and like men who are tossed in a great tempest and require others to save them, and long for that condition in which they were before they were swelled even to bursting: they carrying their bellies about with a burden like that of women with child, and can scarce step forward, and scarce see, and scarce speak, and scarce do any thing. But if it should chance that they sleep a little, they see again strange dreams and full of all manner of fancies.

What should one say of that other madness of theirs? The madness of lust, I mean, for this also has its fountains from hence. Yea, as horses wild after the female, so they, goaded on by the sting of their drunkenness, leap upon all, more irrational than they, and more frantic in their boundings; and committing many more unseemlinesses which but to name is unlawful. For they know not in fact any longer what they suffer, nor what they do.

But not so he that keeps from luxury: rather he sits in harbor, beholding other men's shipwrecks, and enjoys a pleasure pure and lasting, following after that life which becomes him that is free. Knowing therefore these things, let us flee from the evil banquets of luxury and cleave to a spare table; that being of a good habit both of soul and body, we may both practice all virtue, and attain the good things to come, through the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom to the Father, with the Holy Ghost, be glory, power, and honor, now and ever, and world without end. Amen.