Homilies on the Statues

² Since therefore you have manifested much generosity of feeling, suffer us to discharge the further debt of which we gave a promise the other day; although indeed I see not all present who were here when I made the promise. What, I would ask, can be the cause of this? What has repelled them from our table? He that has partaken of a bodily meal, it would seem, has thought it an indignity after receiving material food, to come to the hearing of the divine oracles. But not rightly do they think thus.

For if this were improper, Christ would not have gone through His large and long discourses after that mystic supper; and if this had been unsuitable, He would not, when He had fed the multitude in the desert, have communicated His discourses to them after that meal. For (if one must say something startling on this point), the hearing of the divine oracles at that time is especially profitable. For when you have made up your mind that after eating and drinking you must repair also to the assembly, you will assuredly be careful, though perchance with reluctance, of the duty of sobriety; and wilt neither be led away at any time into excess of wine, or gluttony.

For the thought, and the expectation of entering the church, schools you to partake of food and drink with becoming decency; lest, after you have entered there, and joined your brethren, you should appear ridiculous to all present, by smelling of wine, and unmannerly eructation. These things I now speak not to you who are now present, but to the absent; that they may learn them through your means. For it is not having eaten that hinders one's hearing, but listlessness. But while deeming it to be a condemnation not to fast, you then add another fault, which is far greater and heavier, in not being a partaker of this sacred food; and having nourished the body, you consume the soul with famine.

Yet what kind of apology have you for doing this? For in the matter of fasting you have, perhaps, bodily weakness to plead, but what have you to say with respect to hearing? For surely weakness of body is no impediment to your partaking of the divine oracles! If I had said, “Let no one who has breakfasted mix with us;” “let no one who has eaten be a hearer,” you would have had some kind of excuse; but now, when we would fain drag, entice, and beseech you to come, what apology can you have for turning away from us?

The unfit hearer is not he that has eaten and drunk; but he who gives no heed to what is said, who yawns, and is slack in attention, having his body here, but his mind wandering elsewhere, and such a one, though he may be fasting, is an unprofitable hearer. On the other hand, the man who is in earnest, who is watchful and keeps his mind in a state of attention, though he may have eaten and drunk, will be our most suitable hearer of all. For this rule, indeed, very properly prevails with relation to the secular tribunals and councils.

Inasmuch as they know not how to be spiritually wise, therefore they eat not to nourishment, but to bursting; and they drink often to excess. For this reason, as they render themselves unfit for the management of their affairs, they shut up the court-houses and council-chambers in the evening and at midday. But here there is nothing of this sort—God forbid! But he who has eaten will rival him who fasts, as far as regards sobriety of soul; for he eats and drinks, not so as to distend the stomach, or to darken the reason, but in such a way as to recruit the strength of the body when it has become weakened.