Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 37

(Admonition 20.) Those given to gluttony are to be admonished in one way, the abstinent in another. For the former are attended by superfluity of speech, levity of conduct, and lust; the latter, however, often by the fault of impatience, often by that of pride. For unless immoderate loquacity carried away those given to gluttony, that rich man who is said to have feasted sumptuously every day would not have burned more grievously in his tongue, saying: 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water, that he may cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame' (Luke 16:24). By which words it is surely shown that, by feasting daily, he had more frequently sinned in his tongue, who, wholly aflame, sought chiefly to be cooled in his tongue.

Again, that levity of conduct straightway follows those given to gluttony, sacred authority attests, saying: 'The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play' (Exod. 32:6). And gluttony very often drags them even to lust, because while the belly is distended with satiety, the stings of concupiscence are aroused. Hence to the cunning enemy too, who opened the sense of the first man to the desire of the fruit, but bound him in the snare of sin, it is said by the divine voice: 'Upon your breast and belly you shall creep' (Gen. 3:14), as if it were plainly said to him: By thought and gluttony you shall have dominion over human hearts. That lust follows those given to gluttony, the prophet attests, who, while narrating open things, announces hidden things, saying:

'The prince of cooks destroyed the walls of Jerusalem' (Jer. 39:9; 2 Kings 25:1, according to the Septuagint). For the prince of cooks is the belly, to which great care of service is rendered by the cooks, that it may be delightfully filled with food. But the walls of Jerusalem are the virtues of the soul, raised up to the desire of the supernal peace. The prince of cooks, therefore, casts down the walls of Jerusalem; because while the belly is distended by gluttony, the virtues of the soul are destroyed through lust. On the contrary, unless impatience often shook the minds of the abstinent from the bosom of tranquillity, Peter, when he said: 'Minister in your faith virtue, and in virtue knowledge, and in knowledge abstinence' (2 Pet. 1:5),

would not straightway have vigilantly added, saying: 'and in abstinence patience.' For he foresaw that patience would be lacking to the abstinent, and admonished that it should be present with them. Again, unless the thoughts of the abstinent were sometimes pierced by the fault of pride, Paul would by no means have said: 'Let not him who does not eat judge him who eats' (Rom. 14:3). And speaking again to others, while he was censuring the precepts of those glorying in the virtue of abstinence, he added: 'Which things indeed have a show of wisdom in superstition and humility, and in not sparing the body, not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh' (Col. 2:23).

In which matter it is to be noted that in his disputation the excellent preacher joins an appearance of humility to superstition, because while the flesh is worn down by abstinence more than is necessary, humility is shown outwardly, but concerning this very humility one is gravely puffed up within. And unless the mind sometimes swelled from the virtue of abstinence, the arrogant Pharisee would by no means have studiously numbered this among great merits, saying: 'I fast twice in the week' (Luke 18:12). Those given to gluttony, therefore, are to be admonished, lest, in that they lie in wait for the delight of food, they transfix themselves with the sword of lust;

and let them look how much loquacity, how much levity of mind lies in wait for them through eating, lest, while they softly serve the belly, they be cruelly bound in the snares of vices. For a man withdraws the further from his second Parent, the more that, by immoderate use, while the hand is stretched out to food, the fall of the first parent is repeated. But on the contrary the abstinent are to be admonished always to look anxiously, lest, when they flee the vice of gluttony, worse vices than these be as it were generated out of virtue; lest, while they macerate the flesh, they burst forth into impatience of spirit; and there be now no virtue in the flesh being conquered, if the spirit is overcome by anger.

But sometimes, while the mind of the abstinent represses itself from anger, a joy coming as it were from abroad corrupts it, and the good of abstinence perishes in proportion as it does not at all guard itself from spiritual vices. Hence it is rightly said through the prophet: 'In the days of your fasts your own wills are found' (Isa. 58:3, according to the Septuagint). And a little after: 'You fast for strifes and quarrels, and strike with fists' (ibid.). For the will pertains to joy, the fist to anger. In vain, therefore, is the body worn down by abstinence, if the mind, given over to disordered motions, is torn apart by vices.

And again they are to be admonished to keep their abstinence always without diminution, and never to believe it, before the hidden Judge, to be a virtue of surpassing worth, lest, if perchance it is believed to be of great merit, the heart be lifted up into haughtiness. Hence it is said through the prophet: 'Is this the kind of fast that I have chosen? But break your bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and the wandering into your house' (ibid. 58:5-7). In which matter it is to be weighed how small the virtue of abstinence is regarded, which is commended only by other virtues. Hence Joel says: 'Sanctify a fast' (Joel 2:15). For to sanctify a fast is, by joining other good works, to show an abstinence of the flesh worthy of God.

The abstinent are to be admonished to know that they then offer an abstinence pleasing to God, when they bestow on the needy the things which they withdraw from themselves in food. For that is diligently to be heard which the Lord reproved through the prophet, saying: 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for these seventy years, did you fast a fast unto me? And when you ate and drank, did you not eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?' (Zech. 7:5ff.). For each one fasts not to God but to himself, if he does not bestow on the needy the things which he withdraws from the belly for a time, but keeps them to be offered to the belly afterwards.

Therefore, lest either the appetite of gluttony cast down the former from the state of their mind, or the afflicted flesh supplant the latter through haughtiness, let the former hear from the mouth of Truth: 'Take heed to yourselves, lest perchance your hearts be weighed down with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this world' (Luke 21:34). Where a useful dread is also added: 'And that day come upon you suddenly. For as a snare it shall come upon all who sit upon the face of the whole earth' (ibid. 21:35). Let the latter hear: 'Not that which enters the mouth defiles a man, but that which proceeds from the mouth defiles a man' (Matt. 15:11). Let the former hear: 'Food for the belly, and the belly for food; but God will destroy both this and these' (1 Cor. 6:13). And again:

'Not in revellings and drunkenness' (Rom. 13:13). And again: 'Food does not commend us to God' (1 Cor. 8:8). Let the latter hear that 'all things are clean to the clean; but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is clean' (Titus 1:15). Let the former hear: 'Whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame' (Phil. 3:19). Let the latter hear: 'Some shall depart from the faith' (1 Tim. 4:1). And a little after: 'Forbidding to marry, to abstain from foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by the faithful and by those who have known the truth' (1 Tim. 4:3). Let the former hear: 'It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything by which your brother is offended' (Rom. 14:21). Let the latter hear:

'Use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities' (1 Tim. 5:23). So that both the former may learn not to crave the foods of the flesh inordinately, and the latter may not dare to condemn the creature of God which they do not crave.