So we have reached rung fourteen in our journey up the
ladder. We have recently finished lying and now have moved on to the one that affects
me the most. Or at least one of the ones that affects me the most. We have
reached gluttony. Such a thing as gluttony desensitizes the mind the heart and
the soul. We gain the satisfaction of being filled, but with food rather than
the Holy Spirit. We lose focus on our sight of God, and we fall hard into other
passions as we eat more and more. This is why for a majority of the year, the
Orthodox Church prescribes to us periods of fasting, and refraining from food. St.
John says three things about gluttony at the beginning of this rung. The first
he says, “Gluttony is hypocrisy of the stomach; for when it is glutted it
complains of scarcity, and when it is loaded and bursting it cries out that it
is hungry.” The second he says, “Gluttony is a deviser of seasonings, a
source of sweet dishes. You stop one jet, and it bobs up elsewhere; you plug
this too, and you open another.” And
finally the third thing he says, “Gluttony is a delusion of the eyes which
receives in moderation but wants to gobble everything at once.” We see the wonderous things that our eyes
want to see and desire it above all else. The smells, the tastes, the wide
variety of dishes we have today offer our palates wonders beyond our wildest dreams.
Yet, all of this is in vain. It is definitely okay to eat for nourishment and
for our bellies to be full. Especially when we work hard and have to keep our
strength up to fulfill the tasks set before us. But some people live to eat,
and others eat to live. There is a difference.
Let me tell you a story. That way you can understand
where I am coming from. First, me and my wife were married five years ago this
August, the day after my birthday. My wife is from St. Louis originally but
moved to Florida with her family in her early twenties. While there she of
course fell in love with Disney and Disney World. In and of itself this is not
a bad thing as we all have different likes and dislikes. However, when we were
married it became a desire to return to Disney World and see the place that she
loved. So because of my job and hers as well we did not have the money to go. I
found YouTube videos that allowed us to virtually travel and see the sights
without having to leave the comfort of our living room. One of those channels
that we found was The Disney Food Blog. I’m sure that you have heard of it. If
not it’s a really neat channel and I suggest you check it out. My story is not
to dissuade people from going nor is it a knock on the people that work for the
company. Rather watching AJ and the rest of the staff obsess over food and the
different products that Disney has made was a bit much. The amount of food they
ate, and the amount of food Disney serves to feed the guests became a problem
with me, because that food could have gone to someone who needs it more than
those people. They were eating copious amounts of food and not thinking about the
money they were spending nor the necessity to help feed other people. For them,
it became a passion to eat everything they could find. There are other channels
that I have found such as Greg’s Kitchen, where he reviews food, that for what
ever reason, food is passion and he lives to eat, not eating to live. They are
filling their bellies full of food instead of focusing on their prayer life, obtaining
the Holy Spirit, and devoting their service to God. They are not bad people,
but simply for lack of a better term, gluttons. St. John says of this, “The
mind of a faster prays soberly, but the mind of an intemperate person is filled
with impure idols.” We have allowed food to become our idol and have broken
one of the ten commandments set by God. We have replaced him with the dinner table,
richly laden with food. We have forsaken the Wedding Feast of the Bridegroom
for a temporary feast that will last for a moment.
Now comes the time to call ourselves to repentance once
again. We have seen the destruction that glutton causes, and there are many
things that could be said more on the subject. St. John however redirects our
focus and he too gives us advice and commands. He tells us, “Keep watch over
yourself early in the morning, at midday, and for an hour before taking food,
and you will realize the value of fasting. In the morning, thought leaps and
runs from one thing to another. With the approach of the sixth hour of the day
it becomes somewhat quieter; and by sunset it is completely at peace.” He also
says, “Stint your stomach and you will certainly lock your mouth, because the
tongue is strengthened by a lot of food. Struggle with all your might against
the stomach and restrain it with all sobriety. If you labour a little, the Lord
also will soon work with you.” And finally he says, “Thirst is often stopped
by thirst; but it is difficult to cut off hunger by hunger, and even
impossible. When the stomach overcomes you, tame it by labours. And if this is
impossible owing to weakness, struggle with it by vigil. If the eyes become
heavy, take up manual labour; but if sleep is not upon you, do not touch manual
labour, because it is impossible to occupy the mind with God and Mammon, that
is, both with God and manual labour.” We must now allow our hearts to redirect our
desires and abstain from overeating. From gluttony. St. John says, “Know
that often a devil settles in the belly and does not let the man be satisfied
even though he has devoured a whole Egypt and drunk a river Nile. But after
taking food this unclean spirit goes away, and sends against us the spirit of
fornication, telling him of our condition and saying: ‘Catch, catch, hound him;
for when the stomach is full, he will not resist much.’ With a smile the spirit
of fornication comes, and having bound us hand and foot by sleep, does with us
all he pleases, defiling soul and body with its impurities, dreams, and
emissions.” And the last quote I will use from him from this rung of the
ladder is this, he says, “If you have promised Christ to go by the strait
and narrow way, restrain your stomach, because by pleasing it and enlarging it,
you break your contract. Attend and you will hear Him who says: ‘Spacious and
broad is the way of gluttony that leads to the perdition of fornication, and
many there are who go in by it; because narrow is the gate and hard is the way
of fasting that leads to the life of purity, and few there are who go in by
it.”
Brothers and sisters, it is a
difficult journey. One that will find us battling against even the darkest of
foes. I am reminded of the hobbits on their way to Mordor and how they had to
fast and not give over to the temptation of returning home to a land of plenty,
for the sake of Middle-Earth. So too, we who are struggling on the temptation
of turning around on the ladder and filling our stomachs ‘til our hearts
content, must fast. Not for the sake of this world, no. Rather we must fast for
the sake of our eternal souls. Souls that if we are not careful, will be cast
into the fires of Gehenna for all eternity.
Amen.
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