153. Чрево

We see that the belly is insatiable, always demanding food and food, because it cannot live without it. Today you will be satisfied; the next day, and the third or more again demands food. So is luxury. Luxury is like a belly that devours everything, for luxury is whimsical and can never be satisfied with anything. But let's see what luxury does, and from here we will learn how harmful and destructive it is. 1) We see that luxury is planning everything new, and wants to redo everything. She needs to change everything according to her own wisdom. This house of mine is not good, I need to rebuild it, or make another one again. I don’t like these clothes, I need to alter them or sew new ones. This food disgusts me, I need to order the cook to cook such and such, season it with this and that. I can’t drink plain and plain grape vodka, I need wine vodka and buy better grape vodka. It is indecent for my servants to serve me in such and such a dress; they need to be better decorated. I’m ashamed to ride in such and such a carriage and horses, I need to get a better carriage and better horses. It's boring for me to be without music; I need to try to have music. Dog hunting adds a lot of fun; I'll try to have it too. A card game drives away sad thoughts and boredom; What forbids me to console myself with it? Good ponds, gardens and galleries add considerable cheerfulness; I’ll build them, and so on. This is how he plans and reflects, who knows that Christ the Lord suffered for him and was crucified on the Cross, and in His life did not have where to lay his head (Matthew 8:20), and to whom the narrow path to eternal life was shown from the same Lord! Oh, poor Christian, so expanding himself! Look around and see where your luxury leads you. When should you think in such thoughts about God, about Christ, crucified for your sins? When about your soul? When about death? When will you stand before the Judgment of Christ and answer for everything? When about a blissful and unhappy eternity? What will you give to the poor and poor, who ask for Christ’s name, when you spend everything on luxury? I also give to the poor. Answer: you give, but for a penny or a piece of money, and only to show yourself, and not to make up for shortcomings. But to whom much is given, much is required (Luke 12:48). So luxury turns a person away from thoughts that are beneficial to the soul and from giving alms and corrupts them. 2) People learn to live luxuriously from each other, as we see. One did this and that according to his whims, built such and such chambers, sewed such and such clothes, and so on. The other one does the same, and the others do the same. And so people follow each other, like foolish cattle, who go wherever one animal goes, and do not consider whether what they imitate others in is useful for them. They follow their feelings, but do not consult with sound reason and a faithful adviser, God’s word, and so they are mistaken. O man! Do not do what people do, but do what is in accordance with sound reason and Holy Scripture. Truly you will not get lost if you stick to this holy lamp and follow it. 3) Luxury requires a person to live expansively. And this requires considerable sums. What is the luxury lover up to? Where can I get it from? Not ready. A lover of luxury must do all sorts of lies. The ruler needs to collect from his subordinates; the landowner - to impose excessive taxes on his peasants or force them to work for him more days a week; for a merchant to sell a cheap thing for an expensive one, to lie and deceive buyers; to another - to withhold payment from the mercenaries; to others - a salary determined by the Sovereign, not to be given to those under his control; others must turn to theft, embezzlement and all untruths. Luxury is the cause of this and all evil. From this we see that many live in all kinds of squalor and lack, many do not have homes, daily food or clothing. All this happens because of luxury. Luxury teaches people to offend and expose. Some people need a lot, therefore others are left with nothing. Some are deprived, others are deprived. Some are full, others are hungry and thirsty. Some are decorated with purple and fine linen, others walk half naked. Some expand and decorate their houses, while others do not even have huts. Some travel in carriages and trains, others have nothing to plow the land and do other work, and so on. Such is the truth and love of today’s Christians, those who always say: “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century.” Such people hope for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century, but they live and act as if there were no resurrection and eternal life. 4) What luxury lovers do in secret is shameful to even talk about. Where there is no fear of God, what good can there be, apart from all evil? The flesh of every person becomes fierce, but especially of the lover of luxury who has taken away the reins of continence from it. But no matter how they hide with their dark deeds, they cannot hide from the all-seeing eye of God. He clearly sees both their thoughts and undertakings, and their deeds done in darkness, and will announce to them on the day of His Last Judgment, as He says: I will reprove you and bring your sins before your face. Understand this, you who forget God, lest He snatch you away, and then no one will deliver (Ps. 49:21-22). 5) Satan, the enemy of human souls, presents thoughts about whims and luxury to a person, and confuses him in them: how to have fun, how to have fun, what to do, how to console oneself with this and that, to go on visits and receive guests, and so on. This is what the adversary plans so that man would consider this world his Fatherland and a paradise of joy, but would forget about future bliss and thus perish; He would also strive for all the untruths and insults of poor people, which luxury teaches, and so it would be more convenient, entangled in all the evil ones, and perish. Such is his cunning and design. A strong and real snare of the devil is a luxury with which he ensnares Christian souls and drags them with him into eternal destruction. 6) We read in stories that many cities and states perished from luxury, for luxury devours everything and every good thing, like a belly or like an abyss, and makes people and the strongest powerless and weakens, and makes them unsuitable for battle. Joy comes to the surrounding enemies when luxury multiplies in a different state. Woe to that country and state in which luxury has increased! For with luxury all evil multiplies there, which is why God’s righteous wrath hangs over it. From here nothing else can be expected but destruction. 7) You see, Christian, what luxury is and what it does. Beware of luxury, lest you be corrupted and perish. “Other people do this and that, how can I not do it?” What are you saying, O man: “Others do this and that”!? Others, doing wrong, go to destruction. And should you follow them? If you do what they do, you will follow them to destruction. After all, you are a Christian; The lamp of the word of God shines on you, and shows you what is good and what is evil, what is beneficial and what is harmful, what is virtue and what is vice, to which end the narrow path and to which the long path leads. If you want to be saved, you need to do not what people do, but what God’s word teaches. In Sodom, everyone committed lawlessness, but righteous Lot did not look at them, but lived holy and pleasing to God. May you also be in peace, like Lot in Sodom. Although everyone will drown in luxury and lawless deeds, do not look at them, but do what God’s word teaches, and live as is fitting for true Christians. When you think about a blissful and painful eternity, then this reflection, like the wind, will dispel your thoughts about whims and luxury, and you will not demand anything except what is necessary. You need a lot of lust and luxury; nature is content with little. Therefore, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God (Rom. 12:1-2). You might be interested in: