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Do not be surprised that Christ called luxury thorns. You, intoxicated with passion, do not know this; but those not infected with this passion know that luxury hurts more than thorns, and exhausts the soul more than care, and causes the most painful illnesses both in body and soul. It’s not so much worry that torments you as it is satiety. When insomnia, pain in the churches, heaviness in the head and illness in the stomach torment the satiated, then imagine how many thorns are more intolerable than this! Just as thorns, no matter from which side you take them, bloody your hands, so luxury brings ulcers to the feet, and to the hands, and to the head, and to the eyes, - in a word, to all members; it is lifeless and barren like thorns, and much more harmful than that - and harmful to the most essential parts. In fact, it prematurely brings one closer to old age, dulls the senses, darkens thought, blinds the insightful mind, fills the body with moisture, accumulates pus, causes many diseases and produces great heaviness and excessive obesity, which causes constant falls and frequent crashes. Why, tell me, are you making your body fat? Are we going to sacrifice you? Or offer it for a meal? It is good to fatten birds - or, better said, it is not good for them either, because when they become fat, eating them is no longer healthy for us. So great is the evil of satiety: it is harmful even to the dumb. By fattening us, we make them useless both for themselves and for us, because this obesity makes the food difficult to cook and the juices rot. But those animals that are not fed much and that, so to speak, fast, eat food in moderation and do difficult work, are very useful both for themselves and for others, suitable for food and for everything else. Those who eat them are healthier; those who eat fatty animals become like them, become lazy, sick and impose the most severe bonds on themselves. Nothing is so disgusting and harmful to the body as satiety; nothing destroys, burdens and destroys him as much as excessive consumption of food. Therefore, one can only be surprised at those who are insanely jaded, that they do not even want to take care of themselves as much as others take care of their wineskins. Wine sellers do not fill their wineskins more than they should, so as not to break them; and they don’t even want to have that kind of concern for their poor belly, but overburden it with food, fill themselves with wine to the ears, nostrils and very throats, and thus strictly constrain the spirit and the force that organizes animal life. Was your larynx given to you so that you could fill it to your very lips with wine and other harmful substances? Not for this, man, but in order, firstly, to glorify God, send sacred prayers to Him, read divine laws; secondly, give useful advice to your neighbors. And you, as if for gluttony, only having received the larynx, do not give it the slightest time for a sacred occupation, but spend your whole life using it for shameful work. Such people act like someone who, having taken a harp that has golden strings and is well tuned, instead of striking it and producing harmonious sounds, fills it with dung and all sorts of rubbish. I don’t call food manure, but satiety and any excess, since what is in excess no longer nourishes, but only harms. One womb is given only for eating, and the mouth, larynx and tongue are given for other, more necessary activities; or, better yet, the womb is given not just for eating, but for eating moderate food. It itself shows us this, since it always cries out against us when we harm it with such excess; and not only cries out, but in revenge for injustice, imposes on us the greatest punishment. And, firstly, it punishes the feet that carry us and lead us to luxurious feasts; then he ties the hands of those who serve him because they provided him with so many and such good dishes. And for many it damaged their very mouths, eyes and heads. Just as a slave, when something beyond his strength is placed on him, insults his master in strong indignation, so the womb, which has been violated, often destroys and spoils the brain itself, along with other members. Therefore, God arranged well by combining such harmful consequences with immoderation, so that if you do not want to act prudently of your own free will, although involuntarily, because of fear and great harm, you learn moderation. So, knowing this, let us run away from luxury, let us take care of moderation, so that we can enjoy bodily health, and, having delivered our souls from all illnesses, we will be worthy of future blessings (6). A person living in luxury has a lot of wealth, and acquisitions flow to him easily, as if from a source; but he is afraid of disasters [arising] from luxury and the uncertainty of the future; and he who has accustomed himself to a modest way of life is always calm and enjoys pleasure; It is not so much that it saddens him that he does not have a luxurious table, but it delights him that he is not afraid of the uncertainty of the future. Everyone knows how many disasters come from luxury, but it is necessary to talk about this now. From it there is extreme warfare, that is, both body and soul, extreme storm, extreme illnesses, and, moreover, incurable illnesses, accompanied by great misfortunes. But such are not the fruits of moderation; [from her] great health, great blessings. “Healthy sleep,” says the Wise One, “comes from moderation of the stomach” (Sir. 31:22). Moderation is desired everywhere, but immoderation is the opposite. For example: put a large bunch of firewood on a small spark - and you will no longer see a bright fire, but only very unpleasant smoke. Place on a very strong and large person a burden that exceeds his strength, and you will see him, along with the burden, defeated and lying on the ground. Pile too much cargo on a ship and you will cause a terrible shipwreck. Such are the fruits and luxuries. Just as on ships that are too loaded, there is great confusion among the passengers, when the helmsman, and those sitting at the stern, and others sailing on him begin to throw everything into the sea, both from above and from below, so here: they throw up both up and down, and die amidst torment. And what is most shameful of all, the lips themselves do the work of the hind parts and even become more shameful than them. If your mouth is in such a shameful state, then imagine what it’s like in your soul. There everything is darkness, everything is a storm, everything is darkness, great confusion in thoughts, restless and heavy, and the soul itself cries out from oppression (10). Let us not seek a luxurious and pampered life. Just as there is a double good: they become strong and receive great rewards, so here there is a double evil: they become weak and unfit for anything, except evil. There is nothing more useless than a person who spends all his time in inactivity and luxury. An untested man, says [Scripture], is unskilled (cf. Sir. 37:30); inexperienced not only in these feats, but also in everything else. Inaction is useless, and pleasures themselves are the most difficult to enjoy, since they produce satiety. The pleasure from eating and from inaction is by no means as [as it seems], but all this is short-term and fleeting. Let's not worry about such a life. If we look at who spends his time more pleasantly, whether he works and lives in poverty or indulges in luxury, we will find that he is the first. Firstly, the latter’s very body is pampered and relaxed; then, his bodily feelings are not in a healthy state, but weak and lifeless; and without this there is no pleasant feeling of health. Which horse is more useful, fattened by inactivity or used for work? Which ship is it floating or standing motionless? What type of water is flowing or standing? What kind of iron is used or not? This shines and is like silver, but this becomes covered with rust and remains useless and even loses part of its substance. Something similar happens in an idle soul: it is as if rust covers it and destroys its lordship and everything else. How can you destroy this rust? A touchstone of sorrows; they make the soul useful and capable of anything. Tell me, can it cut passions when its edge is dull and bends like tin? Can he wound the devil? And who can be pleased with a man who makes his flesh fat and moves like a seal? (10) You might be interested in: