Gluttony – not only about food: A dialogue with John Climacus

"Eat, drink, and be merry" – this saying is familiar to everyone. However, if we study the source, it becomes clear that it is not so much of folk origin. Let's recall, these words are spoken by the foolish rich man in the Gospel parable. Once he gathered such a bountiful harvest that his home barns were not enough to store it. Then he ordered the construction of even larger barns and boldly said to himself: “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’" But God said to him, "You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" (Luke 12:15).

«Covetousness», as the Lord speaks of, is one of the «hypostases» of gluttony – a mortal sin and a tormenting passion. A person afflicted with this ailment forsakes pleasing God for the sake of pleasing himself.

Forgetting that the soul must be nourished with virtues, he begins to indulge his body with feasts and other material pleasures. Death overtakes such a person unexpectedly — and he stands before God in spiritual nakedness.

Another vivid example of a Gospel glutton is a rich man from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. In life, the master «feasted sumptuously», while the poor man was content with only the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. After their deaths, their fates changed dramatically. Lazarus found himself in bliss in the "bosom of Abraham", receiving eternal reward for a short life spent in poverty. And the rich man finally realized what sorrow was, having been indifferent to the needs of the poor before.

These examples give a clear understanding that, in a broad sense, gluttony is an unrestrained pursuit of pleasure. The many-faced nature of this passion is also described by Saint John of the Ladder (John Climacus).

The many-faced passion and its offspring

"The prince of demons is the fallen Lucifer, and the prince of passions is gluttony. Gluttony is a deviser of seasonings, a source of sweet dishes, a delusion of the eyes," says the saint.

This passion plays on the most vulnerable part of human nature – the body. Every person has an inherent desire for comfort. This longing was instilled in us by God at creation. For comfort, the Lord created the Garden of Eden, placing the forefathers there. Their only task was to enjoy the comforts of paradise and maintain its beauty. But even such a simple task proved beyond the first people. It was gluttony that prompted Eve to first taste the forbidden fruit.

After the Fall, people lost the ability to behold the beauties of Eden. Since then, they have tried in every way to create splendor around themselves with their own hands. But, unfortunately, such a false sense of “comfort” often arises through accumulation and the satiation of the belly.

We have already mentioned that every passion has its "children" – similar passions that arise from it. Thus, from despondency comes sloth, and from gluttony – a whole «bouquet» of passions.

The abbot of Sinai introduces us to a vast list of gluttony-related passions. Just as we talk with Saint John, he also dialogues with this passion. Here’s how it responds to him:

"My first-born son is a minister of fornication, the second after him is hardness of heart, and the third is sleepiness. From me proceed a sea of bad thoughts, waves of filth, depths of unknown and unnamed impurities. My daughters are laziness, talkativeness, familiarity in speech, jesting, facetiousness, contradiction, a stiff neck, obstinacy, disobedience, insensibility, captivity, conceit, audacity, boasting, after which follows impure prayer, whirling of thoughts, and often unexpected and sudden misfortunes, with which is closely bound despair, the most evil of all my daughters."

Listening to the words of the hermit, one reflects and realizes that gluttony, in reality, is not only and not so much about food, but about everything that burdens a person, deprives him of peace, overshadowing the joy of communion with God.

Moreover, learning about the "many-faced" nature of this passion, one understands that in recent centuries it has given birth to new "children" – various addictions: smoking, alcoholism, drug addiction, etc. A person afflicted with these addictions loses the most important thing – the strength of his will and personal freedom. One cigarette, one drink, one dose is not enough. A "point of no return" is reached. An irreversible process of entangling the personality in the web of these destructive habits begins.

The Orthodox approach to combating addictions

Over time, it becomes increasingly difficult for a person to eradicate, to "weed out" a particular addiction. Here, God and sincere faith in His gracious help can come to his aid. We know that different approaches offer different solutions to this problem. Some sectarian organizations practice physical violence as a universal means of "eradicating" addiction. Such "conversion therapy", of course, leads to nothing good. Moreover, it inevitably traumatizes the psyche.

Orthodoxy offers a more "merciful" and at the same time more effective approach to combating gluttony in all its forms. This approach has a universal name – fasting. St. John Climacus reveals to us how exactly it is applied in specific cases.

To those attached to excessive food consumption, which stirs up lust, the saint advises:

«If possible, give your stomach satisfying and digestible food, so as to satisfy its insatiable hunger by sufficiency, and so that we may be delivered from excessive desire ... If we look into the matter, we shall find that most of the foods which inflate the stomach also excite the body». And he adds: "By stinting the stomach the heart is humbled, but by pleasing the stomach the mind becomes proud."

The abbot of Sinai also offers universal means for combating various addictions, emphasizing, however, that this struggle is life-long:

"TThe remembrance of falls resists me but does not conquer me. The thought of death is always hostile to me, but there is nothing among men that destroys me completely. He who has received the Comforter (the grace of the Holy Spirit – Ed.), prays to Him against me; and the Comforter, when appealed to, does not allow me to act passionately."

The instruction of St. John confirms the truth of the Savior's words that any passion is cast out only by prayer and fasting (see Matthew 17:21). It is extremely difficult for a dependent person to make himself abstain. But if they prays to God – the Lord Himself sends them reasons for abstinence. Thus, an insatiable glutton is sent illnesses requiring dietary nutrition or complete abstinence from food. An alcoholic and a drug addict run out of funds to buy new bottles of alcohol and doses of "hellish potion". A smoker develops asthma or lung cancer. All this the Lord sends for the benefit of the "drowning" one, when his salvation can no longer remain solely the work of his hands.

Having received answers to our pressing questions about the "many-faced" passion of gluttony, we bid farewell to the wise abbot John for a week. In parting, his words sound to us: "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."

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