THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
See how he put them in the inner prison. This also happened by the divine ordering. Since a great miracle was to be accomplished, a place suited for hearing it was appointed, outside the city and far from temptations and dangers. And he “fastened,” the writer says, “their feet in the stocks,” that is, in fetters.
What tears do our present ways deserve? The Apostles suffered so much, while we live in luxury and attend spectacles. Therefore we perish and fall into dangers, seeking pleasures everywhere and refusing to endure even the slightest verbal insult for Christ.
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Let us, I exhort you, continually remember how much they suffered and endured. They were not troubled or scandalized. They were doing the work of God and endured such things. They did not say, “We are preaching. Why, then, does God not defend us?”
Yet this too profited them. Even without aid, the sufferings themselves made them firmer, stronger, and fearless. “Tribulation,” Paul says, “produces patience” (Rom 5:3).
Let us not seek a luxurious and delicate life. There there is a twofold good. People become strong and are counted worthy of great rewards. Here there is a twofold evil. People become weak and useless for anything, except perhaps for evil.
Nothing is more useless than a man who spends all his time in idleness and luxury. “An untried man,” Scripture says, “is inexperienced” (cf. Sir 37:30). He is inexperienced not only in these contests, but in everything else.
Idleness is useless. Even in pleasures, it is hardest of all to receive pleasure, because they produce satiety. The pleasure from foods and from idleness is not what it seems. All this is brief and quickly passes away.
Let us not care for such a life. If we ask who spends his time more pleasantly, the laborer who lives in poverty or the man given to luxury, we shall find that it is the former.
First, the body of the latter is softened and enfeebled. Then his bodily senses are not in a healthy state, but weak and lifeless. Without this, there is no pleasant sense of health.
Which horse is more useful, the one fattened in idleness or the one put to work? Which ship, the one sailing or the one standing motionless? Which water, flowing or stagnant? Which iron, the one used or the one unused?
The former shines and becomes like silver. The latter is covered with rust, remains useless, and even loses part of its own substance.
Something similar happens in a soul that loves ease. Rust seems to cover it and destroy its brightness and everything else. By what can this rust be removed? By the whetstone of afflictions. They make the soul useful and capable of everything.
Tell me, can such a soul cut down the passions when its edge has grown dull and bends like lead? Can it wound the devil? And to whom can a man be pleasant who fattens his flesh and moves like a seal?
I say this not about those who are such by nature, but about those who fatten their bodies by luxury, though they are not naturally corpulent.
The sun has risen and poured its bright rays everywhere. It has awakened all to their work. The farmer goes out, taking his spade. The coppersmith takes his hammer. Each craftsman takes his proper tool, and all begin their labor.
The wife takes up the spinning or the weaving. But he, like a swine, from early morning cares for the filling of his belly and thinks how to prepare a luxurious table.
Truly, to be filled from early morning belongs only to irrational animals, which are fit for nothing except slaughter. Yet even among them, those used for bearing burdens and capable of labor also begin their work after the night.
But he rises from his bed only when the sun has already illumined the whole marketplace and all have labored sufficiently at their tasks. He rises stretching himself, truly like a fattened swine, having lost the better part of the day in the darkness of sleep.
Then he sits on his bed for a long time, often unable to control himself because of yesterday’s drunkenness. He spends most of the morning in this.
Afterward he adorns himself and goes out, an embodied deformity. He has nothing human in himself, but is a complete beast in human form. His eyes are swollen, his mouth gives off the stench of wine.
His poor soul lies as though on a sickbed because of the excessive quantity of food he has taken. It drags the burden of the flesh like an elephant.
Then, having reached the place, he sits down and begins to speak and act in such a way that it would be better for him still to sleep than to be awake.
If someone says something unpleasant to him, he is more sensitive than any maiden. If something pleasant is said, he is more frivolous than any child. Meanwhile his face is constantly distorted by yawning.
He is ready to submit to all who wish to do evil, if not to men, then to the passions. Anger, lust, envy, and everything else easily master him.
Everyone flatters him. Everyone serves him, weakening his soul still more. Every day he receives some increase of his disease. If he falls into difficult circumstances, he becomes dust and ashes, and silk garments bring him no benefit.
We have said this not idly, but to teach that no one should live in sloth and idleness. Sloth and luxury are good for nothing. They serve only vainglory and pleasure.
How could everyone not despise such a man, both household members, friends, and relatives? Would someone not rightly say that he is a burden on the earth and was born into the world in vain?
Or rather, not in vain, but to his own harm, to his own destruction, and to the injury of others.
Let us consider what is pleasant in such a life, where people seek sloth and inactivity. What could be more unpleasant than a man who does not know what to do? What is more shameful than he? What is more pitiable?
Is it not worse than a thousand chains to sit in the marketplace, constantly calling out and staring at those who pass by?
The soul by nature needs movement and does not endure stillness. God created it as an active being. Therefore activity belongs to its nature, while idleness is contrary to its nature.
Let us not point to the sick, but take experience itself as proof. Nothing is more shameful than sloth and idleness. For this reason God placed us under the necessity of laboring.
Idleness harms everything, even the bodily members. If the eye, the mouth, the stomach, or any member whatever does not perform its work, it falls into extreme disease. Yet nothing suffers from this as much as the soul.
Still, just as idleness is evil, so is improper activity. If someone were to eat nothing, he would harm his teeth. If he ate what is improper, he would set them on edge.
So it is here also. If the soul does nothing, or does what it ought not, it loses its strength.
Therefore let us strive to avoid both things, idleness and that activity which is worse than idleness. What activity is this? Avarice, anger, envy, and the other passions.
With regard to these, let us strive for inactivity, that we may receive the good things promised to us, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.