THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
Moreover, the difference here is not only in this, nor only in the persons, but also in the very motives and actions. God and fleshly parents do not punish from the same motive.
Therefore the Apostle adds, "For they disciplined us for a few days according to their own judgment, but He for our profit, that we may share His holiness."
That is, they often do this for their own pleasure and do not always have our benefit in view. But this cannot be said here. God does this not for any purpose of His own, but for you, solely for your profit.
They discipline you so that you may be useful to them, and often in vain. Here nothing of the sort occurs. Do you see what consolation arises from this as well?
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We are especially attached to those in whom we see that they do not command or instruct us from purposes of their own. All their care tends toward our benefit.
Then love is sincere and true, when someone loves us even though we are entirely useless to the one who loves. So also God loves us, not to receive anything from us, but to give to us.
He disciplines, does everything, and takes every measure, so that we may become capable of receiving His good things.
"They," the Apostle says, "disciplined us for a few days according to their own judgment, but He for our profit, that we may share His holiness."
What does "His holiness" mean? It means purity, so that we may become worthy of Him, as far as possible. He is concerned that you receive, and He uses every measure in order to give to you.
Yet you do not strive to receive. "I said to the Lord," says the Psalmist, "You are my Lord; You have no need of my goods" (Ps 16:2).
Well did he say, "They disciplined us for a few days according to their own judgment," because what pleases men is not always useful. "But He for our profit, that we may share His holiness."
Therefore discipline is useful. Therefore discipline brings holiness. And indeed it does.
If it destroys sloth, corrupt desires, and attachment to worldly things, if it gathers the soul together and disposes it to despise everything here, then is it not holy? Does it not draw the grace of the Spirit?
Let us therefore always set the righteous before ourselves and remember why they were all glorified. First of all, Abel and Noah. Was it not through sorrows?
Indeed, it is impossible for one righteous man not to grieve amid such a multitude of the ungodly. "Noah," Scripture says, "was a righteous and blameless man in his generation. Noah walked before God" (Gen 6:9).
Consider this. Even now, with so many men, fathers, and teachers whose virtues we can imitate, we still experience so many sorrows. How much must he have suffered, being alone among so many?
But should I speak of what happened at the wondrous and extraordinary flood? Should I speak of Abraham, of what he had to endure? His continual wanderings, the loss of his wife, dangers, battles, and temptations?
Should I speak of Jacob, and how many misfortunes he endured, being driven out from every side, laboring in vain, and wearing himself out for others?
There is no need to recount all his trials. It is enough to cite the testimony he himself gave in his conversation with Pharaoh.
"The days of the years of my sojourning are one hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not reached the years of my fathers in the days of their sojourning" (Gen 47:9).
Should I speak of Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Samuel, Elijah, Daniel, and all the prophets? You will find that all of them were glorified through sorrows.
And you, tell me, do you wish to be glorified through pleasures and luxury? This is impossible. Should I speak of the apostles? They too surpassed all men in sorrows.
But what am I saying? Christ Himself also said, "In the world you will have tribulation" (Jn 16:33). And again, "You will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice" (Jn 16:20).
"For strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few find it" (Mt 7:14). The Lord of this way said that it is narrow and strait. Do you seek a broad one?
Is this not senseless? Therefore you will not attain life, because you are going by another way. You will attain destruction, because you have chosen the way that leads there.
Do you wish me to tell you and set before you people devoted to luxury? Let us turn from later men to the most ancient.
The rich man burning in the fire, the Jews devoted to the belly, for whom the belly was god, and who constantly sought pleasures in the wilderness, why did they perish?
Like the contemporaries of Noah, was it not because they chose this luxurious and corrupt life? So too the Sodomites perished through gluttony. "Fullness of bread," it says, "and idleness" (Ezek 16:49).
This was said of the Sodomites. If fullness of bread produced so much evil, what shall we say of other pleasures?
Was Esau not intemperate? Were not those sons of God like this, who were seduced by women and dragged into the abyss? Were not those like this who satisfied lust with men?
Did not all the pagan kings, Babylonian and Egyptian, end their lives miserably? Were they not handed over to torment?
But tell me, does not the same happen now? Hear what Christ says: "Those who wear soft clothing are in kings' palaces" (Mt 11:8). But those who do not wear such clothing are in heaven.
Soft clothing weakens even a firm soul. It makes it delicate and unsettled. However strong and robust the body it clothes may be, through such luxury it soon becomes delicate and weak.
Tell me, why do you think women are so weak? Is it only by nature? No, but also from their way of life and upbringing.
A delicate upbringing, idleness, baths, anointings, abundance of fragrances, and a soft bed make them so. To understand this, listen to what I say.
Take some plant from a group of trees growing in the wilderness and shaken by winds. Plant it in a moist and shaded place. You will see it become worse than it was when you first took it.
That this is true is proved by women brought up in villages. They are much stronger than city men and could overcome many of them.
When the body becomes delicate, the soul necessarily suffers the same evil with it. The operations of the soul mostly correspond to the condition of the body.
During illnesses we are different because of weakness, and during health we are again different. It is like musical instruments. When the strings give soft and weak sounds because they are not well stretched, the excellence of the art is diminished.
The art is forced to submit to the weakness of the strings. So also in the body, the soul suffers much harm and great constraint from it. It experiences bitter slavery when the body needs frequent treatment.
Therefore I exhort you, let us strive to make it strong, not sickly. I say this not only to men, but also to women.
Why, woman, do you constantly weaken your body through luxury and make it useless? Why do you destroy its strength with fatness? Fatness is weakness for it, not strength.
If you leave this and conduct yourself differently, then bodily beauty will appear as you desire, as soon as there is strength and freshness.
But if, on the contrary, you subject it to countless illnesses, then you will have neither healthy color nor freshness. You will constantly feel unwell.
You know that a good house is beautiful when clear weather shines upon it. So also a beautiful face becomes still better through a cheerful disposition of soul. When the soul is gloomy and sorrowful, the face becomes uglier.
Gloom comes from illnesses and disordered health. Illnesses come from the body's being weakened by satiety. For this reason too you must avoid satiety, if you believe me.
But you will say, there is some pleasure in satiety. Not so much pleasure as unpleasantness. The pleasure is limited only to the throat and tongue.
When the meal is over, or when the food is eaten, you become like one who did not share in the meal. Indeed, you become much worse than he.
You carry away from it heaviness, weakness, headache, and an inclination to sleep resembling death. Often you also carry away sleeplessness from satiety, shortness of breath, and belching.
A thousand times you curse your stomach, when you ought to curse intemperance.
Therefore let us not fatten the body, but listen to Paul, who says, "Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its desires" (Rom 13:14).
The man who stuffs his stomach acts as though someone took food and threw it into a filthy pit. Or rather, he does something much worse.
The latter only fills the pit without harming himself. The former brings upon himself a thousand illnesses.
Only what is taken in the necessary measure and can be digested nourishes us. What exceeds necessity not only fails to nourish, but also brings harm.
Yet no one notices this, being deceived by an absurd pleasure and habitual attachment. Do you wish to nourish the body? Then leave aside excess. Give it what is necessary, and as much as it can digest.
Do not overload it, lest you sink it. What is taken in the necessary measure both nourishes and gives pleasure. Truly, nothing gives such pleasure as food well digested.
Nothing contributes so much to health. Nothing so preserves the liveliness of the senses. Nothing so prevents illnesses.
Thus what is taken in the necessary measure serves for nourishment, pleasure, and health. What is excessive serves for harm, unpleasantness, and illnesses.
Satiety produces what hunger produces, or even something much worse. Hunger in a short time weakens a man and brings him to death.
But satiety corrodes the body and produces decay in it. It subjects the body to prolonged illness and then to a most grievous death.
Yet we consider hunger unbearable, while we rush toward satiety, which is more harmful than hunger. From where comes this sickness in us? From where comes such madness?
I do not say that one must waste oneself away. Rather, one must take food so that the body may receive pleasure, true pleasure, and be nourished.
It should be well ordered, reliable, strong, and a capable instrument for the actions of the soul. But if it is overfilled with food, that food will, so to speak, tear apart its very bolts and joints.
Then it can no longer hold back this flood. The invading flood tears and destroys everything.
"Make no provision for the flesh," he says, "to fulfill its desires." He rightly said, "desires," because satiety is food for corrupt desires.
The one who is sated, even if he were wiser than all, necessarily suffers some harm from wine and foods. He necessarily feels weakness, and necessarily kindles a fierce flame within himself.
From this comes fornication. From this comes adultery. A hungry stomach cannot stir up fleshly lust, nor can a stomach satisfied with moderate food.
Corrupt desires are born in a stomach given over to satiety. Earth that is too wet, and manure that is watered and has too much moisture, bring forth worms.
By contrast, earth without such dampness brings abundant fruits, because it contains nothing excessive. Even when uncultivated it grows grass, and when cultivated it brings forth fruit.
So it is with us. Therefore let us not make our flesh useless, unfit, or harmful. Let us bring forth in it good fruits and fruitful plants.
Let us take care that they not wither from satiety. For even they can rot and produce worms instead of fruits. Thus inborn lust, if you feed it beyond measure, produces vile pleasures, and exceedingly vile ones.
Let us therefore destroy this evil in ourselves by every means, that we may be counted worthy of the promised good things in Christ Jesus our Lord, with Whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.