Lazarus and the Rich Man

Source: orthodoxchristiansupply.com

In this excerpt from one of St. John Chrysostom's homilies on the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, he does what we customarily often does in his preaching: go off the immediate theme in order to develop a moral, ethical or spiritual theme only loosely related to the parable. In analyzing the rich man's practice to "feast sumptuously" at his table, St. John launches into a general lesson on how we should approach the daily need to eat and drink. Here he delivers his famous aphorism on how to approach eating and drinking, which you will encounter below in italics. St. John never missed an opportunity to probe into all aspects of a Christian "lifestyle" - both what we usually term the "spiritual" and the "material."

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Christ has made it very clear that after taking nourishment at table we ought to receive not sleep in bed but prayer and reading of the divine Scriptures. When he had fed the great multitude in the wilderness, He did not send them to bed and to sleep, but summoned them to hear divine sayings. He had not filled their stomachs to bursting, nor abandoned them to drunkenness; but when he had satisfied their need, He led them to spiritual nourishment. Let us do the same; and let us accustom ourselves to eat only enough to live, not enough to be distracted and weighed down. For we were not born, we do not live, in order to eat and drink; but we eat in order to live. At the beginning life was not made for eating, but eating for life. But we, as if we had come into the world for this purpose, spend everything for eating.