St. John Cassian: On Gluttony and Fasting
Part III
Chapter 9 - Of moderation in penance, and the restraint of fasting.
The perfection of self-control is not only found in our use of time, nor the quality of our food, but is to be sought before the tribunal of conscienc. For each one of us should set himself a target of self-denial adequate to the struggle against bodily frailty. The degree of fasting laid down by law is beneficial and should be kept by all, but unless that is followed by a reasonable meal, it is of no avail in the quest for holiness. For a long period of eating nothing at all, followed by as much eating as we like, is much more likely to make us sluggish rather than pure and chaste. Holiness of mind does go with an empty stomach, but you cannot achieve lasting chastity without being content to observe a reasonable moderation. No matter how strict the fasting, if it is followed by overindulgence, it is uselsess, and much likely to lead to the sin of gluttony. It is better to eat a sensible amount every day than to keep occasional sever prolonged fasts. Unreasonable fasting has been known not only to weaken the will, but even to mkae it impossible to pray, when the body is so enfeebled.
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Chapter 14 - How gluttony may be defeated.
That is why [if we are not freed from gluttony, we cannot succeed in Christian discipleship--CDH] we must begin by crushing gluttony, and the mind be stretched no only by fasting, but by watching, reading and frequent examination of conscience, when we remember our past temptations and falls, groaning with the horror of sin, and igniting a desire for perfection and integrity. Once the mind is occupied and interested in these considerations, it will perceive the taking of food to be not so much giving in to desire as an obligation taken on like a burden, and will consider to be more a matter of bodily necessity than mental delight. Once we have embraced this consideration with genuine compunction, we may resist the desires of the flesh and its burning arrows, which grow more demanding when overfed. Thus, by copious tears and heartfelt sighs, we may extinguish the furnace of the body, which is enkindled as if by the King of Babylon to create occasions of sin and habits of vice, burning us quite as much as brimstone and pitch. Then God's grace, which the Holy Spirit distills like a dew into our hearts, is able to soothe and quench the heats of carnal longing.
So that is our first trial, our first probation, as in the Olympic Games, to extinguish the lure of gluttony in our desire for perfection. For this reason the excessive desire for food is crushed by the consideration of virtue, to the extent that we take food with some anxiety as if it were a natural necessity but contrary to chastity. Eventually we get into a way of life wherein we consider that for our spiritual concerns, no time is more difficult than that which we are obliged by our weakness to spend in looking after the body. And while we are constrainted by this necessity, concerned more with keeping alive than our real intentions, we are eager to get away from what hinders our work of salvation as quickly as possible. We would be quite unable to spurn the delight of earthly food had not our minds been fixed on pondering the things of God, and our joy even more in the love of virtue and the beauty of heaven. So it is that we can ignore the passing things of this world, since the mind is attentive to what is permanent and everlasting, and while still in the flesh, our hearts can contemplate the bliss of our life to come.
Chapter 19 - How Christ's athlete, while he remains in the body does not cease from the fight.
There will never come an end of prizes for competing as long as the athlete of Christ remains in the body. The greater and more successful he grows in triumph, the tougher the competition becomes. Once the flesh is subdued and conquered, how many ranks of foes, how many regiments of enemies are stirred up by his conquests to rise against the victorious soldier of Christ! There should certainly be no respite of peace for Christ's solder to grow lazy and begin to forget the glorious struggles of his career, or to become slack in security and so be robbed of the prizes he has won and the glory he has earned. If we too wish to grow in strength and aspire to these levels of honour, we too should begin the struggle in the same order, starting with the Apostle's words "I do not box, as if hitting the air; I punish my body and force it to obey," (1 Cor. 9:26-27) so that when we have won this event we can say, again in his words, "Our contest now is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness in this world, against the spirits of wickedness in the heavens." (Eph. 6:12) There is no other way in which we may compete with them, nor can we be fit to tackle the spiritual combat, if we are defeated in the struggle with the flesh or knocked out in boxing against the belly. How rightly the Apostle exhorts us, saying, "The temptation which assails you is merely human." (I Cor. 10:13)
St. John Cassian, The Monastic Institues, Book V