Feasting And Fasting

Cum autem quadem die filii et filiae ejus comederent et biberent vinum... Opportunissimum tentationis tempus elegit, cum scilicet filios Job comedentes et bibentes invenit. Adhuc, inquit escae eorum erant in ore ipsorum, et ira Dei ascendit super eos. Quia commessationes sine peccato vix esse possunt, comessationibus libenter se ingerit inimicus: orationem vero et jejunium semper odit, quia genus est etiam daemoniorum, quod non nisi oratione et jejunio expellitur. Et notandum quod non cibum sumere, sed in cibo delectari peccatum est. Quandoque enim aliquis non minus gulosus est in vilissimis cibis quam alius in epulis delicatis. Legitur Jonathas peccasse in gusto mellis, Esau in edulio lentis, Sodomitae in saturitate panis. Ergo, teste Hieromymo, non cibus, sed appetitus in culpa est. Considerantur autem in cibo sumendo tria, tempus, modus, et qualitas. Tempus, ut non praeveniatur hora; modus, ut summatur cibus cum moderatione inculpata; qualitas, ut non sint cibi nimium exquisiti, aut nimium sumptuosi. Comedere post saturitatem est superfluum, ante esuriem otiosum, in esurie licitum, post esuriem meritorium. Certe non credo in homine incolumi jejuniam alicujus esse meriti, quod esuries non praecedit. Jejunare, et jejunio non affligi, non habet vim, aut meritum jejunandi. Si instant apostolorum vigiliae, aut alia tempora, quae necessitatem jejunandi indicant, praecedenti die implemus et ingurgitamus nos varietatibus ferculorum, atque in fraudem futuri jejunii tantum nostris ventribus inculcamus, quo sufficienter possit sustentari tridouo sobrius dispensator. Non est hoc, dicit Dominus per prophetam, jejunium quod elegi. Sunt enim jejunia, quae reprobavit Deus, et sunt jejunia, quae elegit. Jejunant alia propter naturae impotentiam, alii propter avaritiam, alii ad apparentiam, aliis ad vitam aeternam, alii ad corporis sanitatem. Jejunat aegrotus ut convaleseat, hypocrita ut appareat, fastiditus ut appetat, avarus ut parcat. In omnibus intentio tua operi tuo nomen imponit. In omnibus discretio servanda est, auriga virtutum et operum, atque cogitationum optima moderatrix. Petrus Blenensis, Compendium In Job: Ad Henericum II Illustrissimum Anglorum Regem, Caput I Source: Migne PL 207.808a-809a

When, on a certain day, his sons and daughters ate and drank wine... 1 The devil choses the most opportune time for temptation, when he finds the sons of Job eating and drinking. 'While yet the food was in their mouths, the anger of God rose up over them,' it says. Because there can scarcely be revelry without sin, and among revellers the enemy eagerly comes. It is prayer and fasting he hates, because there is a class of demons that only prayer and fasting can expel. 2 And it should be noted that the sin is not in partaking of food but for the pleasure of it. And a man may be no less gluttonous with the cheapest bread than with any choice delicacy of a banquet. We read that Jonathan sinned by tasting honey, Esau for a bowl of lentils, the Sodomites by an abundance of bread. 3 Therefore, by the testimony of Jerome, it is not the bread but the desire that is the fault. 4 Let the taking of food be considered in three ways, by time, manner and quality. By time, that it is not brought before the hour, in manner, that one partakes of food with faultless modesty, by quality, that one's food is not excessively exquiste, nor too luxurious. To eat beyond satiety is unnecessary, before one is hungry pointless. In hunger there is permission, after hunger merit. Certainly I do not believe that an untroubled man gains any merit in fasting, because hunger does not precede it. To fast and have no struggle in fasting, has no value, nor merit. If the Vigil of the Apostles draws near, or some other time, which declares the need for fasting, if on the day before we fill ourselves and gobble down a variety of dishes, and in deceit make the coming fast, then it is only our stomachs we impress, in which the more sensible arranger is prefectly able to endure the three days. 'This is not the fast that I have chosen,' says the Lord. 5 For there are fasts which God abhors and fasts that He approves. Some fast because of an infirmity of nature, some because of avarice, some for the sake of appearance, others for eternal life, others for the body's health. The sick man fasts that he might become well, the hypocrite for appearance's sake, the picky fellow for his appetite, the miser that he might save money. In everything your intention stamps the name on your work. In everything prudence must be guarded, for moderation is the best chariot of virtue and works, and also thoughts. Peter of Blois, Compendium On Job, To Henry II Most Illustrious King Of The English, Chapter 1 1 Job 1.13 2 Mt 17.20 3 1 King 14.24-46, Gen 25.29-34, Ezek 16.49 4 Jerome, Against Jovinianus 2.11 5 Isaiah 58.5-11