Chapter VII. On Abstinence.

Chapter VII.

On Abstinence.

True and perfect abstinence is only the use of necessary things, food and clothing, and a complete withdrawal of delightful and superfluous things, of those things that are made with much diligence and obtained at great expenses. After the example of St. John the Baptist, who ate locusts and leaves of milky trees having the taste of honey, drank water, and had clothing of camel hairs ¹. Hence the Apostle says: Having food and things with which we may be covered, let us be content with these ². For a servant of God ought not to have clothing for beauty or for delight, but to cover his nakedness, as the Ordinary Gloss says on Matthew concerning the clothing of John.

B. He keeps and loves true abstinence who not only gladly abstains from delightful things that he does not have and that are illicit for him, but also spontaneously and purely for God avoids delightful things that he has and can have, which he could use licitly and meritoriously, whether they are costly, or cheap, or delightful. For if someone were more delighted in porridge than in partridges, in water than in wine, it would be more acceptable to God for him to abstain from porridge than from partridges, from water than from wine. For D. Augustine says: "Any delicacies, if they are taken without desire, do no harm; and cheap foods accepted delightfully or appetitively impede the virtue of perfect abstinence. For David poured out water wrongly desired, which he did not dare to drink because he had desired it exceedingly ³. Elijah ate flesh not desired, but sent by God through a raven ⁴. Esau testifies to this, who lost an irrecoverable blessing not because of a hen but because of a lentil dish ⁵." Nor must one abstain only from delights of the body, but also from those things that delight the soul, namely vanities, vain conversations, temporal joy, mortal sin, and carnal friendship. This abstinence is better and also more praiseworthy than the first.

C. There are two inducements of true abstinence: one, that we have never received the gifts of God with due gratitude, and we never enjoy them for the due end, nor according to divine ordering, and from this we incur the grave wrath of God. The other is that we must render a strict account concerning all gifts received, namely for what end we took them, whether for our necessity or for the common usefulness. But concerning those things from which each person abstains, he need not render an account.

A twofold usefulness follows from abstinence, namely knowledge of divine secrets and the hearing of desires. These two are evident in Daniel, who, when he did not wish to use the royal food and drink but water with vegetables, surpassed all magi and soothsayers in knowledge of visions and dreams. Second, because at his prayers the seven years during which Nebuchadnezzar had to live as a beast were changed into seven months. And when the same Daniel had obtained from God for kings the spirit of permitting the people to return to Jerusalem, he also obtained for the people the will of returning, when they were delaying to return. He was heard in many of his desires and mysteries because of abstinence. He himself testifies to this, saying: In those days I, Daniel, was mourning during the days of three weeks; I did not eat desirable bread, and flesh and wine did not enter my mouth; nor was I anointed with ointment ⁶. And therefore the angel said to him: From the first day on which you set your heart to understand, so that you might afflict yourself in the sight of your God, your words have been heard ⁷. A third can be added, that abstinence itself is an obtaining of God's mercy. This is clear in the Ninevites, who through abstinence obtained God's mercy when Jonah was preaching ⁸.

D. We can marvel at, but not imitate, the abstinence of the ancient priests. D. Jerome writes of them that they always abstained from meats and wine, because of the thinness of sense and dizziness of head that they suffered from little food, and especially because of the appetite of lust that is accustomed to be born from these foods and from this drink. They rarely ate bread, lest they burden the stomach. And if they sometimes ate, they took crushed hyssop together in the food, so that by its heat they might digest that heavier food. They knew oil only in vegetables, and even this little, for removing nausea and roughness of taste. What should I say about birds? Since they avoided eggs because of flesh, and milk; they said the one was liquid flesh, the other blood, with only the color changed.

E. The proof of true abstinence is when someone not only refuses to use costly and delicate things in health, but also receives them with grief of mind when sickness or another necessity compels. Likewise, when he not only abstains from delicate, costly, and superfluous things, but even sometimes withdraws necessary things from himself so that he can share with other needy persons. According to that saying of D. Jerome: "What you were about to eat if you were not fasting, give to the poor, so that the fasting of the body may be health of the soul, not profit of the purse, etc."

F. But the proof of false abstinence is to avoid costly and delicate things only at the time when they are not available; or because of vainglory, that one may be praised; or because of sparingness, lest one be impoverished; or because of avarice, that one may be enriched; or for avoiding bodily sickness; or for avoiding infamy and detraction; or for obtaining some dignity or transitory usefulness, and not for meriting grace in the present and glory in the future.