Homily against Drunkards

1The sights of this evening move me to speak, but the fruitlessness of my previous labors holds back my impulse and dulls my eagerness. A farmer, when his first seeds do not sprout, is more reluctant to cast seed into the same furrows a second time. If, after all the exhortations we never stopped offering you in the time before, and after these seven weeks of fasting when night and day we did not cease solemnly testifying to you the Gospel of God's grace, nothing has come of it—on what hopes shall I speak today? Oh, how many nights you kept vigil in vain! How many days you gathered in vain! If indeed it was in vain. For the one who has made progress in good works and then has run back to his old habits not only forfeits the reward for his labors but deserves a heavier condemnation, because he tasted the good word of God and was counted worthy of the knowledge of mysteries, yet betrayed everything, lured by a brief pleasure. The one with little is pardonable and receives mercy, but the powerful, it says, will be powerfully tested. One evening, and one assault of the enemy, dissolved and obliterated all that labor. What eagerness, then, can there be for this present word? I would have kept silent, know well, had I not feared the example of Jeremiah, who, when he did not want to speak to a disobedient people, suffered those things he himself described: that fire came into his inward parts, and he gave way on every side, and could not bear it. Wanton women, forgetting the fear of God, despising the eternal fire, on such a day—when they ought to have sat in their homes because of the remembrance of the resurrection and taken thought of that day when the heavens will be opened, and the Judge will appear to us from heaven, and there will be trumpets of God, and resurrection of the dead, and righteous judgment, and recompense to each according to his work—instead of holding these things in their thoughts, and cleansing their hearts from evil imaginations, and wiping away with tears their former sins, and preparing to meet Christ on the great day of his appearing, they shook off the yoke of Christ's service, cast the veils of modesty from their heads, despised God, despised his angels, were shameless before every male gaze, tossing their hair, trailing their tunics, and playing with their feet at the same time, with wanton eye and unrestrained laughter driven mad into dancing, calling upon themselves every lust of young men, forming choruses at the martyrs' shrines before the city, and making the holy places a workshop of their own shamelessness. They defiled the air with their songs of fornication, and defiled the earth with their unclean feet as they stamped it in their dances, surrounding themselves with a crowd of young men as their theater—truly wanton and utterly deranged, leaving no excess of madness undone. How shall I keep silent about these things? How shall I lament them as they deserve? Wine has brought this ruin upon these souls of ours—wine, the gift given by God for the comfort of weakness to the self-controlled, but now become a weapon of lust for the licentious.

2Drunkenness is a self-chosen demon, intruding into souls through pleasure. Drunkenness is the mother of vice, the opposition of virtue. It shows the brave man as a coward and the self-controlled man as wanton. It does not know righteousness, and it destroys prudence. For just as water is hostile to fire, so an excess of wine extinguishes reason. This is why I hesitated to say anything against drunkenness—not because it is a small evil or one worth overlooking, but because the word offers no benefit. For if the drunkard is deranged and darkened, the one who rebukes someone who cannot hear talks nonsense in vain. To whom, then, should we speak? The one who needs the exhortation does not hear what is said, while the self-controlled and sober person does not need the word's help, being clean of the passion. What then shall I do with those present, if the word is useless and silence is without resource? Should we abandon the care? But neglect is dangerous. Should I speak something against the drunkards? But we sound into dead ears. Perhaps, then, just as in contagious diseases the healers of bodies secure the healthy with preventive remedies but do not treat those already overcome by the disease, so for you the word has its usefulness by half: it points out protection to those without the passion, but not deliverance and healing to those already overcome by it.

How do you differ from the irrational animals, O man? Is it not by the gift of reason, which you received from your Creator and by which you became ruler and lord of all creation? The one, then, who strips himself of prudence through drunkenness has been compared to the senseless beasts and has become like them (Psalm 49:12). Indeed, I would say that those in drunkenness are even more irrational than the grazing animals. For all four-footed creatures and wild beasts have fixed seasons for their impulses toward mating, but those whose souls are held fast by drunkenness, having filled their bodies with unnatural heat, are driven at every season and every hour toward unclean and shameful couplings and pleasures. And this is not the only thing that produces irrationality in them: the perversion of their senses also shows the drunkard to be worse than any beast. For what grazing animal completely fails to see and fails to hear as the drunkard does? Do they not recognize their dearest ones, yet often run up to strangers as if they were acquaintances? Do they not often leap over shadows as if they were ditches or ravines? Their ears are filled with echoes and noises as if a sea were swelling, while the earth seems to rise up steeply and the mountains to run around in a circle. Sometimes they laugh without stopping, and sometimes they suffer and weep without consolation. Now they are bold and fearless, now terrified and cowardly. Their sleep is heavy, hard to shake off, and suffocating—truly a neighbor of death—and their waking hours are more insensible than their sleep. For their life is a dream: though they have no cloak and nothing to eat for tomorrow, in their drunkenness they reign, command armies, build cities, and distribute riches. Wine, boiling over with such fantasies and so much deception, fills their hearts.

3Others are led around into the opposite passions. They are despairing, downcast, full of pain and tears, fearful of every noise, easily terrified. The same wine, in different conditions of bodies, produces different passions in the souls. For when it makes the blood diffuse and bloom out toward the surface, it renders people bright, pleasant, and cheerful. But when it presses down the body's condition by its weight, constricting and crushing the blood, it leads them around into the opposite disposition. And why should I speak of the crowd of remaining passions? The difficulty of their character, their quickness to anger, their fault-finding, the instability of their soul, the shouting, the uproar, their easy seduction into every deceit, their unrestrained rage? The lack of self-control toward pleasures flows straight out as from a spring of wine, and the disease rushes in together with the unmixed wantonness, showing every frenzy of grazing animals toward the female to be second to the outrage of drunkards. For the irrational animals know the boundaries of nature, but drunkards seek the female in the male and the male in the female. It is not easy to go through in speech all the evils that come from drunkenness. The harms from a plague come upon people over time, as the air gradually introduces its corruption into their bodies; but the harms from wine rush in immediately. For having lost their souls in this way, so as to be marked with every stain, they further corrupt the very condition of their body. They are not only worn out and dissipated by the excess of pleasures that goad them toward lust, but they also carry a body made flabby and bloated by its very bulk, with its vital tone dissolved. Their eyes are livid, their surface is pale, their breath is labored, their tongue is slack, and their cry is inarticulate. Their feet totter like those of children, and their excretions flow out on their own as from lifeless bodies. Pitiable in their luxury, they are more pitiable than those storm-tossed at sea, whom wave after wave, overtaking and submerging them, does not allow to rise from the swell. So too the souls of these people are carried beneath the surface, sunk in wine. Therefore, just as storm-tossed ships, when they become waterlogged, are necessarily lightened by throwing out the cargo, so for these people the removal of what weighs them down is necessary. For by vomiting and spewing forth, they are barely freed from the weight. They are so much more pitiable than those who sail badly, in that the latter blame the winds and the sea and external necessities, while the former draw upon themselves a self-chosen storm from drunkenness. The demon-possessed person is pitiable; but the drunkard, suffering the same things, is not even worthy of pity, since he wrestles with a self-chosen demon. They even compound drugs for drunkenness, not to avoid suffering something terrible from wine, but to contrive not to stop being drunk. For the day is short for them, and the night is short, even the winter night, compared to the time of drinking. And there is no end to the evil. For wine itself leads itself on to more. It does not relieve the need, but creates an unavoidable need for another drink, inflaming the drunkards and always summoning them toward the desire for more.

5Why do you draw Cain's curse upon yourself, trembling and wandering through your whole life? For when the body lacks its natural support, it is inevitably shaken and convulsed. How long will wine go on? How long will drunkenness? You are in danger of being mud instead of a man, so completely have you been mixed with wine and rotted away with it, stinking of wine from your daily hangover—and this too spoiled, like the most useless of vessels. Isaiah laments over such people: "Woe to those who rise early in the morning and chase after strong drink, who linger late into the evening, for wine inflames them. They drink wine with lyres and flutes, but they do not regard the works of the Lord, nor consider the work of His hands" (Isaiah 5:11-12). The Hebrews customarily call every drink that can produce drunkenness "strong drink." So those who at daybreak look around for where drinking parties are happening, who peer about at wine shops and taverns, who invite one another to drink, and who spend all the soul's concern on attending to such things—these are the ones the prophet laments, because they leave themselves no time to contemplate the wonders of God. Their eyes have no leisure to look up to heaven and learn its beauties, or to examine the whole order of creation, so that from its arrangement they might perceive the Creator. Instead, as soon as day begins, they adorn their drinking parties with embroidered tapestries and flowered curtains, and they show zeal and care in preparing the cups, arranging coolers and mixing bowls and saucers as if for some procession or festival, so that the variety of vessels may steal away their satiety, and the changing and passing of cups may give them ample occupation in drinking. And on top of this there are presidents of the drinking party, chief wine-pourers, and masters of the banquet: order has been devised in disorder, and arrangement in a chaotic affair, so that just as the dignity of public offices is increased by their attendants, so too they surround drunkenness with a kind of royal service, and by the excess of their zeal they cover over her disgrace. Then come garlands and flowers and perfumes and incense, and countless other external pleasures, which provide still more occupation for those who are perishing. Then, as the drinking goes on and on, there are contests for who can drink more, rivalries and competitions, as they strive to outdo one another in drunkenness. The devil presides over their contest, and the prize of victory is sin. For the one who pours down the most unmixed wine carries off the victory over the others. Truly "their glory is in their shame" (Philippians 3:19). They compete with one another, but it is themselves they punish. What words can reach the shamefulness of what happens? Everything is full of unreason, everything of confusion: the defeated are drunk, the victors are drunk, the servants laugh. The hand grows weary, the mouth cannot receive more, the belly is bursting, and the evil does not let up. The wretched body, its natural tone paralyzed, flows out on every side, unable to endure the violence of excess. A pitiful sight for Christian eyes: a man in the prime of life, vigorous in body, distinguished in the military rolls, carried home on a litter, unable to stand upright or to go on his own feet.

6A man who ought to be a terror to his enemies becomes a laughingstock for the children in the marketplace. He has been struck down without iron; he has been killed without enemies. A soldier in the very flower of his age has become a casualty of wine, ready to suffer whatever his enemies wish. Drunkenness is the ruin of reason, the corruption of strength, an untimely old age, a short-lived death. What else are drunkards but the idols of the nations? They have eyes, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear (Psalm 115:5-7). Their hands are paralyzed; their feet have been made dead. Who plotted this? Who is responsible for these evils? Who mixed for us this drug of madness? You, sir, have made the drinking party contrary to all order. You send the young men out led by the hand, like wounded men from war. You have killed the prime of their youth with wine. You invite them to dinner as a friend, and you send them out as corpses, having quenched their life with wine. When they are thought to be sated with wine, that is when they begin to drink. They drink the way cattle do, as if from a makeshift spring that sends out as many spouts as there are guests reclining. As the drinking goes on, a young man comes in among them, broad-shouldered, not yet drunk, carrying a large bowl of chilled wine. He pushes their wine-pourer aside, stands in the middle, and through crooked pipes distributes equal drunkenness to the drinking companions. This is a new measure of excess: that they may commit outrage together in equal shares, so that no one outdrinks another. They divide the channels, and each one takes the one turned toward himself, and they drink without drawing breath like oxen from a cistern, each straining to pull down with his throat as much as the cooler above releases through the silver conduits. Look down at your wretched stomach. Take note of the size of the vessel that receives it: it has the hollow of a single cup. Do not stare at the wine jug, waiting to empty it; look at your own stomach, because it was filled long ago. Therefore: Woe to those who rise early in the morning and chase after strong drink, who linger late into the evening and spend the whole day in drunkenness (Isaiah 5:11), so that they give themselves no time to look at the works of the Lord or consider the works of His hands (Isaiah 5:12). For the wine will burn them, because the heat from the wine, entering the flesh, becomes kindling for the enemy's flaming arrows. Wine drowns reason and the mind, but it stirs up the passions and pleasures like a swarm of bees. What chariot of colts, having thrown off its driver, is carried along so wildly? What pilotless ship, borne by the waves wherever chance takes it, is not safer than a drunkard? From such evils, men and women together formed common choruses, handed their souls over to a winey demon, and wounded one another with the barbs of the passions. Laughter from both sides, shameful songs, prostitute's postures, inciting to lust. Tell me, do you laugh and take pleasure in unrestrained pleasure, when you ought to weep and groan over what has already happened? You sing a prostitute's songs, having thrown out the psalms and hymns you were taught. You move your feet and leap about madly and dance dances that should not be danced, when you ought to bend your knees in worship. Whom should I lament? The unmarried girls, or the women held under the yoke of marriage? The former came home no longer possessing their virginity; the latter did not bring their chastity back to their husbands.

7For even if some escaped the sin in body, they certainly received the corruption in their souls. Let this be said by me also about the men. He saw wrongly, and he was seen wrongly. Whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery (Matthew 5:28). If chance encounters hold so much danger for those who watch with curiosity, what will they say, or how will they defend themselves, when they have gathered a swarm of countless evils from such spectacles—meetings arranged on purpose, so as to see women disgracing themselves under drunkenness, putting on forms for laxity, and singing with wanton, effeminate melodies, which even merely heard can stir every frenzy of pleasure in the lustful? Did they not look for this very reason, to rouse their desires? Therefore they are liable, according to the unalterable sentence of the Lord, to the judgment of adultery. How will Pentecost receive you, when Pascha has been so insulted? Pentecost had the clear and universally known visitation of the Holy Spirit; but you, getting ahead of it, made yourself a dwelling place of the opposing spirit, and you became a temple of idols instead of becoming a temple of God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You drew upon yourself the curse of the prophet who said from the person of God: I will turn their feasts into mourning (Amos 8:10). How will you rule your household slaves, when you yourselves serve foolish and harmful desires like slaves? How will you admonish your children, when you live an unadmonished and disordered life? What then? Do I leave you in these things? But I am afraid that the unsubmissive one may become more headstrong, and the one who is pierced may be swallowed up by excessive grief. For healing, it says, will put an end to great sins (Ecclesiasticus 28:2). Let fasting heal drunkenness; let a psalm heal the shameful song; let tears become the healing of laughter; instead of dancing, let the knee be bent; instead of the clapping of hands, let the breast be struck; instead of the adornment of clothing, let there be humility. Above all, let almsgiving ransom you from sin. For a man's own wealth is his ransom (Proverbs 13:8). Enlist many of the afflicted as workers in the fellowship of prayer, if perhaps the thought of evil may be forgiven you. When the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play—and their play was idolatry—then the Levites, arming themselves against their brothers, consecrated their hands for the priesthood (Exodus 32:6). And so to you who fear the Lord, as many as have now been grieved at the shamelessness of those who are condemned, we give this command: if you see them repenting of the absurdity of what they have done, sympathize with them as with your own sick members; but if they are obstinate and despise your grief over them, come out from among them, and be separate, and touch no unclean thing (2 Corinthians 6:17), so that those who are put to shame may come to knowledge of their own evil, and you may receive the reward of Phinehas's zeal, through the righteous judgment of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.