Gluttony is the Snare of the Devil
The devil said to Jesus: ‘If you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ [Luke 4:3]
Here we learn that there are three principal weapons that the devil likes to carry in order to wound our souls. They are gluttony, arrogance and ambition.
He begins with the weapon with which he has already been victorious. We likewise should begin to be victorious in Christ in the very same area in which we have been defeated in Adam: we should be wary of gluttony. The devious trap is set for us when the table is laid for a royal banquet; it is hound to weaken our defenses.
See what weapons Christ uses to defeat the power of the devil. He does not use the almighty power he has as God: what help would that be to us? In his humanity he summons the help common to all – overlooking bodily hunger and seeking the word of God for nourishment.
Whoever follows the Word is no longer attached to earthly bread, because he receives the bread of heaven and knows the divine is better than the human, the spiritual is better than the physical. Therefore, because such a person desires the true life, he looks for that which fortifies the heart by means of its invisible substance.
Ambrose On the Gospel of St Luke, 4, 17 (PL15, 1617)
Ridiculous Conceit
Scripture says: ‘The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars.’ [Ps. 29:5] Generally Holy Scripture praises the cedar on the grounds that it does not fall, it does not go rotten, it is fragrant, it offers good shelter. Here, however, it is attacking it: it does not produce any fruit, and its wood is hard to bend. In short, it is the perfect image for the wicked man.
‘I have seen the wicked, the proud man, exalting himself like a cedar of Lebanon.’ [Ps. 37:35] But, ‘The Lord will break the cedars of Lebanon.’ [Ps. 29:5]
The cedars of Lebanon represent people who make their way at others’ expense and then boast about it. In fact these cedars, already tall in their own right, are standing on a mountain that makes them even more visible.
The sort of people who prop up their prestige with the corruptible things of the world are like them. Such people are proud of a position that does not belong to them, they are conceited and boastful and put themselves on a pedestal above ordinary mortals as if they were on the summit of Lebanon.
Basil the Great Commentary on Psalm 28, 5 (PG29, 293)
~ Thomas Spidlik, Drinking from the Hidden Fountain, A Patristic Breviary: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World
