¹ Oh, blind madness! Oh, blind abyss—human will, which conceals what it receives and does not return what is given! In vain are you appeased, for you are fed ungratefully; in vain do you devour, for you demand the means of your voracity at any cost. Oh, trampled-down and insatiable leech, impatient, ruthless when full, flattering when hungry, voracious, shameless, gluttonous—what uprightness do you possess? What honesty? Nothing. You seek in vain, repeat what is condemned, adorn what is shameful—why do you not consider yourself? Oh, wretched humanity, inwardly rotten, full of bile, moisture, fluid, blood, and phlegm, but outwardly washing only the skin, though never truly cleansing it! For always, from the depths of your filth, you are defiled and polluted; though you wash daily, you are daily violated.

² Oh, stained skin! You wash in vain, for by nature you are unclean. Oh, perverse blindness! That which you wash and adorn is by nature decay, while that which you violate and pollute is by nature brightness. Why do you defile what is clean and wash what is unclean? You corrupt the soul and beautify the body. Do you love yourself enough, or do you remain ignorant of yourself? If you know yourself, why do you cherish the foul and unclean dwellings of phlegm and filth? If you see a stain on your clothing, you recoil from phlegm and turn away in disgust; yet do you not flee from yourself, from the stinking and rotting cesspool that you are in your garments? Do you not detest it? Do you not see what your perforated skin harbors in its pores? It is shameful to speak of what you do not blush to love.

³ Why do we not shudder at what is disgusting? Why do we not detest what is shameful? Why do we not flee from what stinks? Is it not because we lack wisdom and are not pure? Therefore, the unclean seeks what is unclean, the vile seeks what is vile, the dishonorable seeks what is dishonorable; and because we are blind, we are also dishonorable, and so we do not avoid anything shameful. If we are not blind, why do we not despise our own original uncleanness? Why do we not scorn our own shame and baseness? Do shameful things seem honorable to you? They require frequent lamentation and various adornments, are ungrateful for what is spent on them, do not satisfy future desires even when indulged, and a past satisfaction does not quench the present nor prevent the future craving.

⁴ In vain, then, does one toil who feeds such desires, and he sows to the wind who serves this vain will, where the service repays no expense. Let these desires hunger, for they are so ungrateful and burdensome that they always seem to hunger. Those who nourish them deceive themselves. Oh, disgraceful servitude, to be enslaved to the flesh! Oh, hard and inexorable slavery! Oh, cruel dominion, though exercised in one’s own house! Every day it is paid, and every day it is demanded again; it departs satisfied and returns hungry.

⁵ Woe to those who are fed here, where hunger rules and is not overcome by wealth! While one indulgence is repaid, another is demanded. Pay the first, and you will be compelled to pay the second; feed gluttony, and you will be enslaved to lust. Therefore, we must cry out with Susanna: “I am in great straits on every side”. And with Paul we must lament and say: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”. If you pay for what is necessary, you will not be forced to pay for what is unnecessary. If, wretched man, you fear repaying the second, deny the first if you can; if not, pay sparingly, discharge it unwillingly—never pay willingly, never give freely.

⁶ But you cannot. I see that what is worse and graver is that you love your oppressors, and your enemy is your friend. What can I say? I do not know. What can I advise? I am uncertain. I will say only what I know: He who is fed here, who is satisfied here, who rejoices here, who laughs here, who is drunk here, who plays here—there he will hunger, there he will thirst, there he will mourn, there he will lament, there he will wail, as the Lord said: “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep”, and “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall hunger”.

⁷ For two times succeed one another, two lives exist, two ages are given: one life is short, the other is long. He who hungers in one will be filled in the other; he who here devours, is satisfied, and is comforted in one will hunger and thirst in the other, according to Isaiah’s words: “Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty”. And shortly after: “Behold, my servants shall rejoice with gladness, but you shall cry out for sorrow of heart and wail for anguish of spirit”.

⁸ Since this is so, we must scorn riches and not serve brief pleasure, in case we be fed to our hunger, in case we be satisfied only to starve, in case we drink only to thirst. For we see that one of these two states must necessarily be experienced, either here or there. Therefore, if we are satisfied, if we drink—oh, wretched are we! Let us eat only in part, not wholly, here; let us take what is necessary, not what is delightful; let us eat with the poor, drink with the poor, share with the poor, so that we may at least thus merit to partake with the poor there—where “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for Christ’s sake shall be satisfied”. For whose is the kingdom of heaven, if not the poor, those humble in soul and poor in riches for Christ? To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.