The rich man reveals the great burning in his tongue when he says, “Send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, since I am tormented in this flame.” The unbelieving people keep the words of the law in their mouths but refuse to act on them. The burning will be greater in the place where they manifested that they knew what to do, but that they were unwilling to do it. Solomon said concerning those who are knowledgeable but remiss, “All the toil of a man is in his mouth, but his soul will not be filled.” Whoever labors only for this, to know what he should say, fasts with an empty heart from the nourishment that should provide him with knowledge.
A person’s true life is not found here on earth, for he claims that it is found elsewhere. This, then, is the great advantage humankind has over the animal: The animal does not live on after death, while a person begins to live only when he has completed this visible life through bodily death.
Everything that human labor produces in this world is consumed by the mouth, ground by the teeth, and sent to the stomach for digestion. Even when a bite to eat delights the palate, it seems to give pleasure only for as long as it remains in the mouth, for when it passes into the belly, it can no longer be distinguished from other food. The soul of the diner is afterwards not fulfilled, because he will again desire what he has just eaten, since neither the wise nor the foolish is able to live without food, and the poor seeks nothing other than to sustain his frail body and to avoid starvation. Moreover, the soul derives no benefit from the refreshment of the body. Food is common to both the wise and the foolish, and the poor tend to go where they perceive wealth. It is better to understand this teaching as referring to the ecclesiastical person whose labor is in his mouth because he is learned in the heavenly Scriptures but whose soul is not fulfilled because he desires always to learn...
