Woe unto you that are full! for you shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for you shall mourn and weep.
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Woe unto you which are full, &c.—ye who live only for eating and drinking, for ye shall hunger in eternity.
Actual evil-doers will indeed endure heavier punishment, but those who are gluttonous will suffer torment from the absence of those things wherein they delighted. Hence Dives prayed for but one drop of water to cool the tongue which he had accustomed to the richest food and the choicest wine. S. Euthymius.
For, as S. Basil writes, to live for pleasure alone is but to make a god of one"s belly ( Philippians 3:19). From the one vice of gluttony spring innumerable others which war against the soul. Subdue then this one vice, and you will at the same time subdue many others, for innumerable are the promptings of lust, which following in the train of gluttony, hold out promise of enjoyment, but lead to everlasting misery. S. Gregory in lib. regum, lib. v. cap1.
The mind which is always accustomed to pleasure, and never weeded of evil by discipline, contracts much moral defilement (S...
As before he promised blessings to those that hunger, that weep, that are outcasts for Christ's sake; so here, and in the next verse, he denounces curses to such as are filled, that laugh, and are praised; i.e. to such, as so far seek their beatitude in present enjoyment, as to become indifferent with regard to the good things of the next world. (Haydock)
