MEDJUGORJE | THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS: GLUTTONY
Pieter Breughel the Elder- The Seven Vices , Gluttony
(From Lat. gluttire, to swallow, to gulp down), the excessive indulgence in food and drink. The moral deformity discernible in this vice lies in its defiance of the order postulated by reason, which prescribes necessity as the measure of indulgence in eating and drinking. This deordination, according to the teaching of the ANGELIC DOCTOR, may happen in five ways which are set forth in the scholastic verse: "Prae-propere, laute, nimis, ardenter, studiose" or, according to the apt rendering of Father Joseph Rickably: too soon, too expensively, too much, too eagerly, too daintily. Clearly one who uses food or drink in such a way as to injure his health or impair the mental equipment needed for the discharge of his duties, is guilty of the sinof gluttony. It is incontrovertible that to eat or drink for the mere pleasure of the experience, and for that exclusively, is likewise to commit the sinof gluttony.
our last end which must be found, at least implicitly, in all our actions. At the same time it must be noted that there is no obligationto formerly and explicitly have before one's mind a motive which will immediately relate our actions to God. It is enough that such an intention should be implied in the apprehension of the thing as lawful with a consequent virtual submission to Almighty God. Gluttony is in general a venial sinin so far forth as it is an undue indulgence in a thing which is in itself neither good nor bad.
Of course it is obvious that a different estimate would have to be given of one so wedded to the pleasures of the table as to absolutely and without qualification live merely to eat and drink, so minded as to be of the number of those, described by the Apostle St. Paul, "whose god is their belly" (Philippians 3:19). Such a one would be guilty of mortal sin. Likewise a person who, by excesses in eating and drinking, would have greatly impaired his health, or unfitted himself for dutiesfor the performance of which he has a grave obligation, would be justly chargeable with mortal sin.
St. John of the Cross, in his work "The Dark Night of the Soul" (I, vi), dissects what he calls spiritual gluttony. He explains that it is the disposition of those who, in prayerand other acts of religion, are always in search of sensible sweetness; they are those who "will feel and taste God, as if he were palpable and accessible to them not only in Communion but in all their other acts of devotion." This he declares is a very great imperfection and productive of great evils.
-CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA
.. among the protagonists of the phenomenon at MEDJUGORJE we see those who assiduously seek out good feelings ravishing themselves with the condolences afforded by spiritual concupiscence…
…many at MEDJUGORJE have abandoned the dictates of reason and the law of the saints and prophets to engage in unsanctioned Church activities solely for the love of the pleasure afforded them without…
..such people may indeed be fasting epicureally however they are not fasting as regards the reason or inhibiting their unreasonable desire…as we know to sin is to perpetrate a deed desire or utter a word contrary to the eternal law…
..now at MEDJUGORJE we have many falling away from the Cross owing to their lavish refulgent urges…
..yet falsely owing to pride and spiritual slovenliness out of rash deliberation they believe themselves to be very devout and very mindful of Church precept…
..guilty of spiritual gluttony they have culled themselves from the way of abnegation and have excommunicated themselves from the communion of the saints through disobedience and outward shows of sanctimony..
..so they fall into the sins of envy, lust, pride sloth and gluttony….
Let us pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who have abandoned the way of the cross for the ways of the flesh and its desires…
As Christ said the spirit is willing yet the flesh is weak
…amen
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