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 sin
of 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 sin
of gluttony.
Such a temper of soul
is equivalently the direct and positive shutting out of that reference to
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 obligation
to 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 sin
in 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 duties
for 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 prayer
and 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 Church owing to their lavish 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 the cross 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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