Ch. XXVI. Gluttony

Quorum Deus venter est: et gloria in confusione ipsorum, qui terrena sapiunt (Whose God is their belly: and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things).—PHIL. iii. 19.

GLUTTONY, the fifth of the deadly sins, is an inordinate love of food and drink, or the evil inclination which impels man to the inordinate use of food.

There is nothing more reasonable than to nourish our bodies with food, provided reason rule our appetite. Reason tells us to use food only for the preservation of our strength and life. If we wander from this rule we are guilty of gluttony, which for this reason is called an inordinate love or immoderate use of food and drink.

We say food and drink, because gluttony can be exercised in both these things. Gluttony in drink is called drunkenness, or intemperance.

How do we sin by gluttony? And why should we fly this vice with horror?

I. Sins of gluttony. We are guilty of gluttony, 1st, in quantity—when we eat or drink to excess; 2d, in quality—when we are too eager for delicate or rare dishes; 3d, in our way of eating—when we eat greedily, or between meals, or without pausing to say a prayer before the repast; 4th, because of the end we have in view—when we eat for the sole pleasure of eating, to gratify sensuality; when we think only of the table, and speak of nothing but good cheer; 5th, because of the violation of a precept—when we transgress the law of fasting or abstinence.

II. Motives for avoiding gluttony. We must fly gluttony, 1st, because it is a detestable vice in the eyes of God, who punished it severely in Adam and Eve, in the wicked rich man of the Gospel, in the Israelites during their sojourn in the desert. Yielding to gluttony, they asked for other food, and the meats were still in their mouths when God's anger was enkindled against them.

2d. It is a very fatal vice to man, injurious to soul and body. It ruins his health, darkens his mind, abases the sentiments of his heart, forms an obstacle to prayer and all pious exercises; man, becoming wholly animal, perceiveth not the things that are of the Spirit of God.

Moreover, gluttony degrades man, as we see from the two animals, the dog and hog, which are chosen to represent this vice. . . .

Finally, it nourishes all vices, particularly lust and sloth. . . .

3d. Intemperance particularly has the effect of brutalizing man, whom it converts into a disgusting animal, so that the ancient Lacedæ- monians, to inspire their children with a horror of this vice, used to show them an intoxicated slave. Intemperance robs man of his reason, his honor, his means; it makes him a blasphemous, impure creature, a slave, a sinner almost incorrigible in vice, the scourge of his family, an idolater who makes a god of his stomach, and finally, except in rare cases of conversion, a soul condemned to eternal perdition.

Then let us fly all that leads to this deplorable vice, of which it is so easy to contract a habit. . . . Let us always love temperance and sobriety, bearing in mind the salutary warning of St. Peter: Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. v. 8).