Chapter 34. Remedies against Gluttony

Gluttony is an inordinate love of eating and drinking Our Saviour warns us against this vice, saying, “Tak heed to yourselves lest your hearts be overcharged wit surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life. (Lits2h3A):

When you feel the promptings of this shameful disorde: subdue them by the following considerations: Call to min that it was a sin of gluttony which brought death into th world, and that it is the first and most important passion t be conquered, for upon the subjugation of this vice de pends your victory over all others. We cannot successfull battle with enemies abroad when the forces within us ar in a state of rebellion. Thus we see that the devil fir: tempted Our Saviour to gluttony, wishing to make himse master of the avenue through which all other vices find a easy entrance.

Consider also Our Saviour’s extraordinary fast in th desert and the many other rigorous mortifications whic He imposed upon His Sacred Body, not only to explat our excesses, but to give us a salutary example. Hov then, can you call yourself a follower of Christ, if, whe He fasts, you abandon yourself to the gross pleasures « the table? He refuses no labor, no suffering, to redeet you, and you will do nothing for your own salvation!

If you find abstinence difficult, think of the gall an « Remedies against Gluttony 289 egar which were given to Our Saviour on the cross; for S:. Bernard tells us, there is no food so unpleasant that ‘ay not be made palatable by mingling it with this bit- ‘draught. Frequently reflect upon the terrible austerities 4 wonderful fasts observed by the Fathers of the desert; w they fled from the world to remote solitude, where, er the example of Christ, they crucified their flesh with its irregular appetites, and, sustained by God’s grace, Hsisted for many years on no other food but roots and rbs. Behold how these men imitated their Divine Model; hold what they thought necessary to reach Heaven. pw can you gain this same Heaven by the path of gross d sensual pleasures? Think of the innumerable poor no are in need of bread; and at the sight of God’s serality to you, blush to make the gifts of His bounty inuments of gluttony. Consider, again, how often the ren Host has rested upon your tongue, and do not pert death to enter by that gate through which life is coned to your soul. We may say of gluttony what we have said of impurity, ; its pleasures are equally restricted and fleeting. Yet th, sea, and air seem unable to gratify this passion, for any crimes are perpetrated, the poor are defrauded and pressed, and little ones compelled to suffer hunger, to tisfy the sensuality of the great. It is deplorable to think at for the gratification of one sense man condemns himf body and soul to eternal suffering. What inmprehensible folly to flatter with such delicate care a ‘dy which is destined to be the food of worms! For this serable body you neglect your soul, which will appear fore the tribunal of God as poor in virtues as its earthly mpanion is rich in sensual pleasures. Nor will the body cape the punishment to which the soul will be conmned. Having been created for the soul, it will share its fferings. Thus by neglecting the nobler part of your being to devote yourself to the inferior, you lose both an become your own executioner.

To excite in your heart a salutary fear of this vice recall to mind what is related in the Gospel of Lazarus, o his poverty, of his hunger which craved the crumbs whicl fell from the rich man’s table, and how he was carried bi angels to Abraham’s bosom; while the rich man, who fe upon delicacies and was clothed in purple and fine linen was buried in the depths of Hell. Moderation and glut tony, temperance and excess, will not reap the same frui in the next world. To patient suffering will succeed ineffa ble happiness, and sensual pleasures will be followed b eternal misery. What remains to you now of the pleasure of your guilty excesses? Nothing but remorse of cons cience, which will be the principal torture of the life t come. All that you have lavished upon your ungoverne appetite you have irrevocably lost, but that which yo have given away to the poor is still yours, for its merit i laid up in the kingdom of Heaven.

That you may not be deceived by the snares of this vic disguised as necessities, govern your appetite by reasor not by inclination. Remember that your soul can neve rule the flesh, if it be not itself submissive to God. Thi submission will be the rule and foundation of its empire Let God command our reason; let reason direct the sou and the soul will be able to govern the body. By observin this wise order decreed by the Creator, the whole man wi be reformed. But when the soul rebels against reason, an reason against God, the body will soon rebel against th soul.

If tempted by gluttony, remember that you have alread tasted its pleasures and that they endured but a momen They passed like a dream, except that while the light « day dispels the images of the night, the remorse for glu tony remains long after its pleasure has departed. Bi 2rcome this enemy, and you will experience consolation i peace. Therefore, the following wise saying has justly ome celebrated: “If you find difficulty in the perforace of a virtuous action, the trouble is soon past and ~ virtue remains; but if you take pleasure in committing vase action, its pleasure disappears, but its shame conues with you.” (Aul. Gel., Noct. Attic. 8,15).