Gluttony

Inordinate desire for physical pleasures. Can be deadly (to our immortal souls) when a person lets his concupiscible appetite run amok to the point that the pleasures of gluttony become his end and he will disobey God to obtain those pleasures. Can be something other than simply too much: “Hastily, sumptuously, too much, greedily, daintily.”

Scriptural/Doctoral

  • “Gluttony turned Adam out of Paradise.” St. John Chrystosom
  • “This was the iniquity of Sodom, thy sister … fulness of bread, etc.” Ezekiel 16:49
  • “I thought in my heart to withdraw my flesh from wine, that I might turn my mind in wisdom.” Ecclesiastes 2:3

Daughters

  • unseemly joy: immoderate pleasure in eating and drinking
  • scurrility (foolish talking): unbecoming speech due to overeating and drinking 
  • uncleanness: over-consumption of food and drink leads to digestive system problems
  • loquaciousness: overeating and drinking leads to losing control of your tongue
  • dullness of mind: excessive eating and drinking will slow down the brain

Self-examination from Episcopalian St. Augustine Prayer book (not exactly Thomistic, but useful)

GLUTTONY: Gluttony is the overindulgence of natural appetites for food and drink, and by extension the inordinate quest for pleasure or comfort.

Intemperance

  • Overindulgence in food, drink, or other physical pleasures.
  • Fastidiousness, fussiness, demanding excessively high standards.
  • Condemnation of some material things or pleasures as evil in themselves, attempting to prohibit their use rather than their abuse.

Lack of Discipline

  • Negligence in keeping the days of fasting or abstinence, or failure to use other needed means of self-discipline.
  • Neglect of bodily health – not getting sufficient rest, recreation, exercise, or wholesome nourishment.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s