Home
Catholic Candle Note: In previous articles, we saw that gluttony is the sin (or the vice) of eating or drinking an unreasonable amount or in any circumstances which make it unreasonable.
We saw that we must conquer the vice of gluttony at the beginning of the spiritual life, in order to make spiritual progress.
We saw the wisdom of Sacred Scripture against the evil of gluttony and we also saw some practical strategies which can be used to combat gluttony.
The article below examines another aspect of gluttony: that it is an especially disgraceful vice.
In
three ways, all sins are infinite evils and, in addition, mortal sins are infinitely evil in a fourth way.
Comparing sins according to their gravity
However, all sins are not equally grave. Mortal sins are worse than venial sins and some mortal sins are worse than others. Sins directly against God are worse than sins against man.
Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas explains this truth:
If we compare murder and blasphemy as regards the objects of those sins, it is clear that blasphemy, which is a sin committed directly against God, is more grave than murder, which is a sin against one's neighbor. On the other hand, if we compare them in respect of the harm wrought by them, murder is the graver sin, for murder does more harm to one's neighbor, than blasphemy does to God. Since, however, the gravity of a sin depends on the intention of the evil will, rather than on the effect of the deed, as was shown above [Summa, Ia IIae, Q.73, a.8], it follows that, as the blasphemer intends to do harm to God's honor, absolutely speaking, he sins more grievously than the murderer. Nevertheless, murder takes precedence, as to punishment, among sins committed against our neighbor.
Summa, IIa IIae, Q.13, a.3, ad 1.
Thus, blasphemy and sacrilege are worse than murder and gluttony.
Comparing sins according to their shamefulness
Besides comparing particular sins according to their gravity, we can also compare them according to their shamefulness (i.e., their disgracefulness). Some sins bring more shame than other sins even though they are less grave. In this way, gluttony (and other sins against the virtue of temperance) are more disgraceful than other sins.
Man’s highest and most important part is his intellect. Man’s intellect is the glory of his human nature. Thus, those sins which are most contrary to man’s intellect are more shameful than other sins because they are more opposed to the glory of his nature. This is true even when those other sins are graver.
Sins of gluttony (and other sins against the virtue of temperance) are most shameful because they are most opposed to the glory of man’s human nature, viz., man’s intellect. This is for two reasons:
- Those sins concern bodily pleasures. These pleasures are furthest removed from our intellectual nature and are pleasures we have in common with brute beasts.
Here is how St. Thomas explains this truth:
Intemperance [including gluttony] is most disgraceful ... because it is most repugnant to human excellence, since it is about pleasures common to us and the lower animals, as stated above (Summa, IIa IIae, Q.141, a.3). Wherefore it is written (Psalm 48:21): “Man, when he was in honor, did not understand: he hath been compared to senseless beasts, and made like to them.”
Summa, IIa IIae, Q142, a.4.
- More than other sins, those sins dull the intellect, which is the glory of our human nature.
Here is how St. Thomas explains this truth:
Intemperance [including gluttony] is most disgraceful ... because it is most repugnant to man’s glory ... inasmuch as the pleasures which are the matter of intemperance dim the light of reason from which all the glory and beauty of virtue arises: wherefore these pleasures are described as being most slavish.
Summa, IIa IIae, Q142, a.4.
The shamefulness of gluttony (and other sins against the virtue of temperance) is something known even without the gift of the Catholic Faith. The great Philosopher, Aristotle, explains the shamefulness of gluttony (and other sins against the virtue of temperance) in these words:
Temperance and self-indulgence, however, are concerned with the kind of pleasures that the other animals share in, which therefore appear slavish and brutish; these are touch and taste.
Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, Book III, ch. 10.
St. Thomas Aquinas, Greatest Doctor of the Catholic Church, confirms these words of Aristotle and quotes Aristotle’s summarizing this truth, that “intemperance is justly more deserving of reproach than other vices.”
Summa, IIa IIae, Q142, a.4, sed contra, quoting Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, Book III, ch. 10.
Conclusion
We are on earth to make progress in the spiritual life. Let us beware of the shameful vice of gluttony so we can grow in holiness! This is what, at our Judgment, we would want to have done.