Considerations to cure our Gluttony
2 min • Digitized on November 18, 2021
From The Sinner’s Guide, page 359
By Venerable Louis of Granada
If you find abstinence difficult think of the gall and vinegar which were given to our Saviour on the Cross; for as St. Bernard tells us, there is no food so unpleasant that it may not be made palatable by mingling it with this bitter draught.
Frequently reflect upon the terrible austerities and wonderful fasts observed by the Fathers of the desert; how they fled from the world to remote solitude, where, after the example of Christ, they crucified their flesh with all its irregular appetites, and, sustained by God’s grace, subsisted for many years on no other food but roots and herbs.
Behold how these men imitated their Divine Model; behold what they thought necessary to reach Heaven. How can you gain this same Heaven by the path of gross and sensual pleasures?
Think of the innumerable poor who are in need of bread; and at the sight of God’s liberality to you, blush to make the gifts of His bounty instruments of gluttony.
Consider, again, how often the Sacred Host has rested upon your tongue, and do not permit death to enter by that gate through which life is conveyed to your soul.
We may say of gluttony what we have said of impurity, that its pleasures are equally restricted and fleeting.
Yet earth, sea, and air seem unable to gratify this passion, for many crimes are perpetrated, the poor are defrauded and oppressed, and little ones compelled to suffer hunger, to satisfy the sensuality of the great.
It is deplorable to think that for the gratification of one sense man condemns himself body and soul to eternal suffering. What incomprehensible folly to flatter with such delicate care a body which is destined to be the food of worms!
For this miserable body you neglect your soul, which will appear before the tribunal of God as poor in virtues as its earthly companion is rich in sensual pleasures.
Nor will the body escape the punishment to which the soul will be condemned. Having been created for the soul, it will share its sufferings.
Thus by neglecting the nobler part of your being to devote yourself to the inferior, you lose both and become your own executioner.