Further considerations to remedy Gluttony
2 min • Digitized on November 19, 2021
From The Sinner’s Guide, page 360
By Venerable Louis of Granada
To excite in your heart a salutary fear of this vice, recall to mind what is related in the Gospel of Lazarus, of his poverty, of his hunger which craved the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table, and how he was carried by Angels to Abraham’s bosom; while the rich man, who fed upon delicacies and was clothed in purple and fine linen, was buried in the depths of hell.
Moderation and gluttony, temperance and excess, will not reap the same fruit in the next world. To patient suffering will succeed ineffable happiness, and sensual pleasures will be followed by eternal misery.
What remains to you now of the pleasures of your guilty excesses? Nothing but remorse of conscience, which will be the principal torture of the life to come. All that you have lavished upon your ungoverned appetite you have irrevocably lost, but what you have given to the poor is still yours, for its merit is laid up in the kingdom of Heaven.
That you may not be deceived by the snares of this vice disguised as necessities, govern your appetite by reason, not by inclination.
Remember that your soul can never rule the flesh, if it be not itself submissive to God. This submission will be the rule and foundation of its empire.
Let God command our reason; let reason direct the soul, and the soul will be able to govern the body. By observing this wise order decreed by the Creator the whole man will be reformed.
But when the soul rebels against reason, and reason against God, the body will soon rebel against the soul.
If tempted by gluttony, remember that you have already tasted its pleasures and that they endured but a moment. They passed like a dream, except that while the light of day dispels the images of the night, the remorse for gluttony remains long after its pleasure has departed.
But overcome this enemy, and you will experience consolation and peace. Therefore, the following wise saying has justly become celebrated: “If you find difficulty in the performance of a virtuous action, the trouble is soon past and the virtue remains; but if you take pleasure in committing a base action, its pleasure disappears, but its shame continues with you.”