“I have come not to abolish but to fulfill”
This is lesson 1 of 2 with a focus on Gluttony, Lust, Greed and Wrath.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus is teaching about two of the seven deadly sins, lust and anger. He helps us understand what it means to be a human with dignity, neither depriving ourselves (no less) nor living in excess (no more). Jesus is the perfect example of what it means to be fully human since He was without sin. “All sin is a kind of lying.” [1] When we sin, we are not living our humanity to its fullest. By not imitating Jesus, we are lying to others and ourselves.
How is our humanity linked to sin? How does Jesus rescue our humanity? Jesus says, “The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” [2] The thief, Satan, seeks to steal, kill, and destroy our humanity; Jesus came so that we might have life and have it to the fullest, He comes to fulfill and perfect every human desire. The Church teaches that grace does not destroy nature but rather builds upon and perfects nature. “The Faith does not mean an alienation from any culture for any people because all cultures await Christ and are not destroyed by the Lord. In fact, they reach their maturity.” [3] As humans, we have basic desires and we long for these desires to be fulfilled and to reach maturity.
God has given man basic desires and when lived out to the fullest, they bring enjoyment. Christ and the Church are not against enjoyment, but they know that true joy comes from living life according to the will of God. “Enjoy yourself as much as you like – if only you keep from sin.” [4] We are called to the virtue of temperance, which “regulates every form of enjoyment that comes from the exercise of a human power or faculty.” [5] The seven deadly sins strip us from true enjoyment and are examples of when the desires of man are not lived out to the fullest but rather are diminished or in excess. The seven deadly or capital sins are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth. [6] In 1943, psychologist, Abraham Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs that all men have. The needs include basic needs: food, sex, safety/security, love/belonging, and esteem/self-actualization. The needs or desires should be kept in moderation, and when they swing to one side (neglect) or the other (excess), the seven deadly sins occur. In modern society, the swing is on the side of excess.
While teaching this lesson it is good to make a chart with three columns and seven rows. The middle column contains the basic human need. The left column shows when the need is deficient, what the deficiency is called and some examples of the deficiency in life. The right column shows when the need is in excess, what the excess is called and some examples of the excess in life.
The basic need of food – Eating disorders / Gluttony
We will start with the basic need of food. Food is good and maintaining a certain weight in proportion to our height and activity is healthy. When we choose not to eat food for the purpose of attaining a certain body type is a sin because we are neglecting our bodies. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit because God chooses to dwell within us, think about every time you receive Communion. God created us as beings that are sustained by eating food, we are not meant to starve ourselves.* This is disordered and we call it so, such is the case of anorexia. Anorexia is a sin because a person is depriving themself of the good of food. Remember a sin is always a deprivation of a good or an excess of a good. The sin of gluttony is an “inordinate desire for the pleasure connected with food or drink. This desire may become sinful in various ways: by eating or drinking far more than a person needs to maintain bodily strength.” [7] Intoxication or getting drunk falls under the capital sin of gluttony because it is excessive drinking of alcohol. For our spiritual journey here on earth we have to feed on the Bread from Heaven, the Holy Eucharist. When we don’t rely on The Most Blessed Sacrament we starve ourselves spiritually. Fortunately, we can never over-fill ourselves with God.
*Please note that an eating disorder is different than fasting, both are the conscious decision not to eat, however, the purpose of each are opposite. With an eating disorder, the purpose of not eating is to remove the desire for food so one can lose weight and appear more attractive to the world. With fasting, we choose not to eat for the purpose of detaching ourselves from worldly desires and focusing instead on God.
The basic need of sex – Anti-life and anti-marriage / Lust for sexual pleasure
Sex is good and reproduction is needed to continue as a race. God created sex for the unity of a married couple and for the procreation of children. When we deny ourselves the true meaning of sex, we are depriving ourselves of unity and life. To not follow God’s plan for sex is to adopt an attitude in which life (children) is not welcome. We see this through the use of contraception and abortion. We also lose the sacredness of unity and marriage and can begin to believe that unity between two people is impossible. The sin of lust is sexual pleasure sought for the sake of pleasure alone. Sex is therefore not for unity and procreation but becomes like any sensual pleasure a series of sensations, which can lead to addiction, misuse and habitual sin.
The basic need of safety and security – Injustice and Avarice
Safety and security are many times associated with wealth. Do we have a good job so that we have enough money to provide a house, utilities, transportation, school, etc.? When we deny ourselves these basic needs, or when we deny others these basic needs our action is unjust. We have an obligation to give those under our care what they are rightly due. We are also called to charitable giving, as we are able, to those that are in need. Avarice is “an excessive or insatiable desire for money or material things. In a strict sense, avarice is the inordinate holding on to possessions or riches instead of using these material things for some worthwhile purpose. Reluctance to let go of what a person owns is also avarice. Avarice may become a moral sin when a person is ready to use gravely unlawful means to acquire or hold on to his possessions, or when because of his cupidity he seriously violates his duty of justice or charity.” [8]
The basic need of safety and security – Apathy and Wrath
Anger is an emotion and therefore, it is not a sin. However, what we choose to do with our anger can be sinful. Each Wednesday during Night Prayer the Church reads, “If you are angry, let it be without sin. The sun must not go down on your wrath; do not give the devil a chance to work on you.” [9] The emotion of anger usually comes about when we are injured or wronged. When our safety or security becomes threatened, we naturally desire to protect those we love and ourselves. When this emotion arises we should do as Saint Paul says, “let it be without sin.” This is difficult because in our concupiscence, our tendency to sin, we tend toward either deficiency or excess. We cannot run from the emotion or ignore it and so we must face it and decide what to do as a result of our anger. To deprive ourselves of this emotion leads to apathy. Apathy is “a lack of feeling in circumstances that call for a show of emotion. Apathy can be morally culpable, as when a situation demands a strong and decisive action that an apathetic person is not prepared to take.” [10] “Evil prevails when good men do nothing.” [11] Anger is good in that it moves us to act, but we must be careful that we act with justice and with prudence. The anger that arose in people, when Hitler invaded the countries of Europe and began the slaughter of over six million people, led some to apathy but others to the heroic action, which culminated in a just war and liberation. Anger in excess is called wrath, which wills harm and destruction. Justice is not sought, but instead harming individuals in retaliation is accepted and the destruction of property and life is accepted as retribution.
[1] Saint Augustine; Paul Thigpen; A Dictionary of Quotes from the Saints; page 213
[2] John 10:10
[3] Pope Benedict XVI
[4] Saint John Bosco; Paul Thigpen; A Dictionary of Quotes from the Saints; page 214
[5] Fr. John Hardon; Modern Catholic Dictionary; page 533
[6] Catechism of the Catholic Church - 1866
[7] Fr. John Hardon; Modern Catholic Dictionary; page 232
[8] Fr. John Hardon; Modern Catholic Dictionary; page 50
[9] Ephesians 4:26-27
[10] Fr. John Hardon; Modern Catholic Dictionary; page 32
[11] Edmund Burke