Mass: the Heavenly Liturgy
Friends in Christ, today and in recent days, we have been reading from the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation is many things, but one thing it is: it is liturgical. It is a vision by St. John on the Lord’s Day – Sunday. This is a vision he had, of what is happening in heaven – on Sunday. He describes 7 lampstands, that is, candlesticks – there were 7 lampstands in the temple; how is it that he sees elements of the temple, yet he is looking into heaven – on Sunday? He is seeing the true temple, the true worship of God, which is in heaven.
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St. Paul says[i] that the temple on earth was only a copy, an image, of the true temple in heaven, where God is worshipped. At Mass we are as it were, ‘acting out’ the heavenly worship of God, participating in this heavenly worship. The book of Revelation was influenced by the Mass, and the Mass likewise, has been influenced by the Book of Revelation.
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Think about a big Mass, with the bishop and many priests concelebrating around the altar – in vestments. There are 7 candles as in the temple; the choir, up in the choir loft sings as if angels in heaven. John says: I looked up, and behold, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and a voice that said- on Sunday: ‘Come up here!’ There in heaven, is One sitting on a great throne in marvelous beauty – it is God. He sees 24 presbyters – that is, priests. They are worshipping God, and they are clothed in vestments.
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So we see the priests, 12 of the Old Law, and 12 of the New Law, worshipping God. We see One like a son of man, clothed with a garment reaching to the ankles and girt about with a golden sash.
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Also, four living creatures are worshipping God: one looking like a lion, one like an ox, one like a man, and another like an eagle. These come from Ezekiel, but the ancients also saw these figures, as symbolizing the four evangelists, authors of the Gospels.
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At Mass we have the reading of the Gospels: ‘Worthy are you to receive the scroll and break open its seals. The Book of the Gospel is opened. Servers are there with incense: ‘And the bowls filled with incense are the prayers of the holy ones.’
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On our altar, we see the ‘Lamb, standing yet slain.’ Jesus is slain, yet he lives, as we offer the ‘Living Sacrifice of Praise.’
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In 987, a Russian Prince sent out envoys to find the most noble religion they could. Having attended Holy Mass at the great Church of Hagia Sophia, they reported back to him: ‘In that place, we did not know whether we were in heaven or on earth.’
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At Holy Mass, we really approach heaven, and are invited in: ‘And I looked, and behold a door was standing open in heaven, and the voice said: Come up here!
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[i] Hebrews 8:5, 9:24
St. Peter & Paul: Dedication of the Basilicas
Friends in Christ, today we honor the two great Basilica’s in Rome of St. Peter and St. Paul. If you ever go to Rome, these are ‘must-sees:’ St. Peter’s, and St. Paul outside the walls.
St. Peter’s is sort of like ‘home’ for us. The heart of this great church is the tomb of St. Peter, below the main altar.
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As modern times approached, skeptics started to say that surely that was no tomb of Peter under there, how could the Church make that claim.
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So in the 1940’s, the Pope allowed excavations to be conducted under the Church. A surprising discovery was that the tomb of Peter contained various bones of various people, and even animal bones. The remains of Peter seemed to not be there. Was the Church wrong all these years? So more excavations began.
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We know that Peter was martyred in Nero’s Circus, near the present site of the Basilica. He was buried a short distance away in a small cemetery. In the course of the centuries monuments and chapels were built over his grave. In the excavations in the 1940’s, elements of these cemeteries were discovered under St. Peters basilica, but where were his bones?
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Now there was a significant wall in the area of the tomb of Peter, the famous ‘red wall’, as archeologists called it, dating back to the 3rd century. Covering the surface of the wall was an enormous amount of Christian writing, as if devoted faithful had passed here many times. The writings on the wall contain themes of victory, and there are the names of Christ, of Mary, and – many times, the name Petrus, Petrus, Petrus, on that wall. Inside the red wall was discovered a secret hiding place, lined with rich marble, hollowed out in the wall and hidden. There, wrapped in rich, purple cloth interwoven with gold – were bones! These unique bones were of a man, of sturdy build, 60 – 70 years old. The valuable purple cloth with gold, used to wrap them, shows that it was a person of high dignity.
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Finally, the bones of this particular man were intact, except – there were no feet. Missing feet, why? We remember from tradition, that Peter was crucified upside down. ‘I am not worthy to die like Christ, said Peter.’ So he was crucified upside down, and the removal of such a body in haste would probably involve cutting off the feet.
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The tomb with other bones was likely a diversion, so that enemies would not know the real location of the bones of St. Peter; only the Faithful knew that they were really there, in the ‘red wall.’
On June 26, 1968, Pope Paul VI announced that the relics of St. Peter had been found.
St. Elizabeth of Hungary
Friends in Christ, today is the feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary.
Elizabeth lived in the early 1200’s; She was married at age 14 to prince Ludwig. He was a good husband, and they had a happy marriage. At night when they prayed, they would always kneel down together and hold hands.
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Her husband proved himself worthy of his wife. He approved of her many acts of charity and gave her his full support. He was a capable ruler and a brave soldier. In 1227 he went with the Emperor on a crusade to Palestine, but tragically, he died while on the crusade. The news did not reach Elizabeth until a month later, just after she gave birth to her third child. Hearing the news of her husband’s death, she said: ‘All the joys of life are no longer for me.’
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But in the coming years, she came to know the teachings of St. Francis. Elizabeth laid aside her royal dignities in order to serve God. She put on simple clothing and became a third order Franciscan. She had a hospital built, and devoted herself to the care of the sick, especially those who had the most horrible diseases.
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Living in only a small mud house, she put herself at the service of widows, orphans, and the needy. During a famine she distributed all the grain from her stocks. In her hospitals, she frequently cared for lepers, even kissing their hands and feet, because in them she saw Jesus.
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During the night she would rise from bed and spend long periods at prayer, and one night, the Blessed Virgin appeared to her to console and teach her.
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St. Elizabeth died at only the age of 24, pouring herself out to aid the destitute. Very soon after her death, miracles began to be worked at her grave and in the hospital chapel, especially miracles of healing.
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An ancient legend tells us, that while she was on an errand of mercy, she was miraculously met by her husband; the bread she was carrying in her apron suddenly turned into roses; and for this reason she is often portrayed holding roses on her lap.
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Many of the relatives of St. Elizabeth of Hungary were drawn to Christ, and led lives themselves of holiness, by her example. We too, should imitate her good works, and in this way draw many others to Christ.
Be Great for God
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
TO THE YOUTH
Beloved in Jesus Christ, in the year 1227, a distraught man ran to St. Anthony of Padua because his daughter had just drown in the river: ‘Oh Father Anthony, please help us, my daughter has died.’
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So they hurried to the river and found a crowd of people and the mother holding her dead daughter who had been pulled from the river.
Anthony took the limp girl into his arms, and kneeling down with the little, lifeless body he looked to heaven and prayed: ‘Father. Father, listen to another father’s suffering. I ask you only for a breath of air. A single breath, for your child. Breathe into this girl; Make her live, Lord!
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Hardly had he finished, than did the wind begin to blow; a sign – an answer. The wind blew and blew, and – suddenly, coughing up water, the girl opened her eyes and sat up – alive. ‘She lives!,’ they said. ‘She lives!’
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Friends in Christ, young people here today: What St. Anthony was able to do in his short life is literally astounding. In the Holy Gospel today, Jesus tells us a parable about using our life in the very best way we can.
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He tells of a Master who went on a journey; he entrusted money to his servants to invest for him. He expected them to use the money in ways that would increase his wealth.
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We know about this; you can put your money in the bank and at least get a little interest every year. You can buy some stock in a company; Or you can take your money and use it to start a business. There are many ways that those servants could have taken the money their master entrusted to them, to make it grow, if they took initiative.
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So what do we find. Some did. The man who was given 5 talents was able to make 5 more. The one who was given 2 talents, he made 2 more. The master was proud of those hard workers who had taken initiative. But the man to whom he gave 1 talent did nothing with it. The master said to him: ‘You lazy servant! Should you not at least have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest? Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten; And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside.’
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What is Jesus teaching us here? Well, the Master who entrusted his servants with talents, and then went on a long trip – this is Jesus. St. Gregory says, the man traveling into a far country is our Redeemer, who ascended into heaven.’
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But he has entrusted to each of us certain gifts, talents, and abilities that he expects us to use. The word in the bible, ‘talent,’ means a certain weight of gold, used in ancient times. But it is from this parable that we get the word ‘talent’ today, meaning the abilities or natural gifts that each person has.
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Every single person here is unique; each of you are irreplaceable in God’s plan, with your own abilities and talents. There is not another person in the entire universe like you, never was and never will be, and we all have a role to play in God’s great drama.
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So our Master, Jesus, has ascended to heaven, but he now gives each of us our life, to make something of it for him. We have one life to give God as much glory as we can.
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I mentioned St. Anthony. He was a person who did as much as he possibly could with his life, for the glory of God; he did very difficult things for other people, he thought of how he could help others not himself, and he did all for the glory of God.
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When St. Anthony was young, he had many talents. He was very smart, he was excellent at sports. There is a movie I have about him which shows that he was really athletic, very good at jousting; jousting was a fierce sport between two horsemen, riding at each other with lances. The goal was to strike the opponent with the lance while riding towards him at high speed, if possible breaking his lance or shield, knocking him off his horse.
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St. Anthony had many talents, but he wanted to use his talents in the best way he could. He became a priest and used his tremendous mind to study the Holy Scriptures, he was an expert. He risked being killed for the Catholic Faith in Morocco, and then as a great Franciscan, preached the word of God everywhere.
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St. Anthony did everything he could for Jesus Christ; in this way he multiplied the talents that God gave him and God rewarded his efforts with many miracles.
When we do in our life what God is asking us to do; when we use our gifts to help others; when we do what is right even if it is not popular, and stand up for the Truth and true morality, when no one else will. then we are using our talents for Christ, and it is this that makes life really worth living.
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Some people waste away the life God has given them; they hang out at bars or parties their whole life, or at gambling casinos day in and day out, wasting their talents. Others had good abilities in school – aptitude to learn – they could have been a doctor or engineer or architect, but they were lazy and did nothing at all with their life.
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Others could have been an apprentice to learn to be a carpenter or electrician or craftsman; or taken classes to be a nurse or a teacher; but instead they spend their years playing computer games.
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When we face our Master at Judgment, he will ask, ‘What have you done with your life?’ And to those who have wasted it, he will say, ‘You wicked lazy servant. You have done nothing with the talents I gave you.’ ‘Then cast him into the outer darkness.’
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Everything we do, if we do it well and use our abilities, can be done for God, for his glory; then we will be able to say at the end of our life: ‘Lord, you have given me these talents, and I have done great things with them.’ And he will say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into your Master’s joy.’
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I have a friend who did not have too many talents; he was not super smart or gifted, really. But he tried his best and worked hard. He prayed and asked God to always show him the way, and to have the courage to do whatever is best. He is very successful today. He has a good job, a wife and family, and he still prays and goes to Mass and keeps trying to do what God wants. All this, because he used his talents the best he could, and asked God’s help.
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We should do the same:
To study, to give up laziness, to work hard, and make plans for our future. When we earn money, save some of it for trade school or for college. Make a plan to become a great mother or father some day, or even a priest or a religious sister, and lead others in the right way all the time, no matter what.
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We aren’t perfect; we make mistakes and sins. But then we go to Confession, and begin again – to serve God. By praying every day and asking God to help us, we will know how to be great and use our talents to the full. St. John Vianney says, ‘Without the Holy Spirit we are nothing. But with the Holy Spirit, we can be very great.’
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This world, dear young people, needs such great persons. But we must decide, especially when it is difficult, to use our talents for what is right and good, and to work hard.
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Pope John Paul II was recently named a saint. Here is what he said one time to a group of young people such as yourselves, about their future: ‘I address myself especially to you, dear young people, you who are in the decisive moment of your life. I would like to ask each one of you: what are you going to do with your life? What plans do you have? Have you ever thought of giving yourself totally to Christ?
You find yourself in a time in which you have to decide your path, decide how to build a happy future. I tell you this, when you decide the future, do not decide it thinking only of yourselves. Your Christian vocation means introducing the Gospel to the world in which we live!
You who are single, or preparing for marriage, I say this – follow Christ! You who are young or old – follow Christ! You who are sick or aging – follow Christ! You who feel the need for a friend – Follow Christ!
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St. John Paul tells us the way to build a happy, wonderful future: we must follow Jesus Christ, and it is never too late to begin, even if you are 98 years old!
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To follow Jesus – well, we can always count on Mother Mary to help us on the way. Mary, pray for us, so that we will really use our talents always for the glory of God.
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[Entrusted to the Prayers of St. Agatha]
Mother Cabrini
Friends in Christ,[i] in 1921, a young nurse named Mae was making her last rounds checking the newborns at New York’s Columbus Hospital. Suddenly she shrieked at what she encountered: A baby: his face was like charred wood; cheeks and lips burned, with pus coming from the tiny nose; where eyes should be, were only two grotesque swellings.
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Trying not to pass out, her mind raced; how could this be? After his delivery, she herself had weighed the child and put eye drops in. The eye drops! She staggers across the nursery and picks up the bottle of 1-percent silver-nitrate solution, which by law was always put into newborn’s eyes.
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What Mae reads on the label makes her cry hysterically: “Doctor! Oh, get a doctor!” She had not used 1-percent silver nitrate, but 50-percent. A 50 percent solution was so strong, it could bore a hole through solid wood, and it had been in the child’s eyes for 2 hours.
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Dr. John Grimley is the first doctor to hear the nurse’s cries. Looking at the badly burnt face and the bottle label, the horrified doctor can only shake his head. A few minutes later he is reporting to the Mother Superior that the nurse has accidentally destroyed the child’s sight.
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A second doctor to see the infant was breathless. By now in those eye sockets there can be nothing left to treat. All he can do is call the doctor who delivered this perfect child less than 3 hours ago.
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As he is telephoning, the Mother Superior pleads with him to do something. He says to her: ‘Nothing short of a miracle can help this kid.’ In such sorrow, the nun says, ‘Then we will pray. “Oh do so! Please do so!” says the stricken doctor.
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He tried to break the news gently to the arriving doctor: saying, ‘a slightly stronger solution of silver nitrate was used in the eyes.’ He replies, “Anything stronger than 1-percent and that’s a blind baby.”
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A minute later as he bends over the crib, the eyes which are now beginning to exude pus are so swollen he cannot open them. Three doctors have already seen the baby; the eye specialist merely confirms the situation.
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That afternoon and evening as the spiritual daughters of Frances Cabrini, foundress of the hospital, go off duty, they gather one by one in the chapel. All the long night they remain there begging Mother Cabrini, dead only three years, to obtain from the heart of Jesus the healing of the Smiths’ child. And the nurse Mae, is praying with them too.
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At 9 the next morning, when the doctors arrive, to their astonishment they find the baby’s eyelids much less swollen. Gently the eye specialist opens the eyelids, his stomach tightening as he prepares to see the ravages of the deadly acid. Instead, looking back at him are two perfect eyes.
All 4 doctors are stunned, and the nurse can only sob with gratitude. But no smiles are as big as those of the Sisters. They knew Mother Cabrini’s holiness. Now she has proven it.
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Friends, today is the Feast of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini. Attending her beatification in 1938, was 17 year old Peter Smith; and everyone wanted to see his beautiful eyes that needed no glasses.
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That boy would become – Father Peter Smith – and all the way to his death he would love to talk about Mother Cabrini, whose prayers show that miracles still do happen.
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[i] Adapted from an article: Mother Cabrini’s First Miracle, by PATRICIA TREECE
St. Leo the Great, Pope
Pope Leo and the Hun
Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of St. Leo the Great. Pope Leo lived about the year 450. In his days, he had many problems on his hands; not only did he have to deal with heretics, but at the same time, the city of Rome was a mess. No longer the seat of power, it was a small outpost in a dying Roman Empire, with poverty, violence, and plague.
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In Italy barbarians were invading – society was crumbling; the people of influence and culture, had long since fled to Constantinople, the new capital. So here was the Pope, with so many troubles and no help at all.
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It was at that time, that Attila the Hun, the famous barbarian king, invaded Italy. Attila was one of the most fearsome enemies of the west. Into Italy he brought his armies, sacking and looting city after city; and after three years of this, his army hurried on to take Rome.
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The people were afraid. There was nothing to defend them. So they turned to Pope Leo. ‘Holy Father, they cried. You must help us!’ Well, with no army at all, Pope Leo spent 3 days and nights in prayer, in the church of the apostles.
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Then, rising up, he asked his associates: ‘If any of you wish to follow, come along with me.’ Then he went out of the city, to personally meet Attila the Hun. We don’t know what conversation happened between Pope Leo and Attila the Hun, but we know this: after he and this fearsome barbarian had spoken, Attila knelt down at the popes feet promising to do whatever he asked.
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Leo asked him to withdraw his forces from Italy and to set his prisoners free, to which he agreed.
The chief guard of Attila, protested: ‘was the conqueror of the world to be defeated by a mere priest? Attila said to him: I acted for my own good and for yours, for as we spoke, I saw standing at his right side, a mighty warrior with his sword drawn, who said to me, ‘Unless you obey this man, you and your people will perish.’
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To this day it is unclear who was seen, standing next to Pope Leo, many believe it was St. Michael the Archangel.
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So it was, in the Year of Our Lord, 452, that Attila the Hun was mysteriously stopped in his tracks by St. Leo the Great. One of the greatest Popes the Church has ever had.
The Barque of Peter
Latin Mass: Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica
Beloved in the Lord, in May of 1862, St. John Bosco recounted what would be the most famous of his mystic dreams. He saw the ocean covered with many ships in battle, heavily armed and moving to attack another great ship. They closed in and tried to ram it, set it on fire, and cripple it.
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Then there appear in the sea two towering columns. On one, a statue of the Blessed Virgin, on the other a large Communion Host.
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In the battle, the Pope is wounded, yet is helped up and leads again; then struck down, he dies. A new Pope rises and steers the ship safely between the two columns of Mary and the Eucharist, and calm is restored.
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Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran in Rome. It is an anniversary of this, but it is about more than the Cathedral of Rome, this day is really about our Mother, the Church.
There are many images of the Church in Holy Scripture. Today in the Book of Revelation we see this image of the Church as the Heavenly Jerusalem. ‘And I saw the Holy City coming down out of heaven, prepared as a Bride for her husband.’ The Church is called the Bride of Christ, the Heavenly Jerusalem, the Mystical Body.
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There is another image of the Church seen through the scriptures, it is the boat. From time immemorial, the Church has been called the ‘Barque of Peter.’ I asked a group recently, what is meant by the ‘Barque of Peter,’ but they did not know; it is an old word which means ‘boat,’ or ‘ship.’
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In St. Mark’s gospel, one reads about the multiplication of the loaves to feed the 5000. Then after that, is the scene of the apostles in the boat, tossed in the storm on the windy sea, full of fear; they see Our Lord walking on the sea, and when he comes into the boat, he says ‘Take courage, it is I.’ and the wind fell. There is a mysterious line then, which says: ‘They were beside themselves with astonishment, for they had not understood about the loaves.’ Many ask, ‘What did the multiplication of the loaves have to do with the incident in the ship?’
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Well, this multiplication of the loaves was a Eucharistic sign. But the incident in the boat was a sign also. The 12 apostles in the boat, represent the Church. The Church is tossed in the sea, and there is fear; but when Jesus comes into the boat with the Church, they are safe, and he comes into the Church – in the Holy Eucharist. This is why St. Mark comments, that they were astonished because they did not understand about the loaves.
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So here, the boat is a sign of the Church. Now if we turn to the Acts of the Apostles, we see there the apostle Paul[i] has been arrested and is being taken on a boat – to Rome. Here again, they find themselves in a storm; ‘We were being tossed about by the violence of the storm,’ he says, and the next day they threw some of the cargo overboard. Some wanted to bail out, but St. Paul tells them: ‘Unless these men remain in the ship, you cannot be saved.’ You have to remain in the ship to be saved.
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Then he said to them, ‘I beg you to take some food for your safety,’ then no one of you shall perish. Then he took bread, gave thanks to God and broke it and began to eat.’ A Eucharistic sign, on the ship.
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Jesus is with us in the boat. Unless we remain in the boat, we cannot be saved. But this Barque of Peter must experience many great storms.
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One time the apostles were in the boat during a storm; it was being swamped by the waves and taking on water – but ‘Jesus was sleeping!,’ it says, he was awoken, calmed and storm and said, Do you have no faith?’
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Of course the original boat image of the Church is found way back in Genesis, the story of Noah and the ark. There, the Just man, Noah, saved his family in that ship; but this was a sign of the Just Man, Jesus, who will save his family in the Church.
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That great ark brought them through the flood to the new creation. The boat of Peter, the Church, will bring us safely to the New Creation, heaven.
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Way back in 1970, a little known theologian named Joseph Ratzinger[ii] made a prediction. He said: “The church will become small and will have to start afresh. As the number of her members diminishes . . . she will lose many of her social privileges. . . It will be hard-going for the Church; [this] process … will cost her much valuable energy. It will make her poor and cause her to become the Church of the meek . . . . . But when the trial of this sifting is past, he says, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church. [Then] men in a totally planned world will find themselves unspeakably lonely. But they will discover the little flock of believers as something new. They will discover it as a hope that is meant for them. Our Lord’s boat is being tossed by storms and waves, but Jesus is with us. And so is Mary.
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Blessed Isaac of Stella said, Mary and the Church are one Mother.
Each gives birth to a child of God without sin.
Without any sin, Mary gave birth to Christ.
By Baptism and forgiveness, the Church gives birth to us.
O dear Blessed Virgin, aid us and help us in the stormy seas, and guide us safely to the port of heaven.
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[Entrusted to the prayers of St. Thomas Aquinas]
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[i] Acts 27:18-35
[ii] – Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), from his book Faith and the Future
A true child of Mary
Friends in Christ. today is Saturday, the day of Our Lady.[i] Many of the great saints have said that devotion to Mary is a sign of predestination – of salvation. St. Augustine, St. Ephraim, Cyril, Germanus, Anselm, St. Bernard, and so many others have said this. That to love Mary is a sign that we will go to heaven.
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But to win the heart of the Blessed Virgin, it is not sufficient to honor her statue, or wear the scapular, or say that we are consecrated to her, no. External things are only secondary to devotion.
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Gentilucci says, it would be a grave error to suppose that devotion to Mary is more efficacious for salvation than obedience to her Son. Obedience to her Son is what Mary wants. Unless we pray, and do penance, help the needy, forgive our neighbor, receive the sacraments, – unless we observe God’s law, we will end up like the Pharisees whom Christ criticized for their superficial life.
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Our devotion to the Blessed Virgin must consist in a life that tries to imitate her and her Son in the way we live. Mary shows us: humility, purity, charity, her obedience – all the virtues.
A child who said that he loves his mother, but then listens to none of the advice she gives and remains a bad – how can this be honoring his mother?
But if we honor Mary with the intention of having her as our model; seeking to be more and more like her Son – then we will infallibly arrive at the safety of heaven.
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As guilty as a sinner may be, whatever are the disorders of his life – let him put his confidence in the Blessed Virgin; by going to this Mother and trying to please her, he will be turned from sinner into saint. The sinner must only bring a desire to change, to repent, and with this, Mary will certainly help him.
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A child of the Blessed Virgin should be making every effort to avoid sin and act with heroic virtue. In that movie ‘The Passion of the Christ,’ there is the scene when Our Lord is being brutally scourged. He starts to weaken and slump down, getting discouraged; but then Jesus sees his Mother watching and praying for him, and with this one glance of hers, he is filled with renewed courage.
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An athlete may be losing heart during a game, the fatigue is overwhelming him – but if he looks in the stands, and sees his mother there cheering for him, well – it’s a game changer. He gives him new strength to persevere.
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Living out our life, trying to be other ‘christs,’ under the watchful, motherly gaze of Mary is a game-changer. It is our salvation.
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[i] ideas and quotes from ‘Life of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Gentilucci, p. 500
Their god is their belly
Friends in Christ, a group of young people I know went on a trip to India to work with the poor; one of the boys was – well, a pretty big guy – he said, ‘when the locals saw my stomach, it was as if they had seen someone from another planet – they were starring at it!’
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St. Paul says today, ‘Many conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ, their end is their destruction, their god is their belly.
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Gluttony[i] is excess in eating and drinking; it is an immoderate indulgence in the delights of the palate. While it is usually not a mortal sin, Thomas Aquinas says that it becomes mortal if the person makes such pleasures their goal in life, having contempt for God – if their god is their belly!
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Gluttony is not always about quantity; eating in a rush, shoveling food in in the manner of an animal is not the way of virtue; if a person loves delicate and expensive foods, is overly choosy regarding the quality or preparation of food or the vintage of wines – this is gluttony of delicacy. Of course this does not apply to a chef whose livelihood demands that he be very concerned with the quality of food.
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Gluttony is a Capital Sin because it can lead to many others. Excess in eating and drinking leads to a dullness of mind; it leads to foolish, excessive talk, or boorish or uncouth behavior. People who have no restraint at table will often display ill manners and a lack of virtue.
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It is widely known that gluttony is related to sins of impurity; St. Gregory says, ‘When the belly is distended by gluttony, the virtues of the soul are destroyed by lust.’
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Now God commands that we care for our body which is a temple of the Holy Spirit, but gluttony can lead to the damage and disfigurement of this temple. Doctors are often frustrated that the health of their patient would be much better, saving his addiction to food and drink.
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St. Josemaria recommends that at every meal we make a small sacrifice – an offering to God. Skip the salt, or choose a dish we prefer less, or take water instead of milk….. A small sacrifice at every meal pleases God, brings grace from heaven, and produces an almost automatic temperance in our eating.
Why don’t we all try to do this a little more, so that our god is not our belly.
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[i] See Tour of the Summa, Paul Glenn
