Hello, dear readers of the KtoNaNovenkogo.ru blog. It sounds strange, but the old English song, translated into Russian by Chukovsky and Marshak, talks about one of the deadly sins.
“Robin Bobin Barabek ate 40 people, a cow, a bull, and a crooked butcher...” The boy loves to eat - what’s reprehensible here?
His exaggerated image is difficult to take seriously because it is made up. But for some, gastronomic pleasures have become the meaning of life, and this is a sad reality.
So, gluttony is on the agenda: what kind of sin is this, and what did the funny fat man Robin Bobin do?
Gluttony is not the love of food, but the abuse of it
Gluttony is not just the ability to eat food for pleasure, as many people think. Alas, the stereotype that an Orthodox priest dreams of prohibiting a person from every natural need is very tenacious, and calls any gratification of the stomach or other feelings a sin and demands repentance.
No. All wrong. The culture of eating and preparing it is part of the centuries-old experience of mankind. This is worth being proud of, this is, of course, necessary, and no priest has the right to take this away from people.
Gluttony is not a love of tasty and satisfying food, but a situation where food causes real harm to the body.
Associated Sins
Laypeople who violate the commandment to renounce gluttony generate anger within themselves. Overweight people are more often dissatisfied with themselves and those around them, feel unwell and because of this they get angry and quarrel with family and friends.
If a person is used to eating a lot, then he will be afraid of being left without food. The sinner begins to collect food and fill his refrigerator and pantries with supplies.
The clergy distinguish two types of gluttony: gluttony - a constant desire to eat and laryngeal insanity - the desire for exquisite food.
Gluttony leads to stinginess. You're willing to eat leftovers and spoiled food so you don't throw it away. Such people are glad that they have food supplies and pride themselves on being prepared for any eventuality. Misers do not like to invite guests, but they are not averse to visiting friends.
If you combine this sin with vanity, then you are “playing” secret eating. You are afraid to show the world that you love to eat a lot and deliciously. If you eat alone, you are ready to eat a full table of dishes; in public, you behave very modestly and restrain yourself in delicacies.
Related sins are: eating without prayer; excessive alcohol consumption or drug addiction; vulgar jokes; quarrels and squabbles during breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Gluttony leads to physical and mental illnesses
How can the so-called demon of gluttony harm a person? Yes, it’s elementary! Even on a physical level there are a lot of unpleasant consequences:
Binge eating . In addition to the natural consequence of obesity, many other side problems arise. There are diabetes mellitus, problems with blood vessels, and simply decreased activity, which is also not healthy. A person gradually falls out of the world, and soon he will leave it altogether.
Polyphagia
a symptom in which a person, regardless of food intake, does not feel full. Happens in diabetes mellitus
Eating junk food . It is important not only when a person eats in moderation, but also eats what is not harmful to him. Okay with her, with healthy food. Let it be at least neutral. But we have all heard about the dangers of fast food, sweets, various chemically processed products, etc.
It’s also worth adding those foods that a particular person cannot eat. The doctor forbade him to eat spicy food, but he spat and died six months later from an ulcer.
Surprisingly, a person’s desire to eat food not out of a bodily need, but out of a psychological one, and even to give preference to it when both health and life are on the other side of the scale.
Gluttony (fragment from Hieronymus Bosch’s painting “The Seven Deadly Sins”)
Proper nutrition
Food should promote health and replenish lost energy. Refusal of gluttony and gluttony promotes physical and spiritual health. Purification of the spirit and body occurs during fasting, when foods with animal fats are prohibited. There are no restrictions outside of fasting according to the canons of the Orthodox Church, but it is advisable to limit:
- fatty foods;
- spices;
- sweets.
While eating, you can repeat prayers to yourself to distract from sinful thoughts. For food to be beneficial, you need to ask God for a blessing before eating, and thank you after finishing the meal.
The Apostle Paul compares overeating to idolatry
The Apostle Paul wrote this interesting thought:
Phil. 3:19
"Their god is the womb."
And this is said not for the sake of rhetoric, but metaphorically. Indeed, the body in a sense serves the stomach. It nourishes everything: lungs, heart, muscles. But all organs work to saturate the stomach.
However, in the case of gluttony, a person mentally becomes a slave to the stomach. And it's terrible. The motive for his actions is increasingly the desire to constantly eat in order to satisfy the all-consuming feeling of hunger. Then actions center around the cult of food and leave less and less space for life.
So why is gluttony a mortal sin?
Remember two hundred kilogram people. They are no longer able to get up, and the whole life of these unfortunates comes down to lying down and continuing to serve the demon of gluttony.
Isn't this idol worship? So gluttony, according to some theologians, is a violation of the second commandment. Not everyone agrees with this interpretation
What circle of hell is prepared for gluttons?
The scripture says that for violating mortal sins, a person falls into one of the circles of Hell. Believers dream of avoiding such a fate and pray for forgiveness from the Lord, asking him to give them the strength to fight human passions. Others are trying to understand who will guard their “peace” after death, what circle of the dark monastery they will fall into. (see how to protect yourself from the evil eye and damage yourself)
You will find answers to all these questions in church literature or Dante's Divine Comedy. It talks about the existence of nine circles of hell. Each of them is dedicated to its own “heroes”, so that after death people do not pass on sins to each other and do not incline them to commit new ones.
Gluttonians “live” in the third circle. It rains constantly on its territory, and the souls of the dead drown in puddles of mud.
They are guarded by the demon Cerberus, who holds them under his paw. The Lord chose this punishment for them - they rot in the rain.
The opposite virtue of gluttony is abstinence.
It is not always correct to contrast these things, but still, gluttony is the inability to refuse to receive pleasure when you understand that it is necessary, harmful, dangerous, etc.
Abstinence is not an end in itself, not a way of life.
There is nothing righteous about banning candy for the rest of your life. This does not increase the chances of salvation. But willpower is well manifested precisely in abstinence, and therefore a person whose mind is able to curb his feelings is no longer a slave to sin.
What kind of sin is this: five types
Pilgrims, priests and monks do not pay as much attention to food as ordinary people. For most, eating is a process accompanied by conversations, demonstration of skills and position. All these are worldly sins, the source of which is gluttony. Priests advise to restrain yourself in food, to eat simple and easy to prepare food. You don’t need to spend a lot of time and effort on preparing dishes.
How to understand that you have been jinxed: 3 signs
What is the evil eye and how does it differ from other methods of magical influence? What to do to protect yourself from negative influences?
In Orthodoxy, there are three degrees of satiety. This is abstinence - after eating you still want to eat; contentment - you feel hungry; satiety and fullness, after which you no longer want to eat, but you feel good.
Gluttony is one of the terrible human passions that forces a person to renounce faith and fill his belly with more and more food.
This sin means a passion for tasty, unhealthy food and violation of Great Lents. The danger of this sin lies in the fact that it becomes the basis for the eight passions. It is called "root" sin.
The scriptures highlight:
- overeating;
- laryngeal madness (pursuit of taste, replacement of lean dishes with synthetic substances);
- addiction;
- drunkenness;
- secret eating.
Often those who violate this sin worship sensual and gustatory pleasures. You can fight it with abstinence.
The Holy Fathers urged not to make a cult out of food
Many holy fathers paid a lot of attention to the issue of gluttony. Saint John Chrysostom especially loved this topic.
In particular, he reminded that not everything is useful:
John Chrysostom
Archbishop of Constantinople, theologian
“Not everything that is taken into the belly is turned into food, because in the very essence of food not everything is nutritious; there is a part of it that goes for eruption, and another for nutrition. Therefore, whoever, having taken it in moderation, allows it to be completely digested, this is done, and it reaches its destination; everything healthy and useful takes its place, and what is superfluous and useless is separated and thrown out; if it is taken in excess, then what is nutritious in it becomes harmful.”
He emphasizes that the taste and quality of food are nothing compared to its harm or benefit:
“Moderate food, which promotes health, is better than luxurious food, which causes harm; that one nourishes much more than this; that one is food, and that one is disease.”
John Chrysostom wrote a lot about the sin of gluttony.
Basil the Great taught not to forget about God when eating and condemned those who ate greedily:
Basil the Great
Archbishop of Caesarea of Cappadocia, church writer and theologian
“One must eat food without showing frantic greed, but in everything observing firmness, meekness and abstinence from pleasures, even at this very time having a mind not idle from the thought of God; on the contrary, the very property of foodstuffs and the structure of the body that receives them must be turned into a pretext for glorifying the Steward of the universe, Who has produced various kinds of foodstuffs, adapted to the properties of bodies.”
See also the article Non-idle woman
And the Monk Ephraim the Syrian looked deeper and explained that making a cult out of food makes the mind coarse:
Efim Sirin
Christian theologian and poet
“Eat food that is simple and not plentiful, so that your mind does not become coarse through overeating, drunkenness and the sorrows of everyday life. For those possessed by passion do not commit fornication into fornication, and adultery not into adultery, but they do this without fear, no different from pigs in the mud; They do not remember either the law, or the prophets, or the Lord himself, who became man in one image of piety; they boast of this, because those who submit to the dominion of the mind, through negligence and lack of fear of God, are darkened, doing the opposite.”
St. Maximus the Confessor reminded that food has a specific task: to nourish and strengthen health, but nothing more:
Maxim the Confessor
Christian monk, theologian and philosopher
“Food is created for two reasons - nutrition and healing. Therefore, those who accept it with the wrong intention, and not properly <...> are condemned as sensualists. And in relation to all things, their incorrect use is a sin.”
But perhaps the most practically useful recommendations for combating gluttony were given by St. Gregory of Nyssa.
He reminded that the difference in taste is created by tiny taste buds, but in everything else there is no difference what there is. If you remember this, food will no longer be so attractive:
Gregory of Nyssa
Christian theologian and philosopher
“Except for the palate in the mouth, the difference between what is put into the larynx is indistinguishable; because by nature everything is equally changed into a stench. Do you see the end of the culinary arts? Do you see the consequences of cookery tricks? Ask for bread for life's needs; in this nature has made you a debtor to the body. And what is beyond this invented by the effeminacy of the luxurious is from among the chaff that has been scattered.”
Consequences
Priests distinguish two types of consequences: spiritual and physical. A person feels unwell and heavy, and develops diseases of the digestive and nervous system. People prone to gluttony are more likely to become despondent and have sad thoughts. Spiritually, they move away from God, stop praying and devote their time to humility. All efforts are aimed at processing food and thoughts about finding new dishes and delights. (see National Flag Day of the Russian Federation)
A type of this sin is drunkenness, which is spiritually dangerous. A person loses himself, it is difficult for him to cope with problems in the family, at work and in communicating with friends. He loses himself, it’s hard for him to be in society and his worldview changes noticeably. Alcohol is the most popular reason for committing terrible crimes against the Lord - deception, sacrilege, blasphemy, discord and enmity, robbery, theft and murder.
Gluttony forces a person’s mind to turn off and act according to a proven pattern: obtaining and consuming food.
IMPORTANT! Sometimes a person may not notice such sins. He is confident that he devotes enough time to God, family and friends. If in doubt, it is better to consult with your confessor.
Damage: how to find out who did it?
What is the difference between magical effects and the evil eye? Is it possible to understand that damage has been caused? How to get rid of it yourself?
If you spend more than three hours a day on food, preparing it and shopping for it, then you should start to worry. A reason to think is the desire to drink in any situation and the inability to live without “100 grams” and a day. Another example of gluttony is eating secretly and hiding your excessive love for a particular food. Or if after a magnificent feast, leaving the guests, you feel heaviness and discomfort.
It is not for nothing that this sin is mentioned in the Holy Scriptures as one of the most harmful. History knows what the love of delights leads to. The minds of the Israelites were occupied with satisfying food that, having lost the opportunity to eat to their fill, they began to grumble that life would be better in godless Egypt. The local prophet put this sin on a par with pride and idleness.
