Concept of voluptuousness
Orthodox and secular ethics interpret the concept of voluptuousness differently.
Secular aspects
From the point of view of secular people, voluptuousness is a person’s natural desire for a comfortable life, a normal desire if it does not directly harm others. In the secular world, there are increasingly calls to live for oneself and enjoy all aspects of life.
One of the products of voluptuousness - egocentrism - is condemned even by secular ethics.
Orthodox aspects
According to Orthodox doctrine, voluptuousness is one of the three main passions, which are based on self-love.
Brand
Vice is a certain quality of the human personality, moral deficiency, abnormal behavior, sinfulness of life , which a person is no longer able to hide, and therefore it has become visible to outsiders. Vice is a slave brand, which sins and passions have already managed to burn on the soul and body of their slave. In a broad sense, vice can be considered synonymous with passion, but it would be more accurate to say that it is the result of its destructive action, a mark by which one can determine what kind of passion possesses an unfortunate person. Robert Lewis Stevenson showed well what vice can look like when he described the memories of experienced pirates about Captain Flint, who was terrible even for them:
“And his face was like that of the devil! - exclaimed the third pirate, shuddering. - All blue!
“It’s from the rum,” Merry added. - Blue! It wouldn't be blue! Rum will turn you blue, that’s true.”
But it’s not only drunkenness that can so clearly affect a person’s appearance. Envy, anger, lust and many other vices also distort the faces and behavior of people, silently telling others about the passions that have developed in them to such an extent that they have become second nature to these unfortunates.
Photo by Matt Brown
The relationship between sin, the passion that gave rise to it and vice can be illustrated by the following example.
A man unleashed his accumulated aggression during the day on defenseless relatives: he yelled at his wife, children, mother-in-law - this is a sin, an act for which one should repent and talk about it in confession.
At the same time, he was driven by a passion of anger, constantly pushing him to similar sins.
Well, his vice, obvious to everyone, can be described as anger.
Famous sensualists in history
World history proves that even the most famous, talented and simply influential people are susceptible to the sin of voluptuousness. One of the most striking examples is the ancient philosopher Aristippus. Aristippus founded the doctrine of hedonism, according to which the highest happiness for a person is to enjoy life and avoid pain, anxiety and suffering in every possible way.
Another historical figure is Giacomo Casanova, whose name has become synonymous with the word “ ladiesman .” The Italian adventurer had affairs with dozens of women.
Causes of sin
The Holy Fathers believe that the root of voluptuousness, as well as the love of fame and the love of money, is self-love. A proud person constantly pleases his desires and overly pleases his body and soul, even in prayer he seeks only pleasant sensations.
In some cases, the cause of voluptuousness may be problems with a person’s physical health, in particular, hormonal imbalances.
Psychological and organic pathologies sometimes lead to eating disorders or deviations in intimate life.
What does it mean?
It is advisable to start the conversation with the fact that it is human nature to enjoy, have fun, and demand. It is from such actions that voluptuousness is born. Simply put, it is a branch of egoism. Why?
Let's give the first example. Men like girls who are curvy, but thin and have a pretty face. He looks at them, chooses a suitable girlfriend for himself. And then he enjoys her, admires her.
Let the second example be the love of everything attractive. A person likes to play interesting games, watch movies, buy delicious cakes and sweets. That is, he is enjoying.
As you can see, this is the second time we have mentioned this verb. And it’s no coincidence. Voluptuousness is the desire for pleasure.
How to deal with sin
Over its centuries-long history, the Orthodox Church, represented by the Holy Fathers, has developed several ways to combat the sin of voluptuousness. In some cases, Christians can also benefit from modern medicine.
Confession
Regular confession helps you monitor your thoughts and feelings and prevent your thoughts from turning into actions.
Penance
To effectively combat the sin of voluptuousness, a confessor can impose penance on his spiritual child, for example, observing a special fast.
Drug treatment
If the cause of sin lies in the malfunction of the body, the sufferer needs to consult a doctor.
You cannot prescribe treatment for yourself without consulting a specialist!
Orthodox Feng Shui
There is one more type of sin that deserves special mention.
A sinful action may not necessarily be physical, and even a word for it may be unnecessary. You can sin in your imagination, in your fantasies.
But even in this case, sin will still be an action, albeit a mental one. You should not console yourself with the thought that, due to this hiddenness from the outside world, mental sins are something insignificant. Hand on heart, each of us can admit to ourselves that there are thoughts that we are ashamed to talk about even to our closest people. From the point of view of an unbeliever, there is nothing wrong with this: you never know who fantasizes about anything in their spare time - the main thing is that in real life everything is decent and within the bounds of the law. But the trouble is that the most heinous crimes were committed by maniacs, sadists and rapists after they had committed them hundreds and thousands of times mentally and with these terrible thoughts prepared themselves for real atrocities.
A prominent figure in the Russian Abroad, Archpriest Sergius Chetverikov, spoke about it this way: “...We tend to attach little importance to the bad movements of our hearts, and we say to ourselves and others: “Think and feel what you want, just don’t harm anyone!” Or in other words: “Why should anyone care about my thoughts and feelings?.. After all, I won’t hurt anyone?” But this kind of reasoning is deeply erroneous. ...A soul filled with impure thoughts and desires gradually loses the ability to perform bright and good deeds. Mental sin is worse than actual sin. Sin by deed is always limited by the conditions of its commission; sin by thought is never absolutely limited by anything. There is only so much that can be done, but there is no end to the heinous crimes that a person who has unleashed his imagination can mentally commit. The worst thing is that, falling into this sin of internal uncleanliness, a person deceives himself with the knowledge that he is not doing anything bad. And meanwhile, when the moment of real activity comes for him, his soul turns out to be completely exhausted, completely corrupted by the internal sin of imagination, incapable of goodness and power over himself.”
Photo by Max Noisa
Mental sins can cause a lot of trouble in a person’s life, so you should definitely resist them and fight them mercilessly every time you notice that your mind and soul are enjoying them. This is not so difficult to do if you are attentive to your own thoughts. Well, for example, your boss scolded you at work. You cannot answer him in the same way (unless, of course, you are going to fly out of your workplace with a bang after this). And the famous rubber mannequins with the faces of bosses will not be brought into our offices, although, they say, in Japan, since the seventies of the last century, this method of relieving stress has been practiced: if you get a stick from your boss, you immediately run to the psychological relief room and hang it on the mannequin and with right and left until you bring your emotions to the lost balance. But all this exquisite feng shui is in Japan. And what remains for the humiliated and insulted worker in our native latitudes? And what remains is that in my thoughts I want to do to the boorish boss everything that he deserves with his shameless behavior. And so, when you mentally put him on his knees at the edge of the deepest abyss and, without listening to his pitiful babble, mercilessly fire a bullet between his eyes, know that you have just sinned by a mental action. What to do about it now? Urgently run to confession to the priest? No, against this type of sin the Church offers another weapon, which each of us always has at hand at any time of the day or night.
Immediate prayer of repentance addressed to God is the most effective remedy against the countless number of sins that each of us constantly commits in our inner world. And you don’t need to wait for the next confession for this. Repentance for mental sins can and should be done right there, in any place, mentally turning to God with a request to forgive this sin and give strength in the future not to get carried away by such mental executions, insults and other sinful outrages.
Saint Theophan the Recluse directly said: “Concerning small sinful movements of the heart, thoughts, etc. <...> the following rule: as soon as something unclean is noticed, it should immediately be cleansed by internal repentance before the face of the Lord. You can limit yourself to this, but if your conscience is unclean, uneasy, then later at evening prayer remember this with contrition and that’s the end of it. All such sins are cleansed by this act of internal repentance.”
Although, of course, this advice from the saint does not apply to difficult cases when mental sins become a terrible habit that completely takes over a person and leads him into some kind of virtual reality. This situation requires very special repentance and special efforts to cope with it. You need to talk about this with your confessor in confession, but not replace it with a list of your dreams and fantasies, but specifically discuss separately what to do next and how, with God’s help, to defeat this terrible ulcer, invisible to others.
Prevention of voluptuousness
The Holy Fathers advise not to have an addiction to anything, so as not to fall into the sin of voluptuousness. It is necessary to lead a simple life, not strive for excessive comfort, abstain from abundant tasty food, frequent carnal pleasures, observe fasts and practice asceticism in other ways.
Lust is a grave sin, but it is not a death sentence for a person who is aware of his imperfection, sincerely repents of his fall and desires to be healed. It is important to remember that with God’s help you can overcome any passion if you sincerely turn to the Lord and make efforts to fight spiritual illness.
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Daria Koryaeva
Madam Gritsatsueva's strainer
“I have sinned in word, deed and thought...” we read in our evening prayers. In any of these cases, some action occurs, an act of will: I did something, I said something, I thought something. Raskolnikov hit the old pawnbroker with an ax - he committed the sin of murder. Ostap Bender stole a gold strainer from Madame Gritsatsueva - he committed the sin of theft. The unfortunate Anna Karenina threw herself from the platform under the locomotive and took upon herself the sin of suicide. The young musketeer D'Artagnan went on a spree with his landlord's flighty wife and committed the sin of adultery. Khlestakov lied to simple-minded provincials, as if he personally knew Pushkin - he sinned. This list can be continued indefinitely, since world drama for the most part consists of descriptions of a wide variety of sins.
But in real life, sins, alas, accompany human life every day. True, they usually do not look as bright as in books or on the theater stage. And, thank God, they also rarely turn into criminal offenses. But this does not change their essence: sin is a conscious act, an action that harms the sinner himself and other people . If I cut off a car on the highway, demonstrating my driving prowess, I sinned. If you yell wildly at your frightened wife or children, you are sinning. If you have an affair on the side, you cheat on your husband on the sly, you are committing a sin. If you say some kind of insult in response to someone else’s rudeness, you sin with your words.
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And yet, strange as it may sound, you can also sin through an imperfect action. For example, walking past a person lying on the pavement without even asking what happened to him or whether he needs medical help. Or simply - sitting on the subway, glued to your smartphone and point blank not noticing the elderly woman standing in front of you.
It is these sins and actions that one should repent of in confession in church. And it’s not easy to draw up a “report on the work done”, writing sins on a piece of paper and slipping it to the priest - they say, honest father, get acquainted with my “arts”.
In confession, you need to repent, first of all, of those sins that weigh on your conscience, lie on your heart like a heavy stone and do not allow you to live in peace. There is no need to describe their details in great detail. But it’s also hardly worth reducing confession to a faceless remark in the style of “I sinned with anger” or “dislike for my neighbor.” It is best to briefly but clearly state the essence of what was done, if possible out loud.
For example: “I sinned by insulting my wife with a rude word and frightening the children with my scream.” Saying such words out loud in front of a priest can be incredibly difficult. But it is precisely through such work that a real feeling of repentance can be born in the soul, disgust for what you have done, and the desire to never repeat this sin again. Everything else is the work of the priest and the grace of God.
