It would likewise be a grievous sin of
gluttony to put the satisfaction of one's appetite before the law of
the Church and violate wantonly the precepts of fasting and abstinence.

And are there no sins of gluttony besides these? Yes, and three rules
may be laid down, the application of which to each particular case will
reveal the malice of the individual. Overwrought attachment to
satisfactions of the palate, betrayed by constant thinking of viands
and pleasures of the table, and by avidity in taking nourishment,
betokens a dangerous, if not a positively sinful, degree of sensuality.
Then, to continue eating or drinking after the appetite is appeased, is
in itself an excess, and mortal sin may be committed even without going
to the last extreme. Lastly, it is easy to yield inordinately to this
passion by attaching undue importance to the quality of our victuals,
seeking after delicacies that do not become our rank, and catering to
an over-refined palate. The evil of all this consists in that we seem
to eat and drink, if we do not in fact eat and drink, to satisfy our
sensuality first, and to nourish our bodies afterwards; and this is
contrary to the law of nature.

We seemed to insist from the beginning that this is not a very
dangerous or common practice. Yet there must be a hidden and especial
malice in it. Else why is fasting and abstinence--two correctives of
gluttony--so much in honor and so universally recommended and commanded
in the Church? Counting three weeks in Advent, seven in Lent and three
Ember days four times a year, we have, without mentioning fifty-two
Fridays, thirteen weeks or one-fourth of the year by order devoted to a
practical warfare on gluttony. No other vice receives the honor of such
systematic and uncompromising resistance. The enemy must be worthy.

As a matter of fact, there lies under all this a great moral principle
of Christian philosophy. This philosophy sought out and found the cause
and seat of all evil to be in the flesh. The forces of sin reside in
the flesh while the powers of righteousness--faith, reason and will--
are in the spirit. The real issue of life is between these forces
contending for supremacy. The spirit should rule; that is the order of
our being. But the flesh revolts, and by ensnaring the will endeavors
to dominate over the spirit.

Now it stands to reason that the only way for the superior part to
succeed is to weaken the inferior part. Just as prayer and the