A question about self indulgence

[AnneElizabeth]

Exactly when does one ‘self indulge’? At what point can something be enjoyed, and then the next be sinful?

I don’t even know if this can be answered. I’m assuming it is different for every circumstance and person and may pertain to how the conscience of a person might be feeling/sensing after the event. (I mean, who else could really judge anyway?- just as the apostles of Jesus picked and ate the wheat on a holy day) I just read the following quote from a poster here at C.A.F. and it got me thinking.

“When the Apostle said, ‘Make no provision to fulfill the desires of the flesh’ (Rom. 13:14), he was not forbidding us to provide for the needs of life; he was warning us against self-indulgence”

Do people really know what constitutes a ‘need’ as opposed to a ‘want’?

Are there varying degrees of the sin of self indulgence?   If so, is no self indulgence what-so-ever the best model we should follow?   Did the gospels ever speak about Jesus self indulging in anything then?

What would make deciding to indulge in 4 cookies rather than one or two be sinful? Was it sinful to indulge in a cookie at all? Are we not supposed to enjoy anything at all, and only our faith in Jesus?! It sometimes seem this is how its supposed to be.

Anyone have any advice to share on this? Thanks in advance.

 

[AureaElizabeth]

I have been thinking about that recently too, and would like to hear the answers to this post.

I wonder about when self indulgence becomes gluttony. I have read St. Thomas Aquinas’ 5 ways of committing gluttony, but going by that would lead me to believe I’m committing gluttony every time I eat dessert or really enjoy my food. Then I start to worry…

So I hope you get some good responses!

 

[captainrick]

My opinion: I believe the admonitions to avoid overindulgence are guidelines to living a decent, holy life. I do not think that, say, a few extra cookies are “sinful.”

Extreme behavior, however, might be. Common sense should dictate.

 

[chataranga]

Greetings,
Common sense in my opinion is overrated. Common sense allows us to text and drive-pray and drive. common sense allows us to follow the culture on what to watch, read, listen to or buy. Uncommon sense is what we should be striving for.

 "If you wish to go to extremes, let it be in sweetness, patience, humility and charity."
                                               St. Philip Neri

 I don't believe too many cookies or chips or too much t.v. etc would fall into his categories. I have an addiction to chips(actually salt) so I tend to overindulge once the bag is open. My conscience would say "go for it" it doesn't hurt anyone. Or does it? Blessings to all beings everywhere.

 

[ready]

my response got lost

 

[chataranga]

I suppose it would have been better if I had stuck to the thread topic of whether overindulgence was sinful or not. Maybe another way of looking at it is whether something is skillful or not. Eating 4 cookies instead of 2 probably isn’t skillful and I wouldn’t think sinful unless you wish to stress the points of body as temple or that the more cookies you eat the more money you spend on cookies and that is less money to help the poor. I prefer to view it as unskillful behavior rather than as sinful. Fasting helps with clarity of mind, as well as helping to learn moderation. How about you fast from cookies and I fast from chips (and a few other things). Take care-be well.

 

[nuntym]

+JMJ+

Exactly when does one ‘self indulge’? At what point can something be enjoyed, and then the next be sinful?

“Enjoy yourselves as much as you like, if only you keep away from sin.” St. Don Bosco

The answer lies in that word: enjoy. As long as you enjoy something, it cannot be sinful. To enjoy something is to derive joy from its use.

So where does enjoying something stops? When you start abusing it.

“There are two philosophies of life: the Christian philosophy and the Secular Philosophy. The Christian Philosophy is: first you fast, then you feast! The Secular philosophy is: first you feast, then comes the hangover!” Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

 

[fred_conty]

By eliminating all material desires that would remove a person from desiring only God in one’s life, then that is working towards making God the center and not an after thought. It is difficult to make everything we do for the purpose of keeping Jesus as our very life. So often it is easy to forget and only live for this world and then wake up at the end of each day and realize he was really not in our thoughts and intentions or that we weren’t living for him.

There is a struggle going on between the desires of the body and the needs of the soul. St. Paul says “I do things I do not wish to do and do not do the things I desire to do.” There is that constant struggle of paying too much attention to the material wants of the body and letting the spiritual soul take the back seat. We think too little of the soul’s good and more on the material adventures of the body and to please it. Yet God abides in the soul.

It is in deprivation that we enter God’s realm, his kingdom, for unless the seed die it cannot grow. Many of the distractions of the body may not be sins in themselves, but in giving in to them we allow more control to the body and less to the soul. And so the body becomes king, allowing it’s impulses to come first.

It isn’t about quantity, but about why we do things, and working to give our soul first hand in our life. So while some of these little things we do don’t seem important and are unsinful, yet in the bigger picture, we are building or destroying our Lord’s vineyard in us.

And this requires everyday constant effort on our part and is not just a one time thing. Because our spiritual life is just that…a life…a life in Christ or a life without him.

May our Lord’s cross inspire us.