Gluttony

[Ayeaiii]

Hello,
I have a trouble and I want your views.
I have a diagnosis of compulsive over eating disorder, which mean I am addicted to eating and I eat lots for emotional cause. The medical professions says this is an illness.
It means also I eat lots more than i need to live. I am in fact committing the sin of gluttony. The church will say I am sinning, yes.
I am sad that i am sinning. I try my best to live a good life how the Lord wants and am generally restrained and modest and selfless in my behaviours, exept for here. I am trying hard to dtop and I make some progress but I still have trouble with it, and do this behaviour sometimes.
Does the fact that I do it sometimes make me a bad catholic? Am I ill, like the doctors say or am I making excuses for my sinning? What can I do other than keep trying to get better, to help, in terms of being a good Catholic, and living how the Lord wnats?
Thank you x

 

[puzzleannie]

The medical professions says this is an illness.
It means also I eat lots more than i need to live. I am in fact committing the sin of gluttony. The church will say I am sinning, yes.
I x

no, she does not, not necessarily
there are 3 conditions necessary for sin
the matter must be objectively evil
the individual must know it is evil
the individual must freely choose to do the evil act

if any of those 3 conditions are missing, even an objective sin does not make that person guilty of sin, at that time.

compulsion, addiction or other conditions that impair free will MAY (not necessarily always do) mitigate or eliminate guilt for an individual at any given time.

this is the type of thing you bring to your medical professional to deal with the medical aspects, and to the priest in confession to deal with the spiritual aspects. it is best to find one good priest who knows you and stick with him so you avoid the trap of confessing things that are not sins, and rely on his guidance until your own ability to judge yourself in this particular area is restored to health.

the Church by the way does not say overeating is always the sin of gluttony, that is a huge oversimplification.

 

[ElizabethPH]

I think keeping a prayerful life and going to confession regularly can only help you in your struggle to develop a healthy relationship with food. Eating disorders are treatable and folks that seek treatment can find success. You are in my prayers.

 

[FlatAffect]

Binge Eating is an abuse of your body. Gluttony is a venial sin. Your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. You shouldn’t abuse food. You should try to keep your body as healthy as possible so you don’t develop a self-imposed illness.
“Addictions” don’t fare well in the battle verus sin. If you are always blaming something on an addiction, you are saying you are powerless to stop it. You do have the power to overcome it through the grace of God.
Are you a bad Catholic? I don’t know the ins and outs of your religious life. But if everyone who committed a sin were a bad Catholic, then we would all be bad Catholics.

 

[Ayeaiii]

Hello, thank you very much for your replies.
Just to explain, in relation to this bit:

If you are always blaming something on an addiction, you are saying you are powerless to stop it. You do have the power to overcome it through the grace of God.

I would say I do not always blame the addiction, because I do sort of think is an illness but i do have a big acceptance of my own responsibility. It would worry me not to have this, because if I am not responsible then this mean i have no power to help myself, and I beleive I do, together with the strength from thr Lord, and I have made some progress, so I do beleive that I have a personal role and responsibility in my behaviour and in the stopping of it. So i will not suggest I am powerless.

However…I do still sometimes carry out these behaviours, and I see how my behaviour is sinful. I do see this.

Binge Eating is an abuse of your body. Gluttony is a venial sin. Your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. You shouldn’t abuse food. You should try to keep your body as healthy as possible so you don’t develop a self-imposed illness.

I guess there is a little issue of self imposed illness. I imposed upon myself the physical illness, did I upon myself impose the mental illness? Maybe not entirely. But then again, maybes abit. Because if I made it be, maybe I can make it not be, and I do like to think i can.

I do feel very terrible about these sins I do in the mean time though, it is very troubling

 

[rwoehmke]

Consider teaming up with someone else who has a similar problem and become prayer partners. Whenever one or the other of you is tempted to eat excessively, get on the phone to your partner for encouragement. It is like being responsible to someone else(But not for someone else), to be strong and hold out against the temptation.

 

[Other_Eric]

Binge Eating is an abuse of your body. Gluttony is a venial sin. Your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. You shouldn’t abuse food. You should try to keep your body as healthy as possible so you don’t develop a self-imposed illness.
“Addictions” don’t fare well in the battle verus sin. If you are always blaming something on an addiction, you are saying you are powerless to stop it. You do have the power to overcome it through the grace of God.
Are you a bad Catholic? I don’t know the ins and outs of your religious life. But if everyone who committed a sin were a bad Catholic, then we would all be bad Catholics.

Along with pride, sloth, envy, greed, lust and anger, gluttony is one of the capital sins. As such, it constitutes the grave matter necessary for the identification of mortal sin. One may legitimately ask whether the OP’s condition compromises the OP’s free will to the extent necessary to mitigate culpability. However, this is orders different from attempting to call the act itself something other than the grave thing it is.

 

[ElizabethPH]

Along with pride, sloth, envy, greed, lust and anger, gluttony is one of the capital sins. As such, it constitutes the grave matter necessary for the identification of mortal sin. One may legitimately ask whether the OP’s condition compromises the OP’s free will to the extent necessary to mitigate culpability. However, this is orders different from attempting to call the act itself something other than the grave thing it is.

Thanks for clarifying that gluttony is indeed grave matter.

 

[mmm1]

Of course I’m sure we all know that we can’t assume that Ayeiii is guilty of the sin of gluttony, nor should we, even if we could. I think puzzleannie is wise to recommend Ayeiii go to her physician & priest to sort this out. I will pray for you as this can be a very difficult problem.

 

[ElizabethPH]

Of course I’m sure we all know that we can’t assume that Ayeiii is guilty of the sin of gluttony, nor should we, even if we could. I think puzzleannie is wise to recommend Ayeiii go to her physician & priest to sort this out. I will pray for you as this can be a very difficult problem.

I don’t think anyone has assumed that Ayeii has.