Lent is a profound spiritual journey, but sometimes for me it is just about the lack of meat. Sometimes a little and even obvious truth is needed. Here’s one: Lent is not mostly about gluttony, but helps expose gluttony.
Christianity claims we are happier (eternally) if we learn to control our passions, including for food and drink. Of course, this giving up is so we can have money and time to give to charity, helping the poor. The time and money I would have spent on a meal goes to God and my neighbor.
That’s the main lesson. Lent is not a cool diet plan, but a way to turn from one good (food) to a greater good (charity). Yet there is also a sin called gluttony, one that cannot be seen. A man can be glutton and thin, or not a glutton and stout. Instead, gluttony is an inordinate love of food and indulging that love excessively. If a person is “lucky” in their metabolism and does not gain weight, then he is still a glutton.
Gluttony is not an outer, but an inner sin. Lent includes giving up most meats and dairy products, essentially eating like a vegan most of the time. Since my favorite foods are almost all gone this is not easy and this is a secondary reason is why Lent is good for me. Yet even then the temptation is to look for yummy food so I don’t have to feel deprived: meat substitutes, non-dairy “milk.” One can work hard at one’s fast . . . Like a good glutton.
Many of us are rich by historic standards so even that is a change. We can afford cheese, but cannot eat cheese and this irritates our stomachs.
I am not rich by American standards, but like many Americans (though sadly not all) if I really wish to eat most foods, I can, if not as much as I might wish, still more than I should. I love red meat and compared to most of the world can indulge this taste very easily. A hamburger is rarely impossible.
Saying “no” to my desire to eat, not for diet or personal goals is a real discipline. The carbs of Lent (lentil beans!) mean I tend to gain weight if not careful and moderate. The discipline my community suggests is good for me in part because of the external discipline. The community has decided, consent is requested, but required if I wish to join with my community!
There is no buying my way out. My salvation does not depend on passing on chops for dinner, but my sanctification is pushed along when I say “no” to self. This is not always pleasant, but often a purgation.
This is not very grand and does not come with a beatific vision, but it is good, because it exposes how often I am a genteel glutton even when I diet. I do not temper my desires, just oscillate between different goals (steak or svelte). Just as one can look back and see that a chief defect of this very reflection is too much “I,” so my fast reveals that my food choices are not driven by love of others or God, but me.
Dante saw that all our loves, including “taste” should be just. A just desire keeps in mind the main aims of the appetite and the relative importance of the pleasure involved. Humans eat for nutrition and pleasure. We commune around the table and this human experience has been elevated in the Lord’s Supper: the holy mystery of the bread and wine.
Too much time spent thinking about food and sating my desire is not just bad for me, but bad for the community. Time that should have been directed to others is spent on my gluttony.
CS Lewis often makes the point that this desire can hide by exchanging an excessive desire for quantity for preciousness about quality. We will not drink too much tea, but when we want tea, we wish it to be made properly. In my case, this is the desire for a good cut of meat properly grilled.
Recall the control of desire is not to loss love or stamp out pleasure, but to have time for greater charity and higher delights. When I give, I am happier, than when I receive. This is not true at first and tonight I miss meat. I am glad for this, because my desire is so unimportant yet saying “no” is oddly hard.
No.
Now I must say “yes” to a grace that illuminates not just the gluttony in my heart the better pleasure. Dante says it best:
And heard it said: “Blessed are they whom grace So much illumines, that the love of taste Excites not in their breasts too great desire, Hungering at all times so far as is just.”*
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Dante, Purgatory, Canto end of Canto XXIV (Longfellow translation)
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