Gluttony and solidarity

The answers to the questions are prepared by the theologian Monsignor Costantino Di Bruno, Central Assistant of the Apostolic Movement.

Q. Do criteria for showing one’s solidarity exist? How do we go about being people able to know how to act in various situations of our lives and become wise and balanced?

A. Wisdom is not acquired in a day. It is a long journey, and it must be asked to the Holy Spirit. If you ask God for wisdom, He gives it to you. Then he also gives you advice, he gives you fortitude, he gives you piety, he gives you the fear of God, he gives you the knowledge and everything you need for you to live an orderly life, a good life and a righteous life. Our life must be regulated by four virtues which are called: fortitude, justice, temperance and prudence. What is just for you? It is just for you that you take from the goods of God what you need and is useful for you. What is not necessary and useful, you have to leave it to another person, by a natural law, by a supernatural law and by the law of life. The goods of the earth are not given to the individual person, but they are given to man. If you gain a little more with your intelligence, your wisdom, your studies, it is right that the good that God has given you, you participate it to others as well. Intelligence is a gift of God, fortitude is a gift of God, love is a gift of God, and everything that you receive from God, we must be shared. How much does it take me to acquire this wisdom? A lifetime. However I must acquire it. Life on earth is short, it ends soon; and then life in eternity, which is the fruit of this one on earth, begins. If I do not believe in eternity and I do not live an honest, just and holy life on earth, and instead I live it as I please, later, I cannot have pretensions to go to heaven and share the joy of God, if I did not share my joy. Charity is sharing the joy. The gift of faith is sharing the joy. You have the joy of faith and share it, you have the joy of a piece of bread and you share it. You have the joy of a particular gift and you share it. It is this sharing that makes you be a true Christian. When will you acquire this science of goodness? Day by day. However, if you pray, you believe in the Lord, you invoke His grace and you want it. Because if you want it, the Lord will help you.

Q. I would like to know the difference between solidarity and charity. We often hear talking of solidarity as a virtue founded on a humanitarism detached from Christianity. Can there exist true solidarity, independent of the gospel?

A. Solidarity comes from solidum, that is becoming one thing. Human solidarity does not go as far as Christian charity, because Christian charity goes as far as the gift of life for the other person, “No one has a greater love than he who gives his life for his friends.” Solidarity gives you something. When major disasters occur we are asked to show solidarity and help with one euro, or two at the most. Christian charity solves the problem of the other. It no longer is a minimum participation, a feeling pity or being emotional, but it is solving the problem. The Good Samaritan stopped and gave first aid, took the sick man, put him on his donkey, went to the hotel and paid for him, settled the bill and if there was anything else to be paid he said he would have settled it on his return. This is charity. He solved the problem of the other. If we do not start from the solution of the problem of the other we have no Christian charity. We have the bare minimum which we do because we feel like doing it. Charity also starts from the renunciation of what is dearest to us in order to give the other what the other does not have. What is there more expensive than our body, than our lives! Yet we must renounce, because we have to make a supreme good, a great good, in order to sanctify the life of one of our brothers. The difference is there. The charity of Christ adds up to the total gift without sparing oneself in anything. Charity is not only material it is also spiritual. Many times solidarity is only material, you are not part of the other. In charity, the other is part of you.

Q. Can poverty be a condition that facilitates salvation?

A. It is the reception of the gospel that facilitates salvation. Because the gospel is not just for the poor it is for every man. It is not only for the ignorant is also for the learned. There are many saints who are scholars, scientists, who have done great things in their life starting from their developed gifts, brought to fruition. There is not a gospel for the poor and a gospel for the rich, but there is a Word of God is proclaimed to you and that you accept. Poverty can sometimes become also a cause of forgetfulness or of blasphemy against the Lord. The prayer that is contained in the wisdom books reads like this: “Lord give me neither poverty nor riches. Poverty so that I do not curse you, wealth so that I do not forget about you.” But the gospel goes beyond this law, because the gospel is the preaching of a Word. According to the Gospel of Matthew, you are asked not material poverty but poverty in spirit, that is, the ability to read your life in the light of God’s will. You can also live wealth as an instrument of good. For example, must a great industrialist act as a beggar in order to be a Christian? Or can he be a great industrialist and a good Christian? “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat”, must we mean it only as a handing out charity, or creating a big factory and give food to all those who have nothing to eat, through a commitment of the one who can invest his assets in order to uplift the dishonorable condition of man. A big rich can make a big industry in which justice and humanity live. He can create so much good, and he can sanctify himself. And there are many who sanctified themselves by working, creating and inventing. Matthew starts from spiritual poverty, which is the acceptance of the Word in your heart. However, Luke has another vision, because he speaks to a nation of poor, miserable, outcasts and slaves; and he must say to accept that condition without rebelling. Christianity is not a rebellion but an acceptance of the condition in which you find yourself. But here a strong word of God is necessary and a trust in Him to receive this Word and become poor in spirit. Not materially poor. Which is different. In Luke there is also this need to become poor in spirit, to surrender to the Word of the Lord. Jesus was a friend of Lazarus, who was a rich man, he was wealthy. Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea were wealthy and were not poor. The pious women were not poor, they were wealthy, because they helped the whole mission of Christ with their goods. So they had substances. The condition is not the physical but spiritual state: for what you use poverty and for what you use money and wealth. Today, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the exile also means creating him a good job so that he can feed himself, eat and live in a dignified manner. Charity is also giving dignity to a man. In the handing out the other person may also feel humiliated. Today, the greatest poverty is that we do not give dignity to our brothers.

Q. What is the relationship between the sin of gluttony and a scandal?

A. The sin of gluttony becomes a scandal if you get drunk, or eat in an inconsiderate way, in front of others, etc… . The scandal is an action that you do before another, and which is already sin in itself. The other sees, judges and condemns you. Or, he feels he is authorized to do likewise. Gluttony is not so much linked to the problem of the scandal, but the sin of selfishness. The gluttony forbids you, hinders you, in charity toward others. How much food does our body need? It must be given it. The Church fasting is done donating the body the necessary for that day: a simple breakfast in the morning, a meal at noon, a light supper in the evening. What our body needs we must give it because the body is the instrument of the spirit, the instrument of the soul. And the body has to work, has to study and it is right that all that is necessary is given it. But what is not necessary and becomes harmful to us, we may very well deprive us and make a work of charity of it. If we save even one euro a day, in a year you can make a beautiful work of charity and when they do the collection for the missionary day you donate to those children who live in those poor lands. Or again, with half a euro per day of savings you can make a long distance adoption. So many things are not needed, we save, and we gain health and do a work of charity. We ​​have to put our life in a saint moral order to be able to go on.

Q. Removing a vice you can help others. How can you kick the habit of smoking?

A. You have to have the will. One day we were in Siano for the Monday meeting. There was a man who was smoking and at some point he coughed in not so good a manner. Mrs. Maria Marino heard it and she told him that a little later he would have had a pulmonary edema. That man took the pack of cigarettes and lighter, and put them in my hands, and promised never to smoke again. And he kept his promise. He no longer smoked because he put his good will, he chose the health to the disease. This man was wise. Smoking is harmful and then it is not needed and it makes one consume a lot of money. If you believe, you who smoke, and from this moment you decide you do not smoke anymore you can avoid a cancer, or an edema, or a stroke, or some other disease that can come as a result of smoking. You choose a path of health and this choice of health becomes also a choice of charity, because you can do so much good to you and to others. We Christians being preachers of virtue how can we tell the other to remove a vice if we have not kicked that habit? If I do not take off my vices how can I ask you to take them off. It is a contradiction. We must have the will to say enough is enough. With the grace of God everything is possible. I assure you, many are no longer smoking. Where the Apostolic Movement meets they do not smoke, because it was I the one who put the law of non-smoking. It is necessary that we give an example of virtue to all.

Q. Sometimes you give to charity the superfluous. How does the Lord see this?

A. He sees it as a good thing. It is a law of the Gospel: “Give what is superfluous to the poor.” What are you going to do with what for you is superfluous? When the inspirer comes among us, what does she always tell us? That we have so much more and we can have the poor share in them. But we have to get used to not only participate material but also spiritual things: ideas, thoughts, concepts are to be shared, this way true communion is created. If we do not share we live in total selfishness. We have to always share because Christianity is sharing. Jesus even shared his anguish, his pain, his sorrow, his joy and his tears with his disciples. A Psalm says that he was looking for someone who consoled him, but did not find him. The heart needs to share. Selfishness is not a Christian law. We are created to share, to participate, to communicate the other our inner self. We are make like this, we cannot live alone. The Lord created us in communion. Participate, share, demonstrate, give because this is the joy: “There is more joy in giving than in receiving.” Communicate projects, desires, ideas, concepts and your aspirations among yourselves, so that you can also incite one another. In sharing there is life. The A.M. is beautiful because it is a movement of sharing. And you have so many projects that are sharing. You have a site that is a tool for sharing. From tonight on let us also share spiritual and not just material things. Sometimes we are afraid, we are hampered, however an idea could revolutionize the world. From tonight on let us make what is in the heart reach to the extreme boundaries of the earth.

Q. The sin of gluttony is when one is nervous and abuses of food. Is it a clichè or a mitigating to eat more?

A. The problem is that we must always govern ourselves. What does anxiety depend on? It must be governed. The grace of God is needed to help us govern ourselves. That is why Christ left us the grace. If you ask for the grace of the Lord, he gives it to you and you can govern yourself. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are nine: the first is joy and the last is self-control. Self-mastery is a true gift of the Holy Spirit and we must ask it to the Lord, because the Christian is the one who has the government of his life in his hands, through the work of the Holy Spirit. When we speak of sin it is necessary that there is a deliberate consent, the serious matter and a full awareness. If one of these notes is missing one cannot speak of grave sin. You can talk about imperfection, lack; however, sin implies something more. Sin is a serious matter, and there are many things that do not fall into these three elements which define a sin grave.

Q. Is temperance the government of the self?

A. Temperance or sobriety is an essential virtue for the Christian. It means that you have to use things that are necessary, that are good for you. The law of temperance in scripture sounds like this: “What harms you, do not grant yourself.” Use things for what you need them. If something hurts you do not use it. It is temperance, it is sobriety and it is virtue. It is called virtues because it implies an act of force and an act of will. Otherwise it would not be a virtue. If you throw a stone from the top down you do not need strength, because you let it fall and it goes down. To make it go up, it takes strength, it takes virtue and it takes energy. And we have to be energetic. Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is overcome through violence. Not physical violence but the spiritual one, the spiritual energy of the Holy Spirit. Saint Paul said to Timothy: “The Lord has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of fortitude”, so that we must always liven up this fortitude of the spirit in order to be always able to operate the good.

Q. What is the relationship between the sin of gluttony and the decision to follow a diet?

A. You cannot arbitrarily be on a diet removing the body what is needed to live well. If you have to study eight hours a day you need a little bit of energy, and you cannot follow a grueling diet, because you take away from the body what is right. The sin of gluttony is giving your body what hurts, what is not good for it. If you are sick with diabetes you cannot eat sweets as you please and at your taste because you know that then you will have an evil correspondence. Therefore, you have to limit yourself wisely, and you give up. If eating that sweet your body must suffer or it gets sick further then you commit a sin against your body, against your health. Smoking also is a sin against your health, because you know that is seriously detrimental to your body. All those things that are harmful must be suspended because they hurt. A proper diet is the virtue of sobriety. When you live the sobriety you can take everything, always, at all times, but with the right measure. Virtue is always a happy medium. There is no virtue that can exceed and there is no virtue that is lacking at fault. You are not virtuous because you deprive yourself but you are virtuous because you know in what you have to deprive and not have to deprive yourself. Virtue is not a natural act, it is a control of yourself, always. Virtue comes from the Latin word “force”, that force of the Holy Spirit that prevents you from doing what is wrong. You always remain in justice toward your body, because the body needs also to be served with justice. You may not remove sleep to the body, it is not right, so that you have to give it the proper rest, otherwise the body does not respect you anymore, it no longer obeys you. An ill treated body does not obey you. But you must want this, you have to impose yourself. This is the virtue. And that goes for all things. Do not exceed and do not miss. We need a not indifferent strong will, that self-control is always necessary: “This is needed and I take it, this is not needed and I leave it.” I have to be right with my body, always.

Q. Must I try to find the right way and the right means? Must I also fall into the excess and also experience the extreme limits?

A. Not necessarily. You do not have to break your head to know that it hurts you later. There is a wisdom in man that says that the body has a limit. After that limit it no longer tolerates, and then one feels bad. You can also fall by mistake, but then you have to recover and do beautiful things and holy things. But if you ask the Holy Spirit to give you the gift of wisdom you will always know to behave in doing things. If you ask him for the fortitude you know that it is also easy to limit yourself to what is right. The Christian life is not lived alone, but as a fruit of the Holy Spirit who is the counselor of the soul, the counselor of the spirit and our counselor. If you invoke Him he advises you, because He lives for you. Jesus Christ gave him to you to assist you. We call the Holy Spirit the Paraclete: he is the teacher, the counselor, the teacher, the guide, the friend and the doctor. Then after, you will take counsel with all men and with all the professions of this world, but you must have a strong supernatural life. It is with this grace that comes down from heaven that you can sanctify yourself. The Holy Spirit is for your sanctification and gives you the limit of things, always. The gospel is beautiful because it puts a limitation to man. And the biggest limitation is charity. You must always think of the other, whatever you do, and always thinking about the other, you will set limits for yourself. The other is your limit, because you need the other in order to be, to realize yourself, to think of you and to go to heaven. The other is your saint limit. You accept him and do wonderful things. My limit is you. Knowing all of your spiritual needs I must necessarily limit my life because I have to welcome all your limits and bring them to salvation, take them to the truth, bring them to justice, bring them to holiness. When you live in a relationship with the other you know that you can do certain things and certain things you cannot do. The other as your limit imposes you a lifestyle. If you want a long distant adoption you know that you have to put aside something every day, even giving up those little things we do every day and that they are the itch that everyone has. It costs nothing but it is a limit that I am asked to make a great charity, which then opens you the door into the kingdom of heaven.

Directions for the preparation of the meeting given by Monsignor Costantino Di Bruno:

– Lk 16:19-31, Lk 1:39-56, Lk 10.25 to 36.

– Mt 25:31-46.

– Rm 14.1 to 23;

– 1 Cor cc. 8.9.10.11.

– 23.29-35 Pro.

– 31.12-31 Sir, Sir 37.27 to 31.