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Of the seven deadly sins, gluttony seems the least culpable because it is a vice that arises from our nature. We require food to survive, and food usually brings pleasurable sensations to the palate. As Thomas Aquinas put it, "Nature has introduced pleasure into the operations that are necessary for man's life." For this reason, one can never be entirely rid of gluttonous temptations. Early monks nonetheless believed gluttony was the first sin to be faced in spiritual and moral battles. Cassian compares our battle against vices with Olympic qualifying heats. In the "rules and laws of conflict," gluttony is the first vice to be defeated. At another point, Cassian compares gluttony with the Hebrews' leaving Egypt: they must forsake it in order to take possession of the seven nations in Canaan. If one cannot conquer a deadly thought that has to do with the body, he reasons, then how can one proceed to more insidious enemies that attack us only in the spiritual arena?

And as noted earlier, the early monks recognized how gluttony fosters many daughter sins. In a modern context, it might look like this: We work excessively to earn money to indulge our appetites. We envy others who can dine in exotic fashion. We search for the ever-new taste sensations, refusing to be satisfied with God's gifts to us. We spend more on ourselves and thus less on the hungry of the world.

Evagrius, Cassian, Gregory, and Thomas Aquinas outline several evidences of gluttony that we can reduce to six:

1. Gorging ourselves and not savoring a reasonable amount of food.
2. Eating at any other time than the appointed hour (like snacking). For the hermit monk, this usually involved one meal at noon or later. For the monk in community, this involved eating with the community at prescribed times.
3. Anticipating eating with preoccupied, eager longing. The hermit who had his desires under control would not be checking the angle of the sun every 15 minutes.
4. Eating excessively costly foods.
5. Seeking after delicacies. These last two are especially concerned with being content with what we have (cf. Philippians 4:11).
6. Paying too much attention to food. This means it is as gluttonous to be overscrupulous about food (and how our body looks) as it is to overindulge ourselves. Inordinate concern can become idolatry of the creation.

One can see, then, that the evil of gluttony lies not in food itself or in our need to eat it (with accompanying sensations of the palate) but in how we go about our eating and in the thought (or lack of thought) we give to our eating. Ultimately, gluttony refers to a desire or a longing that seeks filling. It is an "exaggerated and misplaced longing"—the "inordinate desire" of which Thomas speaks. Gregory writes, "When the disturbed has lost the satisfaction of joy within, it seeks for sources of consolation without, and is more anxious to possess external goods, the more it has no joy in which to fall back with it."

Gregory also describes a common human experience: "Gluttony is also wont to exhort the conquered heart. … when it says, 'God has created all things clean in order to be eaten, and he who refuses to fill himself with food. … gainsay(s) the gift.' " What follows, he says, is a "howling army. … when the hapless soul, once captured by the principal vices, is turned to madness by multiple iniquities; it is now laid waste with brutal cruelty."

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September 4 2000, Vol. 44, No. 10