SCRIPTURE CORNER

"When Jesus went into the house of one of the chief of the Pharisees, on the sabbath day, to eat bread, that they watched him. (Luke 14. 1)

As they watched the Master they will also do the same to His disciple. If you are genuine, good Catholic, then you are going to be watched. Even during the meals. Then keep up to the golden rule: "Moderation and temperance in all". Certainly, many people eat and drink more than they need. No doubt that abundant eating and drinking is cause of many sins, and what is the consequence? Overeating can make us ill, and intemperance can cause indigestion: "Be not greedy in any feasting, and pour not out thyself upon any meat: For in many meats there will be sickness, and greediness will turn to choler" (Ecclus 37, 32,33). For this reason Our Redeemer warns us: "And take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life" (Luke 21,34). Struggling for abstinence then is based on Scriptures and should be taken as the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. There is no reason, however, to consider wine and other drinks as a tool of Satan. They are all created by God, but they can bring to ruin those who are ruled by sensuality and the whole family can perish because of one addict: "Woe to you that rise up early in the morning to follow drunkenness, and to drink till the evening, to be inflamed with wine. The harp, and the lyre, and the timbrel, and the pipe, and wine are in your feasts: and the work of the Lord you regard not, nor do you consider the works of his hands" (Isa 5,11,12). For those who are able to control themselves, wine and other drinks are God's gift for relaxation and cheer up:Wine was created from the beginning to make men joyful, and not to make them drunk. Wine drunken with moderation is the joy of the soul and the heart. Sober drinking is health to soul and body(Ecclus 31, 35-37). Then self-control in drinking and eating is a virtue: "And if a man love justice: her labours have great virtues; for she teacheth temperance, and prudence, and justice, and fortitude, which are such things as men can have nothing more profitable in life." (Wisdom 8,7). In another place in Holy Scriptures we read: " How sufficient is a little wine for a man well taught " (Ecclus 31, 22). We do not need to give up drinks and no state can prohibit their citizens alcohol consumption. If they do, however, as it happened in the USA, the results are null, for ten years of prohibition did not increase temperance at all. Anyone who out of divine inspiration gives up alcohol is worth of all praises. But it does not justify any condemnation of those who still drink: " Let not him that eateth, despise him that eateth not: and he that eateth not, let him not judge him that eateth. For God hath taken him to him. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own lord he standeth or falleth. And he shall stand: for God is able to make him stand." (Rom 14,3,4), and : " For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but justice, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. "(Rom 14, 17).