By REY FLORES
Ever since I can remember, I have always had a problem with the fluctuation of my weight. As a child, my nickname was “Gordo,” which means fat in Spanish. I wasn’t bothered when my own family called me that, but it did bother me when the other school kids would make fun of me because of my weight.
I bring this up not as the latest installment of my true confessions or to garner sympathy, but for a few other, timely reasons.
Advent is upon us and, as the Church teaches us, it is a time to pray, fast, and prepare for the birth of our Lord Jesus on Christmas Day. While many Catholics do not adhere to these Advent guidelines as seriously as they do at Lent, many still do. Predictably, it is more practiced among traditional and orthodox Catholics.
Another reason I want to tackle this topic publicly is because of my own struggles in maintaining a healthy weight. I know I’m not alone. On any given day, we can look around us at work, at school, at the supermarket, and even at our own parishes, and see this.
People are overweight, obese, and sometimes seriously sick because of it. Today, the average American consumes no less than 5,000 calories a day, and what we eat are mostly starchy, genetically modified processed foods that are high in corn syrup content and an incredible amount of synthetic chemicals and preservatives.
Much of the food in any given non-specialty grocery store has enough garbage in it to harm us each time we consume it. It is as much about quality as it is about quantity. We eat garbage food and we are eating a lot of it.
Some of us are blessed to have people around us that love us and who try to help us out by cooking healthy meals for us and encouraging us to eat in moderation, but as with any other vice or sin, the Devil knows our weaknesses and exploits them. We live in a fast-food nation that never lets up on trying to sell us junk food.
If giving into these temptations can keep us fat, sick, and literally disabled from fully participating in God’s gift of life, than the Devil wins. I have seen this “victory” many times already in my own family as some of us are already plagued with diabetes, high-blood pressure, high cholesterol, and some of the rest of us are well on our way to joining them in their misery.
Gluttony is a spiritual disease as much as it is a physical one and a psychological one. We often eat because we are depressed and we self-medicate with food. Afterward we feel sick, bloated, and tired, so exercising becomes nearly impossible, therefore leaving us to sedentary activities that help contribute to our ongoing weight gain.
Right now, holiday parties abound at work, and with family and friends. Eating is the centerpiece of the celebration and I almost dread this time of year because of it. I eat plenty as it is without the added encouragement of celebrating the season by further stuffing my face unnecessarily!
Some people can give up cigarettes, alcohol, and food on cue. I — like many other people — am not one of them. I envy people with good metabolisms and the ability to eat and not gain any significant life-threatening weight.
Do you see how that happened? I started off with committing the sin of gluttony, but now I have also committed the sin of envy. Did it all start out with the sin of pride? Is it because I am prideful that I worry about my appearance and how others perceive me?
Perhaps in my younger years when I also battled with bulimia, pride had a lot to do with it but today it is a different story. As a man in my 40s, it is not so much about my looks now as it is about my health.
Breathing can become labored with what others would consider a normal walk or a climb up the stairs. Clothes fill up our closets, but we no longer fit in most of what hangs there. Oftentimes we find ourselves wearing maybe three different pairs of slacks or shirts that still fit us, despite the other 20 shirts not worn in a year or two.
I had a conversation about sin with a fellow parishioner recently and I mentioned to him that my sin of gluttony is one I cannot hide. It is apparent in my body, but also in my behavior as I tend to be the first one in line to get a plate at church functions where food is served.
Am I embarrassed? Yes. Am I feeling sorry for myself? No, absolutely not.
I know what it will take to lose the weight, but because of my weight, I also am tired and tend to indulge in yet another sin, this one being sloth. It’s hard to get up and exercise after one has been sitting at a desk all day, munching on food throughout, just packing on the pounds.
It is also hard to see oneself looking from the inside and there is so much denial and self-deception we can feed ourselves, no pun intended, but at some point, we see ourselves on camera or in a picture and we almost don’t even recognize ourselves anymore.
How many of our family and friends, or how many of you out there reading this, can relate to most of what I’ve mentioned thus far?
Gluttony is a bad thing. How pro-life can we really consider ourselves to be if we are killing ourselves slowly each day?
Improving our lives isn’t about vanity or pride, but about committing to being healthy so as to do God’s will here on Earth without the excess baggage of our sin of gluttony. Let’s not abuse the temple of the Holy Spirit anymore.
I’ll leave you all with this small bit of encouragement. I commit to losing weight by fasting to relieve the suffering of any of you dealing with this same problem. I also ask that you do the same for me; we’ll keep each other in prayer and know that God can help us shed this cross. Thank you.
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(Rey Flores is a Catholic writer and speaker. Contact Rey at reyfloresusa@gmail.com.)
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