Temperance and the Specific Nature of Fasting

The Hellenic term was sophrosyne, and in Latin was temperantia, both of which have a wider range of significance. The Greek word included the idea of "directing reason" in the widest sense, while the Latin remained close to this far-ranging significance so that the unproblematic and essential meaning of the word was to dispose various split into one unified and orderly whole. Temperance is non hence applied to any one activity but is a larger concept of directing behavior toward a unified whole.

fasting clearly refers to the issues of eating and of not eating. St. Augustine states that it is a field of indifference what or how much a individual consume so long as the well-being of those with whom he or she is associated as well as his own health and welfare are not disregarded. However, as St. Augustine notes further, what is important is that the individual not be so taken with food that he or she cannot renounce food if virtuous contract requires it. Indeed, the individual is expect to be able to make such a desertion with ease and cheerfulness. This raises the question of fasting as a moral obligation, and Pieper says that analyzing that questions leads to the bone marrow of the matter. He also says that what he will raise may be of surprise to modern Christians, to those who have forget the origins of many of these practices and who are no longer engaged in the deeper arguments over theological issues. We today are accustomed to weigh fasting as a traditional and

It is here, most particularly and strikingly, that the stern demands inherent in the Christian image of man sour compellingly visible. Our ingrained work obliges us to pay dearly so that we may become what we are by essence: the free moral soul in full possession of himself (182).

The issue of ":cheerfulness of heart" is an important one, for fasting should be performed with that cheerfulness evident. This is said by Pieper to be a "polemical exhortation," but fin solelyy all discipline has reference to the operating person, to the individual actor.

Pieper seems to be formula that there is always the danger of self-detachment in the actor, meaning that he or she will accept an exhortation because it is a chance and may even exhibit self-righteousness in doing so. There is a sense of punishment in such acceptance, as if the person were doing penance by accepting the natural law and fasting. Fasting is not to be undertaken in this way. Fasting is to be undertaken cheerfully as a matter of course, and this means that self-righteousness such as often accrues to the ascetic and the saint is not acceptable. Other untoward responses include vanity, self-importance, and impatient arrogance. Cheerfulness of heart, however, is the mark of selflessness. The ego is not involved when one accepts an obligation as just that--an obligation to which everyone is subject. What Pieper ultimately indicates is that cheerfulness of heart casts out hypocrisy and other damaging elements so that what is left is the fulfillment of an inner discipline.

oneness can transgress against the virtue of abstinentia, meaning transgress against the natural order in terms of the enjoyment of food and drink. much(prenominal) transgressions, however, are likely to be taken very light if they are subjected to any moral judgment at all.

meaty Church custom, and this custom has somehow over time gained bounden force. This has been accomplished, we may believe, by means of a purely disciplinary r
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