The Root of the Problem II

All the great spiritual masters teach that most of us are dominated by two or three of the deadly sins. We need to identify which ones have enslaved us, so we can be set free. Yesterday, pride, vanity, envy, and sloth. Today, anger, greed, gluttony, and lust.

One

Anger – When Control Is Threatened

Anger is a God-given emotion or energy that is meant to prompt us to: achieve what is difficult or arduous, correct what is wrong, or endure cheerfully what can’t be changed.

Let’s take the first. Anger is the energy to overcome obstacles and achieve something difficult. It says, “This is hard, but I will push through.” Anger becomes sinful when you’re no longer overcoming the difficulty, you’re trying to force reality or people to bend to your will. This is where anger becomes harshness, impatience, and domination of others.

Second, anger is meant to correct evil. Anger says, “This is wrong, and it should be made right.” This is what Thomas Aquinas calls zeal for justice. Sinful anger shifts from love of justice to love of personal vindication: exaggerating the offense, attacking the person rather than correcting the wrong, and wanting them to pay. Now it’s no longer about justice, it’s about you being right and them being put in their place.

Third, good anger is meant to help us endure cheerfully what we cannot change. Anger strengthens you to endure suffering without collapsing. It says, “This is hard, but I will not give up.” But when suffering cannot be removed, anger can turn inward and harden into resentment, bitterness, and even resistance to God. You keep fighting something that cannot be fought. 

And here is the key: It is not just that you are trying to control what you cannot control. It is that you refuse to entrust what you cannot control to God. So anger becomes a kind of interior rebellion against providence.

Sinful anger is conquered by meekness, not weakness, but strength under control. Meekness is the calm power to restrain anger when it would go too far, direct it toward the true good, and surrender what belongs to God.

Two

Greed – When Security Is Misplaced

Most people don’t think they’re greedy. But look at what occupies your mind. Because what you dwell on reveals what you love. For many of us, it’s money. Money as security. Money as success. Money as control. We think about it. We measure ourselves by it. We organize our lives around it. And without ever saying it, we begin to live as if money is what saves us. But it doesn’t. As Jesus Christ says, “You cannot serve both God and money.”

Greed is not having money. Greed is trusting money. It is looking to money for what only God can give: security, identity, and peace. And once you do that, you don’t possess money. Money possesses you. So the real question is not, “Do I have money?” But, “Do I rely on it? Do I need it to feel safe?” Because whatever you rely on, that is your god.

The cure is simple, but it will cost you. Simplicity: I don’t fill my life with what I don’t need because God alone is enough. Detachment: I’m grateful when I have it, and I’m at peace when I don’t because, again, God alone is enough. Generosity: I will give, so my heart is set free.

Three

Gluttony 

Gluttony is not about enjoying food or drink; it is about being ruled by pleasure and the need to escape. We were made for joy, and pleasure naturally follows real goods like hydration and nourishment. But in our fallen state, we separate pleasure from the good itself and begin to chase it for its own sake.

This disorder appears when we eat or drink beyond what is good, when we are controlled by cravings, or when we use food, alcohol, or substances to escape stress, boredom, or pain. Even subtle irritability or self-centeredness around food reveals a disordered attachment. The result is loss of mastery, and without mastery, we cannot love well. Drunkenness is a grave sin; when done knowingly and willingly, it is a mortal sin. The conquering virtue is temperance, trained especially through fasting. Fasting restores order by placing our desires under the guidance of the intellect and will. It teaches us to receive good things with gratitude, not grasp at them for escape.

Start small: stop when satisfied, abstain from a favorite indulgence, and resist turning to pleasure in moments of stress. This is not merely about health, it is about freedom: the freedom to enjoy rightly, to love fully, and to let pleasure follow the good, not replace it.

Four

Lust

The desire for sexuality is good. It is given by God. So too is the desire to be loved and cherished, to have a family, children, and grandchildren, and to share life in companionship; these are real human goods. Lust is the choice to use another person sexually to get what we want. Both men and women struggle with lust, often in different ways. Men are often tempted to reduce women to objects for physical gratification, whether in marriage, in pornography, or in the “second look” that reduces a person to a body.

Women, too, are tempted, often in a more relational way. The desire to be loved, valued, cherished, protected, and to have a family is good. But lust enters when sex or romantic attention becomes a way of using a man to obtain those goods. To love means to will and to do the good of the other. To conquer lust, which uses, we must practice love. We must practice this motive, “I want your good.”

The key to overcoming lust is to build real friendships. Friendship develops when two people pursue something greater than themselves. And friendship comes about by doing some common activity or project together and having good conversation while you do it. So, build good friendships. Do good things like preparing and eating meals, taking walks, and reading and discussing good books, or praying the rosary and inviting someone to do it with you. Because when you truly learn to love another person as a friend, it overcomes the desire to use them.

Five

Identifying our Predominant Fault

It is likely that you see yourself in all seven of these vices or deadly sins. While we may occasionally fall into all of these, the great spiritual masters tell us that we are all only dominated by a few. So, what should we do? 

Don’t be discouraged! I can’t conquer my predominant vices with my pathetic love and effort. But God can. So the first thing we need to do is beg God over and over to give us the Holy Spirit, His Living Flame of Love, to set our hearts on fire for the love of Him, and this consuming fire of love will purify and strengthen us to overcome these vices. 

Second, do a regular examination of conscience and ask, what is at the root, which of these vices. Once you identify your predominant vices, take them to confession so Jesus can win the victory in you. Finally, be vigilant in practicing the virtues opposite to your vices.