Sixth Thursday in Lent.
LUXURY.
1. Luxury incites to the indulgence of the senses excessively, beyond what God’s law permits. As a vice, it consists in the love of what is sensuous, and the inclination to yield to the pleasures of the sense.
It leads to forgetfulness of God and idolatry. That is to say, to the enthronement of self in the place of God. Everything is made to give way to the indulgence of the pleasures and caprices of self. God exacts of us the homage of the entire man—body, soul and spirit; luxury corrupts the body so that it can no longer be presented holy and without blame to God; stains and enervates the soul, and dulls the mind, filling it with lassitude and indifference.
It leads to sacrilege, for sacrilege is the profanation of that which is dedicated to God. Now, man’s body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and S. Paul shews that sensuality is a defilement of this temple.
Moreover, Christ took human nature upon Him to restore human nature, to purify it, and if we by indulgence desecrate the body, we are dishonouring that nature which Christ stooped to assume.
2. Luxury indulged in becomes aservitude. He that doeth sin is the servant of sin. (John viii. 13.) The more that the carnal nature is yielded to, the more exacting it becomes. It is never satisfied, it is ever crying out for fresh pleasures, and even when the faculty of enjoyment is over, the burning craving after new pleasures remains.
Luxury indulged ingives the Evil One power over us. At first he advised, suggested evil, then he commands as a master, and will be obeyed. The sinner groans in his bondage and desires to escape, but remains in chains, his efforts to escape are powerless.
Luxury indulged inweakens the power of resistance. The sinner becomes with every sin yielded to more frail and more cowardly. His will becomes more powerless every time he yields, he makes the next fall more easy, recovery more difficult.
3. Luxury is not merely the yielding to gross sins of the flesh. It is a root of inclination in man to yield to and pamper the body in many ways not in themselves sinful. Any excessive indulgence in pleasure, in ease, in dress, in entertainments, in distractions, in æstheticism, may be, and often is, mortal vice. To take a simple case, the reading of novels. A novel may be read as a distraction from laborious thought, or painful thought. But to make fiction the main nutriment of the mind and imagination is to indulge in the vice of luxury.
Man is sent into this world to do some good to others, to fill some social gap, and to educate his mind, discipline his body, and cultivate his soul. But luxury bids him distract his mind from serious pursuits, and seek distraction as an end. Luxury, instead of bracing, enervates the body, and it neglects the soul, if it does not cover it with stains.
4. Gross indulgence in luxury, and long continuance in luxurious living degrades the heart. The heart is rendered incapable of responding to noble thoughts.
It blinds the mind to Divine things. As the pure in heart see God, the impure have their understanding darkened to Divine things.
It chokes the spiritual life. To the luxurious prayer gives disgust, religious counsel irritates.
It hardens the heart, it leads from sin to sin, till sin becomes a habit, and habit becomes impenitence. Then the grace of God leaves the soul entirely, and spiritually the soul is dead.
Simple Maltese Cross