We are on cornice six in Purgatory. That is one cornice or ledge or terrace from being truly in Heaven proper. The is the stop for gluttony. Of course the punishment for gluttony is starvation. Every other sin has the opposite action, why not this one?

I have often wondered about the deal with Gluttony. I mean, it is kind of grotesque when people cannot control themselves and wreck their bodies. But, I have often wondered there has to be something more. The more that I wondered, it finally came to me what the significance is.

Gluttony is about self control. Yes, there is a lot about moderation in many different contexts it in the Bible. But, here we need to go all the way back to Genesis and the origin story. After God created the world, he created Adam. Because Adam was lonely, he created Eve. For some reason, even the biblically created humans were still tempted and ate the forbidden fruit.

Moderation and self control is the antithesis of the original sin. It would seem that gluttony is the representation of that. Now, at least I get why it is an issue. I am not sure that I totally agree about the severity but I suppose this is why we are almost at the end of purgatory.

I didn’t totally map all of this out but from my recollection that the sins of hell seem to mirror Purgatory. That is to say that the first levels of Hell are actually the last levels of Purgatory. So, at least that makes sense from a logical and organizational standpoint.

I guess the other significant thing that I disagree with was Dante’s interaction with the character Forese Donati. His claim was that as soon as he died, his wife prayed so hard that he ended up at the sixth level of purgatory. That really violates the integrity of Christianity. We are responsible for our salvation, not anyone else.

Next week will be the last cornice of purgatory. That doesn’t finish the section but that is Cantos XXV – XXVII. The final study we will do is something about ‘Earthly Paradise’. I guess we will see all about that when we get there.

End Your Programming Routine: I know that I only touched on moderation and it can be a tricky subject because it is subjective. It’s OK to drink some but not too much and not too often. It is OK to eat cake but not too much and not too often. Who says when is too much, I don’t know. Maybe you know it when you see it?