'Is It a Sin To Be Fat?'
Posted by AGroup in Faith on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 10:00 AM
Q: Is it a sin to be fat? I have been overweight almost my entire life. I’ve tried all kinds of diets but there does not seem to be any permanent solution that works for me. I feel bad when I eat poorly and don’t exercise, but when I think about trying to lose weight again, I feel desperate and hopeless.
A: The easy answer to this question is that, certainly, being fat is not a sin. Being overweight is a state, a condition. Sins are actions. So, no, being fat is not a sin.
Healthy and Unhealthy Guilt
But there seems to be more going on in your question. You are asking the question because you have some feelings of guilt (“I feel bad”). Guilt can be healthy or unhealthy. Healthy guilt is the qualm of conscience we feel when we do wrong, when we do evil, when we freely and consciously violate God’s commandments in some way. This guilt is like a spiritual nervous system telling us that we are in danger, just as our physical nervous system warns us when we touch something hot: “Get away from that! You’re gonna get burned!”
Unhealthy guilt is a similar feeling brought on by a different cause. For example, we can feel ashamed by a stupid thing we did or said, because it made us look like a fool. This isn’t moral guilt. This is emotional discomfort caused when our natural desire to be accepted and praised is frustrated.
Getting to the Root Cause
Which type of guilt are you feeling as regards your ongoing struggle with weight? If you are only overweight in your own eyes, and you simply wish you looked more like the models in the magazines, your feelings of frustration could be linked to a lack of awareness of God’s love for you. You think you will be more loveable if you look more like the movie stars. This is a deep and dangerous false ideal that is rampant in our society, especially because of how few women grow up with healthy father figures.
If this is your situation, the key is to forget about your looks and start working systematically and responsibly on your spiritual life, your friendship with Christ. Through prayer, retreats, and spiritual guidance, you will lay a stronger foundation for a balanced lifestyle, and your weight situation will, gradually, take care of itself.
But you also mention that you tend to eat poorly and not exercise. If we were talking over a cup of coffee, I would ask you why. Eating healthily (common-sense healthy, not self-help-guru healthy) and getting exercise (normal, reasonable exercise, not training-for-the-Olympics exercise) are basic moral responsibilities. We have a duty to care for our bodies, because they are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). Laziness and gluttony are tendencies felt more strongly by some than others, but when we allow them to lead us to consistently unhealthy behavior, that can be a sinful.
If something is inhibiting you from eating well and getting decent exercise, you need to find out what that is. Diet programs won’t help, because they will only treat the symptom. There may be other fears or anxieties, self-esteem or spiritual issues, at play here. Laziness and gluttony may be escape mechanisms for you, symptoms of an entirely different interior conflict. (Here is where spiritual guidance can overlap with emotional or psychological counseling.)
In this case too, the key is to turn the focus of your life to your friendship with Christ. Let his passionate love for you touch the core of your soul. Then you will feel a stronger desire to respond to his love with love, you will be energized to eat and exercise more in harmony with your Christian dignity, because you will have a burning desire to be all that he created you to be, a desire that he will actively help you to fulfill.
(Do you have a question for Fr. John? Leave it in the comments here or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)!)
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