Thomas Aquinas and the 5 Ways... of Gluttony

In a world which is literally saturated with an all consuming materialism, we are oft forgetful of the ancient Christian classification of the 7 deadly or capital sins. I would like to focus on the sin of gluttony which Saint Thomas treats in the Second Part of the Second Part of the Summa Theologiae, question 148. The biblical basis for gluttony is taken from Saint Paul's letter to the Philippians, “For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. (Phil 3:18-19)

Saint Thomas begins his small treatise on gluttony by quoting Pope Saint Gregory the Great, “On the contrary, Gregory says (Moral. xxx, 18) that 'unless we first tame the enemy dwelling within us, namely our gluttonous appetite, we have not even stood up to engage in the spiritual combat.' But man's inward enemy is sin. Therefore gluttony is a sin.”

We must know, however, whether gluttony is a venial or a mortal sin. For this question, Saint Thomas again quotes Saint Gregory the Great, “On the contrary, Gregory says (Moral. xxx, 18): 'As long as the vice of gluttony has a hold on a man, all that he has done valiantly is forfeited by him: and as long as the belly is unrestrained, all virtue comes to naught.' But virtue is not done away save by mortal sin. Therefore gluttony is a mortal sin.”

Finally, Saint Thomas asks in what ways one may commit the sin of gluttony. For Saint Thomas, which one can commit the sin of gluttony in five different ways.

Prae-propere 
Laute 
Nimis 
Ardenter 
Studiose

That is: too soon, too expensively, too much, too eagerly, too daintily.

The Catholic Encyclopedia says the following:  

“Gluttony is in general a venial sin in so far forth as it is an undue indulgence in a thing which is in itself neither good nor bad. Of course it is obvious that a different estimate would have to be given of one so wedded to the pleasures of the table as to absolutely and without qualification live merely to eat and drink, so minded as to be of the number of those, described by the Apostle St. Paul, "whose god is their belly" (Phil., iii, 19). Such a one would be guilty of mortal sin. Likewise a person who, by excesses in eating and drinking, would have greatly impaired his health, or unfitted himself for duties for the performance of which he has a grave obligation, would be justly chargeable with mortal sin. St. John of the Cross, in his work "The Dark Night of the Soul" (I, vi), dissects what he calls spiritual gluttony. He explains that it is the disposition of those who, in prayer and other acts of religion, are always in search of sensible sweetness; they are those who "will feel and taste God, as if he were palpable and accessible to them not only in Communion but in all their other acts of devotion." This he declares is a very great imperfection and productive of great evils.”