Trzeźwość i abstynencja w nauczaniu Kościoła
Sobriety and Abstinence in the Teaching of the Church

Summary/Abstract: The starting point for writing the article was to draw attention to sobriety and what it is for every human being. One should be aware that sobriety plays a dominant role in human life - in its development and in the proper functioning of the family and society. The virtue of moderation can prevail over the desires and pleasures, especially sensual pleasures, enabling a person to be guided not only by the heart and the imagination, but also by reason. It is sobriety that opens the way to love, freedom, maturity and responsibility for one another, directing people to the highest value, which is God. The issue of sobriety has accompanied man from the very beginning of his existence. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments warn against the abuse of alcohol, writing about its pernicious effect in closing the way of salvation, which is the goal of every human person. Therefore Holy Church mentions sobriety, and the evils associated with its absence in her teaching from the first centuries of her existence. Even the great Fathers of the Church, such as St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Jerome and St. Augustine, spoke on sobriety, and in the Middle Ages St. Thomas Aquinas described the virtues of sobriety in his writings. The Church, guided by concern for the human being and the realization of his vocation, always lends her power and whole-hearted support to campaigns that encourage people to live in sobriety. She accomplishes this task by teaching, and by the documents which discuss matters of sobriety.

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