On Fasting and Abstinence

On Fasting and Abstinence

Bishop Fulton Sheen told of his experience one Lenten season while on a plane to a speaking engagement. When the flight attendant offered him his lunch, he excused himself saying, "I'll just have a sandwich, it's Lent.". The woman beside him also settled for just a sandwich. "So you're also Catholic," Bishop Sheen asked. The woman with a surprised look said, "No, I'm a model."

Here are some key things to consider on fasting and abstinence, from the 1983 Code of Canon Law:

Canon 1250 All Fridays through the year and the time of Lent are penitential days and times throughout the entire Church.

Canon 1251 Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the conference of bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless they are solemnities; abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Canon 1252 All persons who have completed their fourteenth year are bound by the law of abstinence; all adults are bound by the law of fast up to the beginning of their sixtieth year. Nevertheless, pastors and parents are to see to it that minors who are not bound by the law of fast and abstinence are educated in an authentic sense of penance.

Canon 1253 It is for the conference of bishops to determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence and to substitute in whole or in part for fast and abstinence other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety.

And here is some food for thought. Fasting is a form of spiritual discipline where our aim is beatification. The discipline of Lent can never be dissociated with discipleship. Discipline without discipleship is like practicing for a marathon without running it. Discipleship without discipline is running a marathon without practicing.

Finally, here is a nice graphic, courtesy of the Curt Jester.

Come together, right now

Ah one, two, three, fah...

Thank God my son has now recovered (more on that later).

While whiling away the time at the hospital room, I picked up an old copy of Readers Digest lying around. There was this interesting article that featured 13 tips on how to cut greenhouse gases. One curious item says that what we choose to eat has the biggest impact on the environment. Rebecca Blackburn, author of "Green is good", says that farming uses more resources than any other industry. Farming also produces one-fifth of our greenhouse gas emissions, and that one-third of an average person's carbon footprint is due to the intake of animal meat. Carbon footprint is defined in wiki as "the total set of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product"

Now I recall Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono were in the news lately for advocating "Meatless Mondays" precisely to help stop global warming. Strange bedfellows, these two coming together, but a laudable cause. Looks like a fashionable cause too.

I wonder if it occurred to today's current crop of meatless campaigners that abstaining from meat is old, old hat as far as Church history goes. Cultivating spiritual discipline in the journey to holiness does not appear to be as trendy a cause as stopping global warming, but I guess two birds are hit as far as religious abstinence goes. Apparenty, there's more wisdom in periodic meat abstinence than meets the eye. When St. Paul said in 1:Cor 9:25 that "everyone striving for the mastery must abstain from all things", greenhouse gases must be farthest from his mind.

While environmentalists are at it, I hope that eliminating food wastage ranks high up there in today's trendy causes. For instance, the magazine reports that the UN Food Programme declares that just 5% of food leftovers in the U.S. alone can feed 4 million people in Africa. Once while travelling in North America, I personally witnessed with some shock that all good leftover food after meals in households are immediately flushed down the food compactor. Now if we can only save all our excess food and somehow channel it to the starving people, then world hunger will be eradicated. Oh, and greenhouse gases will be greatly reduced too. It is of no minor importance that after the multiplication of the loaves of bread, Jesus directed that all leftover food are gathered and saved. Again, there's more there than meets the eye.

Now I hope all people will sing: "Come together, right now". This time, with feeling.

The Practice of abstinence

The Practice of abstinence
- Fr. Joel O. Jason

This Friday of Lent is offered as a special day of abstinence. How does the Christian tradition understand abstinence? It is not only a physical sacrifice
but a spiritual one, too. It is a spiritual sacrifice because it is a way of showing our contrite heart to Jesus who bore all the suffering of man's sin. It is an expression of repentance for our sins and a manifestation of our humble imploring of His mercy and sincere regret of the transgression of His will. Bishop Fulton Sheen told of his experience one Lenten season while on a plane to a speaking engagement. When the flight attendant offered him his lunch, he excused himself saying, "I'll just have a sandwich, it's Lent.". The woman beside him also settled for just a sandwich. "So you're also Catholic," Bishop Sheen asked. The woman with a surprised look said, "No, I'm a model."

The fasting of Lent differs in essence from just plain dieting. When we diet, the aim is usually to look better. When we fast (although beautification may be its consequence), our aim is beatification - to be beatified, to be better. We become better because we are able to control our desires. Instead of being dominated by the senses, we regulate our senses because we are ruled by the Spirit. Then we become blessed, then we become better disciples and witnesses of our Lord. The discipline of Lent can never be dissociated with discipleship. Discipline without discipleship is like practicing for a marathon without running it. Discipleship without discipline is running a marathon without practicing.

In these 40 days of spiritual preparation, may we all become disciplined disciples of the Lord.

On fasting and abstinence

A good reminder on fasting and abstinence, published last year in cbcpnews.
Related posts here and here.

Canon lawyer says fast, abstinence on Good Friday is mandatory

DAVAO CITY, March 19, 2008—While other forms of penance are left to the personal choice of the individual, fasting and abstinence is mandatory.

Archdiocese of Davao Oeconomus Fr. Junar de la Victoria said that in the Catholic Church, Catholics are joined together in a certain common practice of penance not simply as a conglomerate of individuals but as a unified body in Christ.

De la Victoria, a Canon lawyer said the practice of abstinence from meat is devoted to repentance and it is mandatory on all Fridays throughout the year except on all solemnities.

A solemnity of the Roman Catholic Church is a principal holy day in the liturgical calendar usually commemorating an event in the life of Jesus, His mother the Blessed Virgin Mary, or other important saints. The observance begins with the vigil on the evening before the actual date of the feast.

In the Philippines , he said, fast and abstinence may be substituted with exercises of piety such as reading the Bible, going to Mass, visiting the Blessed Sacrament, praying the Holy Rosary or with acts of charity, such as visiting the sick and prisoners, giving alms to the poor or teaching catechism.

However, the canon lawyer emphasized that all these forms of substitution is not permitted on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday according to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) norms.

De la Victoria said the law of abstinence binds those who have reached a sufficient use of reason, and who have completed their 14th year of age.

Meanwhile, De La Victoria said that fasting is a physical process of restricting one’s level of use of such things as food, drink, play and others.

During the season of Lent, he said, fasting is primarily in preparation for the Easter feast, and secondarily, where a reconciliation process is observed, a penitential act.

He also explained that the law on fast means that only one full meal may be taken during the day; two light meals are permitted in accord with local custom as to the amount and kind of food.

“The consumption of solid food between meals is prohibited but liquids may be taken at any time,” de la Victoria added.

The law of fasting binds those who have completed their 18th year of age until the beginning of their 60th year.

“Fasting is also to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday but Vatican II also recommends fasting on Holy Saturday or Black Saturday,” added de la Victoria.

The canon lawyer also said that the law of fast and abstinence do not bind the seafarers.

It was also learned that there are official days of penance wherein Catholics are called to prayer; to engage in works of piety and charity; to deny their selves in twofold ways: 1. by fulfilling the obligations in their state of lives more faithfully and 2. by observing the prescribed fast and abstinence.

De la Victoria also is also a columnist of Davao Catholic Herald, the archdiocesan community paper.

(Mark S Ventura)

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Abstaining from Meat (2)

My response on the subject elicited a rejoinder, here goes:

"Good to hear from you again, Willy.

During the old testament, the law only prescribed fasting on the Day of Atonement, that's once a year. All other fasts were supposed to be voluntary, for specific reasons such as penitence and earnest prayer. Fasting is good, but when required, it becomes legalistic. People tend to do the law by the letter and not by the spirit. Jesus rebuked the Pharisee (Luke 18:9-18) who did more than is required by any biblical standard. Legalism is commanding what should be voluntary. Not even the Holy Spirit forces one to be spiritual let alone the church with its own canon laws. The passage in First Timothy should put this pagan practice to rest.

Regards,
xxxx"

My reply:

xxxx,

How I wish people learned laws by themselves without anyone commanding them, that they learn to assume doing what is right voluntarily - "by the spirit and not by the letter". This reminds me of the time when I was a kid. My father (now deceased) used to enact a lot of strict rules around the house. I never fully understood most of these rules and so I deliberately disobeyed some of them. After a few run-ins with those rules my father made me understand he meant business, and I toed the line grudgingly. With respect to discipline, he left no rooms for options and volunteerism. I resented some of them, although initially, I followed most of them anyway in fear of consequences. One gets used to rules later on in life, and eventually I followed all of my father's rules out of understanding, respect, and love. I realized those rules were meant to protect me and to mold my character as a person, in preparation to being a responsible individual in the larger sphere of society. Now, being a parent myself, I have enacted similar rules for my own kids. The family is where one first learns to interact, to love, to know God, and yes - to recognize authority and follow rules. Now I know why the family, the basic unit of society, is also called a Domestic Church.

Regards,
- Willy

Abstaining from meat

Here again is my (born-again) old schoolmate sending an email which challenges abstinence from meat. He challenges Catholic practices in our yahoogroups once in a while. Here he goes:

"This is what the new Code of Canon Law (which is binding to all Catholics only) brought out in 1983 says about eating meat on Fridays:

Canon 1251

Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Canon Law still requires that Catholics not eat meat on Fridays!

Don't you think this canon is so ridiculous, knowing that this was carried over from a pagan practice, and a direct violation of 1 Timothy 4:1-5 ! This is no longer interpretative but legalistic - legislating what the bible gives us freedom to do. The bible even calls it a doctrine of demons."

Regards,
xxxx

And here goes my reply:

Hi xxxx,

When I was younger I was likewise confused by this meat abstinence, because I loved seafood more than meat. If my intention was abstinence, and then lets say I ate lobster (yummy!) for example on Fridays instead of meat, indeed that would be ridiculous. Thus xxxx you have a point there, that is, IF your premise in reading that canon law is technically "legalistic" instead of spiritual. But Catholics don't read it that way.

Who was Paul referring to? In verse 3 of that passage he was referring to priests of an obscure religion who were then teaching that sex and certain foods are intrinsically evil. He refutes them in the next sentence by saying that everything God created is good...

Sex and all kinds of nutritious food are good, provided you use them according to the natural law. That is why it is fitting to give up some of these good things temporarily as a part of spiritual discipline. In the biblical times it is customary to rejoice through feasting on meat and wine, that is why meat is an example of a good which satisfies basic physical desire. Spiritual discipline involves mastering our physical desires. If meat is given up in that context, towards cultivating spiritual discipline, then we read the canon law correctly. You are likely aware that Daniel abstained for three weeks (Daniel 10:1-3). Certainly, he was not then practising the "doctrine of demons". And Paul was certainly not against abstaining from meat (1 Cor 8:13), what he was against was a false doctrine that says there is an intrinsic evil in a good that God made.

Regards,
- Willy