Why Do Catholics Fast and Abstain?
Part 1 of 2 – This is Part One of a two-part series on the Catholic practice acts of self-denial. Part Two – The Biblical Basis for Fast and Abstinence - will appear on Friday, August 13, 2010.
Are you looking for the secret to a better, deeper, more joyful life in Christ?
Kramskoy's Christ in the Desert
Of course you are. We all are. And it’s Friday! There is not a more perfect day to look at a Catholic practice intended to lead us to perfection. So stick with me here and learn how self-denial will satisfy your deepest hunger.
The Catholic Disciplinary Laws of Fast and Abstinence
In these modern times, we don’t seem to hear much about fasting and abstinence anymore. That’s a shame because the doctrine of self-denial is crucial to our becoming fully satisfied. Many of today’s Catholics associate fasting and abstinence only with the season of Lent and that’s a shame too. Let’s review the Church’s disciplinary law regarding Fasting and Abstinence:
- Fasting During Lent - The Church requires its members to fast on two days each year – Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The US Bishops have defined the minimum requirement of the fast for US Catholics to be one full (but not excessive) meal plus other food not to exceed the full meal which may be taken in part at breakfast, noon or evening, depending on when one decides to take the “one full meal”. This law applies to Catholics between the age of 18 and 59.
- Abstinence From Meat on Fridays - The Church requires its members to abstain from eating meat on Fridays as an act of penitence. In the United States, Catholics are permitted to substitute another form of penance on Fridays outside the season of Lent. This law applies to all Catholics who are over the age of 14.
- The Holy Communion Fast – Catholics must also fast for a minimum of one hour before receiving Holy Communion.
Additionally the entire season of Lent is a penitential time and our attitude and behavior during this season should be marked by some sort of self-denial. The season of Advent is also a penitential season, but of less severity, and we should also mark this season with some form of self-denial, even if it is less than that practiced during Lent.
That’s it! And so many of us complain and wait for the clock to tick down to midnight so we can have a ham sandwich. We need to turn our thinking around because out of control appetites only become more hungry and insatiable. That is why there is a mryiad of “miracle” diets and weight loss programs on the market that promise results without effort. Well, there is only one source of miracles and that is God. He has already provided us the ultimate diet program if we will but listen to him.
So Let’s Broaden Our Understanding
As you can see, “to fast” generally means to significantly reduce the consumption of food or to forego it altogether for short durations. Abstinence is generally seen as avoiding the eating of meat. But both acts are forms of self-denial. More broadly speaking, self-denial is the act of giving up something that is good, be it food or some other “good” for the purpose of deepening our spiritual life and making acts of reparation for our sin or the sin of others. There is a long-history of the Catholic practice of fast and abstinence dating all the way back to the time of Christ. Our culture often incorporates these practices into our everyday language. For example, the word breakfast is formed from two words, “break” and “fast” meaning simply that the first meal of the day breaks the fast from our last meal of the previous day. Another example, although this has nothing to do with fasting, is our word for the celebration of Christ’s birth which is formed by two words, “Christ’s” and “Mass” or Christmas.
Why? How Do Acts of Self-denial Strengthen Our Spiritual Life?
The Church speaks of the three pillars of Lent – Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving – because there is a strong connection, or there should be, between the three. Fasting and other forms of self-denial, as spiritual practices of materially subduing and controlling the physical appetites of the body, helps us, by God’s grace, to enable the soul to more perfectly and freely pray. This leads to a deeper union with God and thus we become better stewards of the gifts God has given to us, freeing us to more effectively care for our neighbor, especially those in greater than we. When I was a small boy, my mother would encourage me (it’s probably more accurate to say she required me) during Lent to give up things I would normally buy with my allowance. The money I saved could and would be used to assist those less fortunate we were.
God gave our first parents, Adam and Eve many gifts and blessings that were in a sense before their nature and, therefore, before our’s too. We know that Adam and Eve possessed Sanctifying Grace, infused with the supernatural virtues of faith, hope and charity. This is what is meant when you hear the phrase, “Adam and Eve were created in a state of original justice.” They were created for a supernatural end or purpose… to attain heaven and an everlasting communion with God. They were also given certain gifts, called preternatural gifts, that would enable them to continue their “walk with God” – (1) bodily immortality, (2) integrity, and (3) infused knowledge.
But they were also allowed by God to be tempted by the devil, not so that they would sin, but so that they could freely choose to love God who created them freely and in freedom. Their free will would not have been free at all if there was never an opportunity for them to choose anything other than the Good which is God. If they had chosen God over the serpent, these gifts would have been passed on to us an our inheritance, but we know they sinned and lost these gifts, therefore, we, their descendants, could not receive what they no longer possessed to pass on.
Loss of the Gift of Integrity
To understand what all of this has to do with our practice of self-denial, we have to understand what we lost when we lost the preternatural gift of integrity. Do you ever feel like you just cannot do what you want, or rather know you should want to do, but instead find yourself doing that which you do not want to do? St. Paul speaks of this in his Epistle to the Romans, “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold into slavery to sin. What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.” (Romans 7:14-15) Each of us can relate to St. Paul’s words.
The Church teaches that one of the effects on us of the Fall of Adam and Eve is that we suffer from concupiscence – the inclination of man to sin. There are two types of concupiscence. In simple terms they are: bodily concupiscence and concupiscence of the soul. Bodily concupiscence is the tendency of our will to choose to indiscriminately satisfy bodily appetites, to choose things which appear to bring pleasure, even if reason would tell us not to. Concupiscence of the soul is an unreasonable self-absorption that disregards right and wrong in apparent favor of self.
So, how does voluntary self-denial help us fight concupiscence?
Integrity helped us make acts of will in our freedom that were reasonable and sound in governing the appetites of the body and lower reaches of the soul. Integrity helped us balance body and soul to our good. In our fallen state, even once redeemed, practicing the virtues, particularly moderation (the virtue of temperance), helps us to replace bad habits with good habits (replace vices with virtues). Going further, voluntarily denying the body even good things is a form of spiritual training for that same end, much like a musician becomes a better musician by giving up good things in order to practice his instrument or like an athlete giving up food and time in order to train his body to excel and endure under physical and mental strain. This is pure Gospel teaching, the giving up of those things, including good things, that tend to be obstacles to our sanctification and deepening relationship with the Lord… giving up things that hinder and obstruct our supernatural end; life everlasting in heaven. We can become so attached to even the beauty of the world God created that these attachments become our “gods”. And this is where Fasting and Abstinence in their broader meaning help us to become truly and fully satisfied. For God alone, not the things of this world, can satisfy the deepest hunger of man’s soul.
Next Week in Part 2
Next Friday, in Part 2 of this series, we will look at the significance of self-denial more deeply and practically. Many of us have friends and family that are not Catholics who simply do not understand how we Catholics can think that giving up good things will help us attain heaven. In fact, some non-Catholic Christians view the Catholic form of self-denial as a rejection of the free gift of salvation. So come back next week for extensive biblical support and explanations for why these are not only good practices, but necessary ones.
God Bless!
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Why Do Catholics Fast and Abstain? As a fairly new member of a Franciscan Association that practices the Rule of St. Francis of 1221, that is an appropriate question. The Rule of St. Francis of 1221 requires fasting from meat on several Fast periods for four days a week, in some periods for two days a week. The the Rule encourages fasting from meat four days a week, to have one main meal, and several small meals that together are not as large as the one main meal. Abstaining from unnecessary snacks and drinks, unless your are sick, working a laborious job, traveling and cannot follow the Rule, and if you are invited to a birthday, or anniversary party, for special family gathering. The purpose of all this is to live a simpler lifestyle and to enrich our faith in prayer, and good works. I am writing 36 inmates around the country, who through the Confraternity of Penitents, practice their faith, or some who are inquiring, and six this year who were baptized and confirmed. I have copied Parts 1 and 2, to read in detail and see if I can learn how to do this as I am only a Novice 2, at the age of 71 years of age. I am looking for strengthening my spiritual life and doing good works before my time is up on this earth.
The Confraternity of Penitents is small in number on a National scale, but the people are few that could follow this Rule it appears. The Bishop in Rhode Island has approved this Rule as it would not cause any physical harm if practiced. Some Lay Associations have become social clubs, and in name only profess to be Franciscans. The CFP does it silently, humbly, and personally in their own homes, and do not involve them selves in fancy clothes, parties, material possessions, and use food as a means of self abandonment, and penance, for the Love of God.
Pax et Bonum. Now to enjoy this article …………