Very Good Answer Veronica!
DMan said: “Because meat was a luxury item so by not eating red meat, catholics are “giving something up” Of course now fish is more expensive than red meat.”
True. But only a part of the truth. And the part that isn’t as important. While it was a luxury item, it is not because of its expense, but its difficulty. Hunting it down, cleaning it, etc was very time consuming, and not easy work. Cooking red meat is also very time consuming. By giving it up, you instead eat a simpler meal. Fish caught in the river was much simpler to throw on the fire. And, as has been pointed out, you keep the day Jesus dies as a bloodless day. The point being that His blood, his life, his death, was far more important to you than a hungry stomach or a juicy steak.
You use the extra time in prayer, contemplation, family time, contemplating the sufferings (which were so much worse than your own hungry, grumbling stomach yearning for a nice big steak) of Jesus (which puts the worldy materialistic view into better perspective), etc. While this small aspect of history does not apply to many today (in richer countries such as the US, Canada, UK that is), it is obvious that the many other reasons, that Veronica and I both pointed out most recently, far outweigh this one small part of this long-standing tradition.
I also find it worth pointing out that:
Giving up red meat does NOT=eating fish
That is a flawed argument. And cheese pizza, fish sticks, mac and cheese, tomato soup, grilled cheese and other such fast and easy Friday staples at every Catholic house I know of do not exactly rank up there very high in the time consuming or expensive categories.
I do not mean to sound like I am attacking your position DMan. I actually sympathize with you greatly. You bring up an interesting and, unfortunately, very sad fact. The truth of the matter is that the average Catholic (at least the many I’ve met across the country) are not familiar with the strong, rich symbolisms or meanings of the many traditions we are so blessed to have. Pre-Vatican II, they couldn’t understand what was going on. Post-Vatican II, no one cared. (Of course, I over-generalize. But, to my dismay, find as a generalization, it is quite accurate.) The churches didn’t teach it. The parents didn’t even know it to be able to pass it on. The reaction you received is all too common. They know the motions to go through, but not the reasons behind it. It leads many to become disallusioned with the
teachings of the Church, and to not only abandon the traditions, but the Church altogether. I believe that without the understanding of traditions, it is very easy to fall into this trap. But as little grace it provides to just go through the motions without feeling like it, it still imparts grace. As long as we remain open to the Lord, always seeking to deepen our understanding and our relationship, he can work on us. So many Catholics don’t understand because they were never taught, and therefore just give up.
I commend you, DMan, that while you haven’t kept with that particular tradition, you are seeking out the truth, the meaning behind it all, and are still here, actively in community with other Catholics.
I would like to respectfully consider you pray about this particular topic and see if the Lord speaks to you. Remember, as so many have pointed out, in the US we are not required to abstain on regular Fridays, but to just do some act of penance/sacrifice/charity/etc. While you probably won’t “feel” like you are getting any grace or doing anything different, you might consider not eating meat just the few remaining Fridays in Lent. The Lord is known to work slowly, so I’m not expecting some Pauline blinding light conversion. You could offer up your suffering to a cause you are passionate about. For the sake of brevity, I will spare you the points I previously made about other reasons for keeping the Friday abstinence.
As I said before, I find your desire to question and to seek out the truth noble and good and understand completely where you are coming from.
