Fasting before the Eucharist

[JoeFreedom]

Someone please correct me if my understanding of this topic is incorrect. As I understand it, one of the reasons we fast at least an hour before receiving the Eucharist is that it is because it is a feast. The word “feast” taken literally and figuratively. Literally, a feast of the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. It is our soul’s nourishment. Figuratively that it is a delight for our soul, as we cannot live on bread alone.

As it was explained to me, we should imagine it to be similar (in such a way) that we would not eat a full meal prior to going to a friend’s cookout, as that would be rude, since we are going to dine, eat and share in the meal there, and so if we came full to the cookout, why go in the first place.

So if that analogy is anywhere close, then why do many go eat a big breakfast or lunch right after Mass?

Again, I do not question the practice, as I believe in all the Church has given me and strive to do my best in following all the teachings, but from a purely logical and fallen human perspective, this makes no sense to go to the Eucharistic feast and then immediately go to another feast. I obviously understand the biological aspects of it… that the the Eucharist is not a feast in the sense that it provides us calories, so I’m hoping to shed some light on this, and I hope I haven’t written anything that would be troublesome, as my intent is only to grow stronger in my faith by a greater understanding. Thank you.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I’ve never heard the reasoning you give for why we fast before receiving Eucharist. It may be taught somewhere but it’s not what I was taught, ever.

I was taught that we fast before receiving Eucharist out of respect for Our Lord entering our digestive system. We give him some space. In olden times the fast would be like 12 hours long so your stomach would be totally empty. Now it’s just an hour but it’s still a gesture of respect for that reason. There’s also some penitential aspect to it - this may be where the idea of “fasting before a feast” comes in because in the older more traditional days in the Church, people did used to fast before feast days. it wasn’t because you don’t eat before going to the big feast party, it was more because you were preparing for the big happy holy day.

And also from a practical standpoint, as I’ve said a thousand times on here, in previous eras when people were dependent on local food supplies to get the entire community through the year, if everybody was going to eat twice as much as usual at a feast then people better be fasting before they go party, so the food supply doesn’t deplete. Less of a concern now that we fly food around, truck it in, can it, put it in the fridge etc and aren’t dependent on whatever we can grow, hunt or gather in our neighborhood.

As for why we eat after Mass, because we’re physically hungry (the more so for people who still do the fast from the midnight before, as used to be the tradition) and also because after 15 minutes Jesus is no longer present in the Eucharist in our body, so the reason for the fast has ceased by the time we get our big breakfast.

The Eucharist doesn’t satisfy physical hunger or provide adequate nourishment for people to go about their day, unless maybe you’re one of those saints or saintly people who claim to be able to live on Eucharist alone (some of whom actually died from conditions that might have had some relation to excessive fasting, and other people who are not canonized may possibly have been eating some food on the sly).

 

[JoeFreedom]

Me. I’m no saint. That’s for sure. I try, but well, fell about waaaaay too short.

Yes, all of those reasons you mentioned are those I also understand, penance, respect. I’m not sure of where I heard of the analogy I was given, so it’s likely others may not have heard it either, especially if it came from someone only I know. But it may have also been on C.A. Live.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Just remember that after Jesus was done dying and rising from the dead and went to see his friends, he asked if they had anything to eat. Now that was in large part to show that Jesus was physically alive, not a ghost, in other words to show “the resurrection of the body”. But when we go for our big breakfast after celebrating Jesus’ sacrifice, we’re in a way imitating Jesus eating the piece of baked fish.