Lenten abstinence from eating meat....obsolete?

[TAS2000]

Fr. Loyola (sp?) had a great explainatin of this on the Relevant Radio morning show the other day. Wish i could remeber it all and explain it the way he did, but here are some highlights as I rcall them:

The body and spirit are not 2 separate things, but are united and can’t be isolated from each other. Whatever you do that affects one, affects the other. If you overindulge in sin, your body takes a toll for it, and if you abuse your body, your spirit is affected. Both/and not either/or. Just like the church gives us moral commands to follow to help strengthen our spirit, we also have commands to master our bodies. It is obvious to most people that when the church says “Thou shalt not kill” it is for our own moral good. But people don’t just leap right into mortal sin. They start with little sins, and grow desensitized, and then fall deeper and deeper. Addictions don’t start with just one cigarette. And they usually can’t be overcome “just like that” either. If you had say, a porn addiction. Quitting cold turkey would be very hard. But if you set small goals, like “today I will try not to view any porn” and met that small goal, then you proved to yourself you could do it. Kudos to you! Then you can try for 2 days, or 3. Eventually, you can become strong enough to overcome the addiction.

So in addition to setting big moral goals for us, the church also gives us small non-moral goals that are designed to help us realize we CAN master our desires and also to help us unite our thoughts and actions with what God wants. They are carefully thought out. But on the surface “don’t eat meat on this day” seems like a silly command. If you are taught properly (not easy these days) you’d understand there is symbolism as well in the command to help remind us of something important.

Abstain from meat as a sacrifice-remember Jesus’s sacrifice for us.
Fast- remember as you are hungry that there are people hungry all the time and we should help them. Also know that you are the master of your desires, not the other way around.
Friday- remember that Jesus was crucified on Friday.

There was tons more, and I wish I could remember it all. But this post is long enough. I’msure others can point out even more of the symbolism involved and why the command is an exercise in aligning our wills in the way that will make it easier for us to follow God’s commands.

 

[puzzleannie]

I am also thinking that this discipline is somewhat outdated, ).

oh, you do, I missed the anouncement where you were placed in charge of fast and abstinence at the Vatican. Your opinion and mine, and those of anyone here are of no value. the Catholic Church sets the disciplines, and the bishops conference of each country determines how those will be carried out within their provinces.

the discipline is abstain from meat.
there is no canon law that orders: Eat fish!
the primary goal of Lenten fasting and all penitential practices is a humble, contrite heart. If you are doing any of this without humility, obedience and contrition you are wasting your time, so eat whatever you want.

 

[HailMary]

I think this was a nice reflection on Lent

 

[wjp984]

The spirit of fasting and penance is to be observed on all Fridays of the year - including those on which we do physical fasting and penance, as well as those Fridays when we can choose to do more spiritual penances - that would seem to go without saying, I think.

I don’t want to comment one way or the other on your particular practice of eating expensive seafood by way of “penance” because I have no way of knowing your situation, but in general, it seems to me that this kind of thing would be a contradiction of the spirit of penance and fasting that we are meant to be observing on these days.

Well according to the rules, and this would include even Good Friday and the first day of Lent, there is no regulation of what price range the food must be or how good it must taste. These are all separate devotions which can be good. As people have mentioned, fish is expensive so I would say on average, I probably eat more expensive food during Lent and that is just a consequence of meat not being allowed. That was all I was saying.

 

[jmcrae]

Well according to the rules, and this would include even Good Friday and the first day of Lent, there is no regulation of what price range the food must be or how good it must taste. These are all separate devotions which can be good. As people have mentioned, fish is expensive so I would say on average, I probably eat more expensive food during Lent and that is just a consequence of meat not being allowed. That was all I was saying.

Oh, I see.

My meatless Fridays tend to consist of macaroni and cheese, vegetables, and peanut butter sandwiches - as puzzleAnnie pointed out above, the requirement is to abstain from meat; not to eat fish.

 

[Jaypeeto3]

You’re right, jmcrae,
but don’t forget,
us Catholics aren’t called “Mackerel Snappers” for nothin’ !!

God bless,
Jaypeeto3 (aka Jaypeeto4)

 

[wjp984]

Oh, I see.

My meatless Fridays tend to consist of macaroni and cheese, vegetables, and peanut butter sandwiches - as puzzleAnnie pointed out above, the requirement is to abstain from meat; not to eat fish.

good for you; I prefer the fish. You might want to check out the Lenten retreat in the spirituality section where we were talking about keeping your additional pennacnes to yourself. There is nothing wrong with eating fish and spending money on a decent meal. Show me in the catechism where it says I am wrong and not following the Lent requirements. I probably only eat a nice fish or seafood dinner on maybe 2 of the Fridays by the way since it is too expensive. I usually can get a couple other people to go along too or we can split cost and cook something.

 

[jmcrae]

good for you; I prefer the fish. You might want to check out the Lenten retreat in the spirituality section where we were talkint about keeping your additional pennacnes to yourself. There is nothing wrong with eating fish and spending money on a decent meal. Show me in the catechism where it says I am wrong and not following the Lent requirements. I probably only eat a nice fish or seafood dinner on maybe 2 of the Fridays by the way since it is too expensive.

I’m not accusing anybody of anything, and the peanut butter, etc. isn’t an “extra penance” - it’s just what I happen to have on hand in the house.