Why is fish acceptable and meat not?

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PuerCuriosus

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Fasting on Fridays is terrific, but why is it okay for us to abstain from meat yet have fish? Is there any biblical reasoning to it?
 
PuerCuriosus said:
Fasting on Fridays is terrific, but why is it okay for us to abstain from meat yet have fish? Is there any biblical reasoning to it?
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Tradition!!!

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/643925_131330440371630_2055811153_n.jpg

Meat includes all animals except fish and shellfish.
Fish includes all fish except shellfish (shrimp, lobster, etc).
In the Byzantine Rite when you are eating vegan and no olive oil or wine (the strictest fast) due to Lent shellfish is always permitted.
 
In most parts of the world meats of land animals and foul are considered luxuries, while fish and related creatures is a more common–although not necessarily cheap or abundant–food source. Consider the fact that lobster was even considered peasant food on the East Coast of the US at one point.
 
YoungTradCath said:
In most parts of the world meats of land animals and foul are considered luxuries, while fish and related creatures is a more common–although not necessarily cheap or abundant–food source. Consider the fact that lobster was even considered peasant food on the East Coast of the US at one point.
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Red Lobster could have been like McDonald’s back then. 😉
 
How is fish not a meat? They are animals with blood and bones in them as well. Most vegetarians would not eat fish…
 
Meat is considered a warm blooded animal in Church tradition & because Christ (being warm blood) died on a Friday, Church law disallows eating of warm blooded animals on Fridays in lent & Ash Wednesday. Actually on all Fridays, but there are exceptions to this that I won’t go into here.

Fish being cold blooded animals is allowed eatable any day.

Please someone correct me if I am wrong.
 
I want to add…

“But let not your fasts be with the hypocrites; for they fast on the second and fifth day of the week; but fast on the fourth day and the Preparation (Friday).” - The Didache, Ch 8 (c. AD 40-60)

This is why the Eastern Churches fast on Wednesday (The day an agreement was made by Judas to betray Christ) and Friday (the Crucifixion of Christ) all year long unless a feast day takes precedence. 🙂
 
I stole this from another thread in the Liturgy and Sacraments board.
jmcrae said:
What we are to abstain from on Fridays is meat that contains (or normally would contain) blood - that is to say, in Latin, “Carne” - or warm-blooded meat. Since fish are cold-blooded, their meat is not “carne” and therefore, it is permitted on days of abstinence from “carne” (which is translated “meat” in English, usually).
.
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AveChriste11 said:
How is fish not a meat? They are animals with blood and bones in them as well. Most vegetarians would not eat fish…
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Thats the point in this question. It is a Catholic mindset that fish is acceptable and meat not when it comes to Lenten fasts.
 
The warm blooded explanation makes sense. Is there any reason as to why this started in the first place though? When Jesus fasted he ate absolutely nothing! Why are we not called to do the similarly? Also, what makes the abstinence of warm blooded meats better than cold blooded meats?

Sorry for all the questions! But all the (name removed by moderator)ut is really helping me, thank you!
 
PuerCuriosus said:
The warm blooded explanation makes sense. Is there any reason as to why this started in the first place though? When Jesus fasted he ate absolutely nothing! Why are we not called to do the similarly? Also, what makes the abstinence of warm blooded meats better than cold blooded meats?

Sorry for all the questions! But all the (name removed by moderator)ut is really helping me, thank you!
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In the East it is traditional to make a complete fast. Such as, fasting two days before being baptized as an adult. 🙂
 
Zekariya said:
In the East it is traditional to make a complete fast. Such as, fasting two days before being baptized as an adult. 🙂
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Interesting. Is it only for converts or do people who grew up in it do it when they come to a proper medical age?
 
PuerCuriosus said:
Interesting. Is it only for converts or do people who grew up in it do it when they come to a proper medical age?
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This tradition is rarely practiced these days (in Western societies). I fasted the day before my baptism just because I desired to fast. Yes, you would have to be in the proper medical age. 🙂 Infants and such would be excuses. There are still some Eastern countries that baptize people naked. In the East, infants are always baptized naked via triple immersion. 🙂
 
PuerCuriosus said:
Fasting on Fridays is terrific, but why is it okay for us to abstain from meat yet have fish? Is there any biblical reasoning to it?
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I suspect strongly if you go far enough back in time you’ll run into a time when the taxonomy of life was different/meaning of words was different. We divide the world into plants and animals and all animals are therefore meat. Its very possible that there was a different approach way back and meat was not equal to all animals but rather land animals.

Either that or everyone whined and complained so much about fasting an exception was granted to allow fish.
 
You can eat any cold blooded animal, not just fish, on Fridays. In the US most of us would not eat snake, lizard, etc. but it is permitted and I grew up eating frog legs and fish on Fridays because we caught them ourselves so it was a free meal for us. The money saved on that meal would be donated in our milk cartons (now its a rice bowl) to CRS. It was a pretty big savings since we were a large family! The nun in charge of our elementary school told us that cold blooded animals were allowed partly St. Peter was a fisherman and partly because their flesh does not contain blood like ours. I’m not sure if this is accurate because I was only in 2nd grade at the time.

Now that I’m the mom, we tend to have stir fry vegetables and rice or noodles, beans, homemade cheese pizza, or macaroni and cheese, something like that. And since we do raise chickens and turkeys, quite often our Friday meal will consist of eggs (boiled, scrambled, meatless omelets, etc) year round. I’m not sure why eggs are permitted since they are a chicken or turkey product.
 
Abstaining from flesh meat (carne) comes from John 6, when Jesus says we must eat his flesh, which he will give up for the life of the world.

Because Jesus gives up his flesh on Friday, we abstain on Friday in penance and solidarity with Christ’s sacrifice.
 
Chatter163 said:
Fish are chordates, not animals. They are not warm-blooded mammals. Biology 101.
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I’m pretty sure the phylum chordata is in the kingdom animalia, thus making them animals. Mammals are also of the phylum chordata, class mammalia. It was in our 3rd grade homeschool science curriculum this year.
 
Here are some interesting posts on a blog about just this subject:

newtheologicalmovement.blogspot.com/2011/03/why-we-abstain-from-meat-but-not-from.html

newtheologicalmovement.blogspot.com/2012/03/why-do-catholics-abstain-from-meat.html

The priest whow posts this is named Fr. Ryan Wayne Erlenbush.

His bio on the website:
Fr. Ryan Wayne Erlenbush is a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Great Falls – Billings in Montana, USA. He was ordained on 23 June 2009. Completing his seminary studies at the North American College in Rome, he received an STB from the Pontifical Gregorian University and both an MA and an STL from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), focusing on dogmatic theology.
 
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