I know I'm a few days late with this post, but I've just to share that Fasting has been on my mind a lot leading into this Lent. I've been praying about how to truly Fast this Lent, because too many years have gone by with hardly any effort put in, and that needs to change. Thankfully, I've been noticing various Catholic articles, videos, posts, etc, coming out encouraging "real" Fasting. The reality is, it is scandalous, shameful, and even partly sinful, the way the West has largely abandoned any meaningful encouragement to real Fasting. It is especially tragic when the "traditionalist" side has hardly mentioned Fasting, and has basically gone along with the bare minimum as well. This year, I want to really make a conscious effort to do some real Fasting during Lent, and have this become part of my life at other times of the year as well.
To give you a brief introduction to "real" Fasting, the historical understanding of Fasting had two components: (1) you avoided meat, dairy, sweets, and flavorings throughout Lent, and (b) that you ate roughly one meal and possibly a snack or two throughout Lent. The Byzantine Rites and Syriac Rites still require this type of "real" Fasting throughout Lent (and other times of the year) with some variations. The Latin Rite used to canonically require this type of "real" Fasting throughout Lent as well, but for reasons that I'm not aware of yet, the Latin Rite gradually relaxed the 'challenge' at a few key times. I recently read that just prior to the French Revolution (a major disaster for the Church and world), the Pope at the time said you could start eating meat during Lent as long as it was only at the main meal (and never on Fridays). The connection might be a coincidence, but then an even more drastic change happened in the late 1960s, just before the Sexual Revolution erupted the prior year the Pope said you only have to Fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. This really does make you wonder if many of the problems in the Church today are tied to the complete neglect to "real Fasting". To be honest, we cannot even use the term Fasting if we aren't talking about real Fasting. The Latin side should actually be ashamed of not Fasting in any meaningful sense for so long. And we can be certain that Satan rejoices in our neglect of Fasting, especially those of us who are otherwise practicing the Faith throughout the week.
And to be more honest, I think we are all capable of "real Fasting", but we are spiritually immature and are afraid to try it. I think for too long we have made excuses or turned a blind eye, or proposed alternatives like giving up social media. All this to avoid "real Fasting". I'm not saying any of this to brag or put down people who have genuine needs and have to modify their needs. The point is that we need to be discussing this more and encouraging each other. This encouragement needs to include setting your Fasting goals high, rather than starting so small that you really aren't being challenged. This encouragement needs to also include how we should stop deluding ourselves by finding loopholes that actually mock the Fast, including avoiding things such as (a) meat-substitutes that taste as enjoyable as the real meat, such as veggie burgers, (b) flavorful alternatives such as McDonalds Filet of Fish (not to mention the meatless fries and soda), and (c) any restaurant or food that is generally enjoyable to eat, including sushi, grilled cheese, veggie pizza, etc, and (d) enjoyable drinks, including sodas, alcohols, beers, juices, etc. (I think coffee, tea, etc, can be permissible depending on what stage you are personally at.) We need to be honest with ourselves that if we are enjoying the taste of our food, that is a warning that we are probably not Fasting. I speak as one who has repeatedly made excuses many years, but this year I want to really make an effort to avoid meat, dairy, flavorful foods, and regular sized meals, throughout Lent. I am well aware how weak I am at resolutions, so I'm not pretending to be a guru or that I will not fall at times, but I know other people can be more strong, and I hopefully can encourage them. I wont pretend to be at the level of avoiding spices, and eating only bread, water, rice, etc, during Lent, but that is a beautiful thing to aspire to.
Fasting has many beautiful elements to it, including key parts in Scripture, such as the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve had to "fast" from eating of the Tree. Fasting is tied to proper experience of Liturgy and Prayer, which means Fasting is tied to truly experiencing God. Our Lord Jesus says some evils can only be driven out by "Fasting and Prayer". Paul says he fasted many times (2 Cor 11:27). Spiritual masters in the Church have even explained that Fasting is the key to breaking our main sinful struggles, including sexual habits and pride. We must stop neglecting Fasting if we want to make real change in the Church and ourselves. I would say it is impossible to grow spiritually if one main pillar like Fasting is completely ignored. With things so unhealthy in the Church these days, we have to encourage each other individually, and God Willing soon the Church will make things more mandatory, so we can Fast as a community, not merely individually.
Saturday, March 5, 2022
Brief thoughts on Fasting during Lent
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4 comments:
Hear! Hear! Great article! "Fasting" has become an almost dirty word to suggest.
Hi,
I've been reading your posts for quite a while and greatly appreciate your scriptural insights.
I haven't researched this, but just to play devil's advocate:
I wonder if the relaxing of the fast requirements has something to do with a lot of countries becoming both industrialized and less Catholic. In a Catholic country, say, 500 years ago, would you still perform the same amount of labor (if you were in the laboring class) during Lent as you did at other times? Or was allowance made for you, knowing that you were required to fast?
Obviously religious orders could undergo severe fasts since living the religious life was all they did. I'm not saying that made it easy, but there's a limit to how severely you can fast when you're expected to put in a full day's work, especially if it involves heavy labor.
And of course the nobility could fast all they wanted since no physical labor was expected of them whatsoever, generally speaking.
My wife tells me that, before she moved to the US from the Philippines, basically the whole economy would shut down for Holy Week. Again this would provide a perfect opportunity for fasting as severely as one could wish.
Maybe the Church recognized that in a lot of countries, mainly Protestant but some Catholic countries too, the modern economy goes on, and employers expect you to show up for work on Ash Wednesday and Holy Week ready to put forth your best effort, just like at any other time.
Possibly for a lot of working people, giving up things other than food is more practicable and can still involve discipline and voluntary suffering, and therefore the Church decided to allow flexibility as to the types of self-denial one could practice in observance of Lent, other than the minimum requirements of Friday abstinence and fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
All that being said, I do regret the Church abrogating the requirement of abstaining from meat on Friday year-round. And there's no reason we couldn't do that throughout Lent, even for working people, since you can get plenty of calories from non-meat foods.
Very interesting thoughts. it is true that the current "just do it two times at the year, bro" view of fasting is almost not doing it at all, specially compared with our ancestors. The lack of knowledge of our obligation to not eat meat on ALL fridays is also sad. I must say that i get pretty suprised when i see how harder the christian life was back them!
While i can't hope to get close to what the ancients and medieval did, too little spiritual maturity yet and living with non-catholics, i was reminded by i priest that i watch of the custom of fasting on all Lent wednesdays and fridays, a thing that i used to do before but had literally forgot, and i started to do it again. Fasting truly is present everywere on Scripture and on our saints lifes and it is recommended by Our Lord itself! We ought to try to do it when we can, even if with baby steps.
A good thing seems that these ancient pratices are getting more known with the internet and all that, so perhaps some persons on our parishes adopting the habit can aways be good influences, maybe getting the pratice more adopted. One can hope.
Hello Agellius, there is probably truth to what you're saying. In cultures that are less Catholic, the non stop work week/month/year means no real time to rest, and means more working at night and winter months, which used to be low activity times by default.
Even the abundance & availability of meat/dairy in industrialized nations means we have become far more dependent on meat for our daily nourishment. In the past, if you had minimal meat, then obviously giving up meat/dairy wasn't as hard as it is now. And with issues like messing with the wheat supply leading to gluten intolerance, and diabetes due to processed foods, it has become necessary for many to move towards a 'low carb' lifestyle, and thus requires at least a small amount of meat/eggs for daily sustenance.
Part of all this includes the paradox of getting prosperous, where on one hand when we get prosperous, that would generally suggest more "free time" to focus on spiritual things instead of living in constant survival mode; yet, on the other hand, typically getting prosperous means focusing more on earthly comfort, forgetting to depend on God, getting carried away with life's pleasures, and thus not disciplined when it comes to detachment.
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