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Meatless
Fridays
PRAISED BE JESUS
CHRIST!
(Now and Forever)
No doubt there are times we all look back and question the wisdom of
decisions made in good faith which now seem questionable. Life is filled
with such events. It seemed the thing to do at the time, but we wish it
could be replayed.
It’s a good exercise to take to prayer. In doing that, I find myself
fixating not just on my personal foibles, but on a variety of changes
experienced in the discipline of the Church. Mitigation of Friday
abstinence is one such decision.
Prior to 1966, Catholics did not eat meat on Friday. It was considered a
sin to do so. Abstinence from meat on Friday was a universal badge of
Catholic identity, although even then it didn’t apply to the entire
Catholic world. Nonetheless, Catholics understood that Fridays were
meatless. People who were not Catholic were aware of it and respected
it, especially restaurant owners. Catholics were proud of their fidelity
to the discipline and what meatless Fridays represented.
The Catholic Church considers the tradition of abstinence from meat a
positive discipline. The motivation is not to deny the goodness of
creation or to “punish” the body, but to unite the believer through a
discipline of self-sacrifice to the sacrificial love of Christ Jesus and
to free us from self-centeredness in order to facilitate prayer and more
generous charity.
A resounding message of the Gospel is to repent. By “repent,” the
Scriptures mean a conversion to God with all our heart, an end to sin, a
turning away from evil, and repugnance toward the evil actions we have
committed. To turn words into action, Catholics have always been urged
to live a penitential life, and Fridays were a reminder of that. Then in
early 1966, Pope Paul VI issued an apostolic constitution on penance. He
wrote: “Holy Mother Church, although it has always observed in a special
way abstinence from meat and fasting, nevertheless wants to indicate in
the traditional triad of ‘prayer-fasting-charity’ the fundamental means
of complying with the divine precepts of penitents … Where economic
well-being is greater, so much more will the witness of asceticism have
to be given in order that the sons of the Church will not be involved in
the spirit of the ‘world,’ and at the same time the witness of charity
will have to be given to the brethren who suffer poverty and hunger
beyond any barrier of nation or continent. … In order that all the
faithful ... may be united in a common celebration of penitence, the
Apostolic See intends to establish certain penitential days and seasons
chosen among those which in the course of the liturgical year are closer
to the paschal mystery of Christ or might be required by the special
needs of the ecclesial community.”
The pope went on to say that on these common penitential days and
seasons Catholics should pray, fast and perform works of charity. His
focus was two-fold: on the value of penance which he wanted to emphasize
and on rapidly changing demographic realities.
The bottom line was that abstinence from meat was to be observed on all
Fridays, unless a solemnity fell on a Friday. The law of abstinence from
meat was declared to bind those who had completed their 14th year.
Pastors of souls and parents were urged to insure that even those who by
reason of their age were not yet bound by the law of fasting be taught
the true meaning of penance. This represented a mitigation of the
traditional discipline. For example, the vigil of great feasts had been
days of penance as had ember days at the turn of the four seasons. Go
back far enough and Advent was a season of penance.
Pope Paul VI then granted episcopal conferences wide latitude in
implementing and modifying the universal discipline of penance which he
laid out in his apostolic directive. The American bishops did that in
November of 1966.
They wrote, the spirit of penance “primarily suggests that we discipline
ourselves in that which we enjoy most, to many in our day abstinence
from meat no longer implies penance, while renunciation of other things
would be more penitential.”
With the intention of reinvigorating the observance of Friday as a
penitential day, the bishops urged Catholics to be mindful of their sins
on Fridays as well as the sins of mankind which we are called to help
expiate; asked Catholics to make each Friday a day of self-denial and
mortification in prayerful remembrance of the passion of Jesus Christ in
preparation for Sunday; and abolished the mandatory nature of Friday
abstinence outside of Lent allowing Catholics instead to choose their
own acts of voluntary self-denial and personal penance. Abstinence, they
said, should still take priority among Friday acts of penance.
Those who choose not to abstain from meat on Fridays were urged to
practice temperance in the use of stimulants and alcoholic beverages.
The bishops said: “It would bring great glory to God and good to souls
if Fridays found our people doing voluntary work in hospitals, visiting
the sick, serving the needs of the aged and the lonely, instructing the
young in the faith, participating as Christians in community affairs,
and meeting obligations to their families, friends, neighbors, and
community, including their parishes, with a special zeal born of a
desire to add the merit of penance to the other virtues exercised and
good works born of living faith.”
In a time of post-Vatican II euphoria, it apparently was thought that
adult Catholics would seek out the high ground. It didn’t work. A basic
rule of thumb was overlooked: People gravitate to the least demanding
level of the ladder. The rationale behind the change in practice and the
other truly beautiful thoughts expressed in the call to maintain a
spirit of penance were overlooked or soon ignored. Today, the fact the
Fridays of the year should be days of penance is judged an antiquated
idea without relevance by many. This failure to embrace penance
conflicts with the view of the Church gleaned from the Scriptures and
summarized in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “The human
heart is heavy and hardened. God must give man a new heart … the human
heart is converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced”
(1432).
In 1983, the American bishops repeated the call to observe Friday as a
day of penance. They wrote: “As a tangible sign of our need and desire
to do penance we, for the cause of peace, commit ourselves to fast and
abstinence on each Friday of the year. We call upon our people
voluntarily to do penance on Friday by eating less food and by
abstaining from meat. This return to a traditional practice of penance,
once well observed in the U.S. Church, should be accompanied by works of
charity and service toward our neighbors. Every Friday should be a day
significantly devoted to prayer, penance and almsgiving for peace.”
The appeal was heard by some who, in fact, make Fridays days of penance.
Yet, it would seem that in doing away with mandatory meatless Fridays, a
magnificent value has been lost, to our disadvantage. |
