Hey there! I'm a very devout Catholic and I try to abstain from meat on Fridays all year long, not just in Lent.
Why are Christian services always on Sunday? We remember Sunday as the day Jesus rose from the dead and we celebrate! (Unfortunately, too many services aren't very celebratory, kwim?) Well, He couldn't rise from the dead on Sunday if He hadn't died on Friday. So it was common practice to not eat meat on Friday, a small suffering to remind us of the amazing suffering Jesus went through on this day. So that's the thought behind the idea....
The language is different, eating no meat on Fridays is
abstaining not quite fasting. Some people will say it's fasting, but it's just a mistake that everyone now accepts b/c of widespread use.
Here's some more info I found on the web:
(
www.catholic.com)
Q: Can you offer any biblical justification for the Catholic Church's former teaching that it's sinful to eat meat on Fridays?
A: Yes, but, if you recognize the fact that Christ's Church is divinely authorized to teach, sanctify, and govern, there should be no need to "prove" it with biblical examples. If you don't recognize that, consider the following biblical facts.
Jesus guaranteed that when his Church teaches it teaches with his authority and that anyone rejecting his Church's teachings rejects him (Luke 10:16). This authority extends to Church discipline as well as doctrine. When the Church imposes a discipline, its members are bound to obey it, unless they are dispensed for a proportionate reason.
This exercise of authority is seen in Acts 15, where the Church, in its first major council, bound all Christians to the discipline of abstaining from meat that had been sacrificed to idols or that had come from strangled animals (19-29). When the Church promulgated its teaching about abstaining from meat (Acts 15:28-29), no Christian was free to disregard the discipline without committing sin. But since Paul explained that meat in itself is not unclean and the eating of meat is not inherently sinful (Rom. 14:1-23, 1 Cor. 8:1-13, 10:23-32), a Christian who violated the apostolic teaching in Acts 15 sinned not because the eating of meat was wrong but because he disobeyed a commandment of the Church. When the Catholic Church imposes a discipline such as not eating meat on Fridays, the same principle holds.
Consider this parallel example. A mother tells her son not to eat the cookies she just baked because it's close to dinner time and eating the cookies will spoil his appetite. The son ignores his mother's wishes and, when she's not looking, sneaks a few cookies. His sin is not the eating of cookies (a morally-neutral act in itself), but of disobedience.
Finally, we should mention why Friday abstinence was imposed. The Church recognizes that, since meat is a chief part of most meals served in most places, and since meat is usually the most valued or expensive part of a meal, abstinence from meat on Fridays is a good way for Christians to unite themselves more closely to the sufferings of their Lord (Rom. 8:16-17, 1 Pet. 2:21) by denying themselves something they enjoy. Abstinence from meat is a sacrifice which unites them in penance and strengthens the solidarity of the Church through mild suffering. It's also a good form of mortification, which disciplines the soul and strengthens its resistance to concupiscence. Paul practiced and recommended mortification: "I drive my body and train it, for fear that after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified" (1 Cor. 9:27).
More on Friday Penance
In an "editor replies" in the December issue, you say that penitential practices on all Fridays of the year are "urged" rather than "mandated." If Fridays carry with them no exceptional obligation, then they are no different from Tuesdays, for example, since at all times we are called to repent. Our bishops have made it clear that Fridays are special days.
Your interpretation of the bishops’ use of the word urged in their November 1966 "On Penance and Abstinence" overlooks the careful correlation between their statement and Pope Paul VI’s preceding Paenitemini and misses an important point of both. Paul VI used the words urge, invites, and voluntary several times; this does not connote a lack of authority but a pastoral mode of expressing what is clearly not optional to those who look to him for direction. The essence of both proclamations is the grave necessity to participate in the work of Christ through repentance, particularly on days and in seasons in unison with all the faithful.
As for mandates, only "the supreme ecclesiastical authority can . . . suppress . . . days of penance" (Code of Canon Law 1244) and "each Friday of the whole year" is established as "a day of penance" (CIC 1250) on which "abstinence from meat" is required (CIC 1251). The bishops do not have the power to suppress Friday as a day on which penitential practice is required, nor could the Vatican cede that power to them without violating its own laws.
The day after the bishops released their 1966 statement, the New York Times interviewed Catholics on the street. "I’ve been following the habit on Fridays so long it’s not a sacrifice to me," one of them said. This is exactly the point of the release from the sole practice of abstaining from meat: to leave it to each individual to determine what exactly is a sacrifice. Doing so and following through was not and could not have been made optional. In fact, we are admonished to not judge those who substitute other practices instead of abstention from meat as their penance. That we are not warned about how to view those who do nothing presupposes that the faithful will understand and be worthy of the freedom to choose the penitential practice most likely to deepen their conversion.
Please reconsider your position on the observance of Fridays. I do not think your view is consistent with Catholic tradition, the documents in question, or other remarks published at the time.
Helen Stiver
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Jimmy Akin replies: In order to determine the legal obligations of Catholics, one has to look at the law and read it carefully, taking into account its developmental history.
The 1966 papal document Paenitemini was the legal basis for the U.S. Bishops’ 1966 statement "On Penance and Abstinence" (not the 1983 Code of Canon Law, which did not yet exist). Paenitemini gaves the episcopal conferences broad discretionary power in determining the way in which the discipline of penance would be observed in their countries.
In the U.S., most Fridays of the year are ones on which the Church calls for voluntary penitential practices. The 1966 document characterizes them as days for " voluntary works of self-denial and personal penance."
The current complimentary norms of the United States note that the penitential norms of the 1966 bishops’ document "continue in force since they are law" (
http://usccb.org/norms/12521253.htm, emphasis added).
I hope that helps. Feel free to ask me any more questions. There is also a Catholic misconception thread on this forum which might have a lot of answers to questions you didn't know you had!!
Blessings, Kara
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