A mild controversy developed in Great Falls this past Spring. I suspect most parishioners never heard about it. I did only in passing by a parishioner who asked me about it. The question was about Catholic teaching on fast and abstinence. Is it seriously sinful to eat meat on Fridays throughout the year? Is it yet a requirement to do penance of Fridays throughout the year?

For many a Catholic, fast and abstinence on Fridays is a practice of former times. From a few years following the close of the Second Vatican Council, many Catholics concluded that Friday days of abstinence from meat ceased to be a requirement. Actually, it didn’t. Friday still remains a day of penance and abstinence from meat for every Friday of the year. What changed is that the US Bishop’s Conference, as allowed by the Holy See, issued a statement noting that, due to a number of changing circumstances in society, Catholics could substitute another form of penance on Fridays throughout the entire year. This could be volunteering at a soup kitchen, visiting the homebound, extra prayer, etc. The bishops noted that “…the faithful are required by divine law to do penance.” So, it is not a practice that may be summarily ignored or dismissed. ​As to a specific requirement to refrain from meat, the bishop’s statement noted, “…even though we hereby terminate the traditional law of abstinence binding under pain of sin, as the sole prescribed means of observing Friday, we give first place to abstinence from flesh meat” (Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence, NCCB, Nov. 18, 1966, #24).

The question posed to me caused me to reflect about the reason for penance and the place of spiritual practices in the life of Catholics. I reviewed chapter six from the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus teaches on the importance of prayer, fasting and almsgiving and the manner by which they are accomplished. Jesus begins his teaching, “When you give alms,…when you pray,…When you fast.” He does not say, “If you give alms,…pray,…fast.” He seems to presume that these practices are normal for people of faith. The Lord obviously knew that those who would follow him would continue to be beset by temptation and sin. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving were spiritual tools to help his followers remain “strong, loving and wise” in their spiritual lives.

It is my conviction that the Lord expects us to practice some form of prayer, fasting and almsgiving all of our lives. This has been the conviction of the Church for millennia. Prayer keeps us humble and in a listening posture before God. It is through a routine of prayer that our relationship with the Lord is nurtured and by which we discern the presence of the Spirit in our lives. Fasting reminds us that material goods, as important and necessary as they are, are not as important as our relationship with the Lord. Material goods ultimately corrupt. A relationship with Christ never does. It also strengthens our resolve to resist temptation. Almsgiving provides us a concrete means to place our focus on others and away from self. It enables us to be the instruments of the Gospel that faith demands. It is a way to embody the love of God toward those who are in need.

The Church has enacted a series of precepts (directives) that seem to flow from the thought of this Gospel teaching of Jesus in his Sermon. There is no specific historical date when these precepts were enacted, but they have been taught from well before the first millennia. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (promulgated in 1994) and the Code of Canon Law (promulgated in 1983) list five precepts that are morally binding for all Catholics.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church asserts that these precepts are obligatory in nature because they are divine positive law. A Catholic in good standing cannot simply dismiss them or ignore them out of hand. I should be quick to add that both the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Canon Law do not present them as a way to inflict hardships on to the faith practice of Catholics. The point is to help the faithful to become holy and attain eternal life. The morally binding nature of the precepts is meant to guarantee an indispensable “…minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, in the growth of love of God and neighbor” (CCC #2041). Wheat Icon

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