Washington D.C., Feb 19, 2021 / 03:02 pm ().- God commanded it, Jesus practiced it, Church Fathers have preached the importance of it – fasting is a powerful and fundamental part of the Christian life.
But for many Catholics today, it’s more of an afterthought: something we grudgingly do on Good Friday, perhaps on Ash Wednesday if we remember it. Would we fast more, especially during Lent, if we understood how helpful it is for our lives?
The answer to this, say both saints of the past and experts today, is a resounding “yes.”
“Let us take for our standard and for our example those that have run the race, and have won,” said Deacon Sabatino Carnazzo, founding executive director of the Institute of Catholic Culture and a deacon at Holy Transfiguration Melkite Greek Catholic Church in Mclean, Va., of the saints.
“And…those that have run the race and won have been men and women of prayer and fasting.”
So what, in essence, is fasting?
It’s “the deprivation of the good, in order to make a decision for a greater good,” explained Deacon Carnazzo. It is most commonly associated with abstention from food, although it can also take the form of giving up other goods like comforts and entertainment.
The current fasting obligation for Latin Catholics in the United States is this: all over the age of 14 must abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all Fridays in Lent. On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, adults age 18 to 59 must fast – eating no more than one full meal and two smaller meals that together do not add up in quantity to the full meal.
Catholics, “if possible,” can continue the Good Friday fast through Holy Saturday until the Easter Vigil, the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference adds.
Other Fridays throughout the year (aside from Friday within the Octave of Easter) “are penitential days and times throughout the entire Church,” according to Canon Law 1250. Catholics once abstained from meat on all Fridays, but the U.S. bishops received permission from the Holy See for Catholics to substitute another sacrifice or perform an act of charity instead.
Eastern Rite Catholics, meanwhile, follow the fasting laws of their own particular church.
In their 1966 “Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence,” the National Conference of Catholic Bishops exhorted the faithful, on other days of Lent where fasting is not required, to “participation in daily Mass and a self-imposed observance of fasting.”
Aside from the stipulations, though, what’s the point of fasting?
“The whole purpose of fasting is to put the created order and our spiritual life in a proper balance,” Deacon Carnazzo said.
As “bodily creatures in a post-fallen state,” it’s easy to let our “lower passions” for physical goods supersede our higher intellect, he explained. We take good things for granted and reach for them whenever we feel like it, “without thinking, without reference to the One Who gives us the food, and without reference to the question of whether it’s good for us or not,” he added.
Thus, fasting helps “make more room for God in our life,” Monsignor Charles Pope, pastor of Holy Comforter/St. Cyprian Catholic Church in Washington, D.C. said.
“And the Lord said at the well, with the (Samaritan) woman, He said that ‘everyone that drinks from this well is going to be thirsty again. Why don’t you let me go to work in your life and I’ll give you a fountain welling up to Eternal Life.’”
While fasting can take many forms, is abstaining from food especially important?
“The reason why 2000 years of Christianity has said food (for fasting), because food’s like air. It’s like water, it’s the most fundamental,” Deacon Carnazzo said. “And that’s where the Church says ‘stop right here, this fundamental level, and gain control there.’ It’s like the first step in the spiritual life.”
What the Bible says about it
Yet why is fasting so important in the life of the Church? And what are the roots of the practice in Scripture?
The very first fast was ordered by God to Adam in the Garden of Eden, Deacon Carnazzo noted, when God instructed Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17).
This divine prohibition was not because the tree was bad, the deacon clarified. It was “made good” like all creation, but its fruit was meant to be eaten “in the right time and the right way.” In the same way, we abstain from created goods so we may enjoy them “in the right time and the right way.”
The fast is the weapon of protection against demons – St. Basil the Great.
Fasting is also good because it is submission to God, he said. By fasting from the fruit of the tree, Adam and Eve would have become partakers in the Divine Nature through their obedience to God. Instead, they tried to take this knowledge of good and evil for themselves and ate the fruit, disobeying God and bringing Original Sin, death, and illness upon mankind.
At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus abstained from food and water for 40 days and nights in the desert and thus “reversed what happened in the Garden of Eden,” Deacon Carnazzo explained. Like Adam and Eve, Christ was tempted by the devil but instead remained obedient to God the Father, reversing the disobedience of Adam and Eve and restoring our humanity.
Following the example of Jesus, Catholics are called to fast, said Fr. Lew. And the Church Fathers preached the importance of fasting.
Why fasting is so powerful
“The fast is the weapon of protection against demons,” taught St. Basil the Great. “Our Guardian Angels more really stay with those who have cleansed our souls through fasting.”
Why is fasting so powerful? “By setting aside this (created) realm where the devil works, we put ourselves into communion with another realm where the devil does not work, he cannot touch us,” Deacon Carnazzo explained.
It better disposes us for prayer, noted Monsignor Pope. Because we feel greater hunger or thirst when we fast from food and water, “it reminds us of our frailty and helps us be more humble,” he said. “Without humility, prayer and then our experience of God really can’t be unlocked.”
Thus, the practice is “clearly linked by St. Thomas Aquinas, writing within the Tradition, to chastity, to purity, and to clarity of mind,” noted Fr. Lew.
“You can kind of postulate from that that our modern-day struggles with the virtue of chastity, and perhaps a lack of clarity in theological knowledge, might be linked to an abandonment of fasting as well.”
A brief history of fasting
The current fasting obligations were set in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, but in previous centuries, the common fasts among Catholics were stricter and more regularly observed.
Catholics abstained from meat on all Fridays of the year, Easter Friday excluded. During Lent, they had to fast – one main meal and two smaller meatless meals – on all days excluding Sunday, the day of the Resurrection. They abstained from meat on Fridays and Saturdays in Lent – the days of Christ’s death and lying in the tomb – but were allowed meat during the main meal on the other Lenten weekdays.
The obligations extended to other days of the liturgical year. Catholics fasted and abstained on the vigils of Christmas and Pentecost Sunday, and on Ember Days – the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the Feast of St. Lucy on Dec. 13, after Ash Wednesday, after Pentecost Sunday, and after the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in September – corresponding with the four seasons.
In centuries past, the Lenten abstention was more austere. Catholics gave up not only meat but also animal products like milk and butter, as well as oil and even fish at times.
Why are today’s obligations in the Latin Rite so minimal? The Church is setting clear boundaries outside of which one cannot be considered to be practicing the Christian life, Deacon Carnazzo explained. That is why intentionally violating the Lenten obligations is a mortal sin.
But should Catholics perform more than the minimum penance that is demanded? Yes, said Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P., who is currently studying for a Pontifical License in Sacred Theology at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C.
The minimum may be “what is due to God out of justice,” he explained, but we are “called not only to be just to God,” but also “to love God and to love our neighbor.” Charity, he added, “would call us to do more than just the minimum that is applied to us by the Code of Canon Law today, I think.”
In Jeremiah 31: 31-33, God promises to write His law upon our hearts, Deacon Carnazzo noted. We must go beyond following a set of rules and love God with our hearts, and this involves doing more than what we are obliged to do, he added.
Be wary of your motivation
However, Fr. Lew noted, fasting “must be stirred up by charity.” A Catholic should not fast out of dieting or pride, but out of love of God.
“It’s always dangerous in the spiritual life to compare yourself to other people,” he said, citing the Gospel of John where Jesus instructed St. Peter not to be concerned about the mission of St. John the Apostle but rather to “follow Me.” (John 21: 20-23).
In like manner, we should be focused on God during Lent and not on the sacrifices of others, he said.
Lent (is referred to) as a joyful season…It’s the joy of loving Him more.
“We will often fail, I think. And that’s not a bad thing. Because if we do fail, this is the opportunity to realize our utter dependence on God and His grace, to seek His mercy and forgiveness, and to seek His strength so that we can grow in virtue and do better,” he added.
And by realizing our weakness and dependence on God, we can “discover anew the depths of God’s mercy for us” and can be more merciful to others, he added.
Giving up good things may seem onerous and burdensome, but can – and should – a Catholic fast with joy?
“It’s referred to in the preface of Lent as a joyful season,” Fr. Lew said. “And it’s the joy of deepening our relationship with Christ, and therefore coming closer to Him. It’s the joy of loving Him more, and the more we love God the closer we draw to Him.”
“Lent is all about the Cross, and eventually the resurrection,” said Deacon Carnazzo. If we “make an authentic, real sacrifice for Christ” during Lent, “we can come to that day of the crucifixion and say ‘Yes Lord, I willingly with you accept the cross. And when we do that, then we will behold the third day of resurrection.’”
This article was originally published on CNA Feb. 20, 2016.
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Thank you , esp. for the precious words – ‘ God desires to do whatever He can for man who is the pinnacle of creation ‘. His mercy to Abraham ,in desiring to reveal to us too that being made in His image , He has put enough in us too to do His Holy Will – having given to Abraham an occasion in the above trial , to free him from the shame of not having protected Sarah from the Pharaoh and thus to restore that lost dignity . Same thus to have helped prepare hearts for the sacrifices that would be needed to undo the related effects down through the centuries , including the ritual of circumcision . The stage for the whole saga having been set in The Garden – Abel possibly having recognized with a grateful heart , the love and symbolism , in the Lamb that was slain to cloth the First Parents and tried to reciprocate that love with a similar sacrifice in taking in the pain and effort that was needed . Cain , OTOH , possibly having taken in the spirit of fear , envy and bitterness for having been driven out of The Garden and having to till the soil brought the ‘fruits’ , ? with a heart laid with such .The sight of the lamb that Abel offered could have instead reminded him that what he and the family truly deserved was that of the lamb , if the enemy had his way . Adam and Eve thus taste the sorrow of loosing a son ..Abraham too , that of Ishmael ..he very likely kept that sorrow deep within , not being able to share same with Sarah , instead likely calling on The Lord to often entrust their care to Him … the strength from same thus likely having prepared him for the occasion of having recourse only to
The Lord , in planning and preparing and walking to Mount Moriah in silence ..
a silence taking on its fuller depth , in that of St.Joseph – who ‘knew ‘ Mary , on the occasion of exercising his Fatherly role of naming The Lord as The Yeshua , The Savior … The Lord who desires for each of us too , to ‘know ‘ Him , in the Love from The Wounds , as the Holy Father too reminds us with his Fatherly heart .
Stepping into the darkness of God’s will, Abraham cast himself into the light of God’s perfect mercy and love (Olson?/Balthasar?). The test was not meant to prove God can do whatever he desires, but that God desires to do whatever he can for man (presumably Olson). Whoever owns the first sentence owns a genius insight. The second “meant to prove” sentence enters a paradoxical issue I found in Aquinas that God can indeed do whatever he wills even that which is not perceived as consistent to us with Justice. Aquinas speaks on this as God as analogously the landlord of the house who may decide as he wills. We see indication in the Exodus story when God is said to harden Pharaoh’s heart, elsewhere where he is noted as softening the attitude of kings toward a defeated captured Israel. What it appears to say is that since the Fall Man is unworthy of saving grace inclusive of grace that motivates kindness. God who confers any motivation toward good can withhold to the point of allowing evil. Christ the beloved Son is in fact offered as a bloody sacrifice to appease the Father. Although pagans immolated their children it was motivated by Satan for material good, whereas God offers the sacrifice of his beloved, only Son for the spiritual good of our salvation. Only the perfect sacrifice, the perfect act of love of the obedient Son, to offer his life as a sacrifice could satisfy Justice. Abraham in an act of faith as alluded above offers his son with a sense that somehow it will achieve some unknown good. It seems to indicate Abraham’s unshakable faith in God’s goodness, the God who freely gives life and is free to take it. Promise of eternal life given to us, as shared solely by God, who alone gives life in the bargain. Which is why the Apostle Paul says, Who can convict us? God, who offers his own Son to be crucified? Or rather, to rise from the dead?
Lest I give the impression that I am above experiencing conflict with this, among the most troublesome scripture passages the reason why I tackled the question is because of that perplexion. Perhaps a way of better comprehension is to ask oneself, what is the more outrageous. Is it less outrageous for God to offer his perfect, infinitely good Son as a bloody sacrifice, than for sinful Abraham to offer his imperfect son? Christ’s anguished cry from the Cross, My God my God why have you forsaken me? seems to address this anomaly. The reason why I’m trembling, and adore when I offer the precious blood to the Father in the holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
“4 On the third day Abraham caught sight of the place from a distance. 5 Abraham said to his servants: “Stay here with the donkey, while the boy and I go on over there. We will worship and then come back to you.” Genesis 22: 4-5. NAB.
So, in perfect obedience to God, fully trusting Him, full well knowing that God would never ask him to do anything that was not in perfect accord with God’s will, Abraham prepared to offer his son. With this absolute trust in God, Abraham told his servants “4 On the third day Abraham caught sight of the place from a distance. 5 Abraham said to his servants: “Stay here with the donkey, while the boy and I go on over there. We will worship and then come back to you.”
Genesis 22. NAB.
Notice that Abraham said “We will worship and then come back to you.” Abraham absolutely trusted God, that God would never lead him, Abraham, astray from Himself, THAT BOTH HE AND ISSAC WOULD RETURN TO THE SERVANTS.
How God would accomplish this, Abraham knew not, but he knew that God would do His will in doing so. His Faith and Trust in God, wholly lived. Somehow, no human sacrifice was going to take place. Holy Spirit strengthening was taking place in his heart.
So very sad that the reading at Mass today, the Second Sunday of Lent, meaning to demonstrate Abraham’s faith in God, wholly left out this part of God’s test for Abraham. And, it is so extremely important for us to know God so well, too.
God bless, C-Marie