Fasting and abstinence

PINOY KASI


Fasting and abstinence
By Michael Tan
Inquirer

Last updated 01:12am (Mla time) 04/04/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Older Filipinos will remember when Catholics had to abstain from meat all throughout Lent. But if that seemed excessively strict, we shouldn’t forget that early Christians not only abstained but fasted, throughout most of Lent.

Over the centuries, the Catholic Church has modified the rules around fasting and abstinence. In 1966, Pope Paul VI issued “Paenitimini” or the Apostolic Constitution on Penance which reorganized these rules, while explaining the reasons for the revisions.

I’ve been using the word “rules” but that probably is too strong a term. “Paenitimini” left it to local bishops’ conferences to thresh out more specific guidelines on fasting and abstinence, depending on local situations. And while the Catholic Church today still considers the “substantial observance” of fasting and abstinence as an obligation, there is more emphasis today on the rationale and spirit behind these penitential practices.

I thought it’d be useful then to look first at what’s “required” and then go back to the meaning of Lenten penance itself, especially in our Filipino context.

Whale and turtle?

What are the “rules” today? All healthy Catholics aged 18 to 59 are obligated to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. All kinds of exemptions are possible, for example for people who are traveling, or students. (I was thinking in particular of Filipino students, whose final examinations are appropriately timed during Lent.)

Catholic fasting pales in comparison with the Muslims’ Ramadan, where the faithful fast for an entire month, meaning no food or water from sunrise to sunset. The Catholic fast simply states that there should be “no full meal” during the day. Snacks, or if we prefer the more solemn sounding “collations,” are allowed.

Besides fasting, Catholics aged 14 and above have to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays of Lent. It’s interesting though that the rules issued by the Catholic Church also point out that all Fridays of the year, except for those on which a solemnity (holy day) falls, are days of penance and so voluntary abstinence is suggested.

Vegetarians would cringe on how “meat” is defined. Fish is allowed. So are eggs and dairy products. And lard and margarine. And “meat juices,” for example, chicken broth and consommé.

The circuitous rules here have led to all kinds of questions: Would whale meat be “meat”? (Whales are mammals, not fish, so...) What about turtles and frogs and insects? One article in the American Catholic website suggests that the best guide is to follow custom, whatever the local tradition is. I’m not sure how helpful that rule is, considering how, in so many Asian countries, we eat anything that moves.

Public penance

I was just so amazed at the kinds of discussions around fasting and abstinence in different publications and on the Internet, especially when it comes to interpreting the rules, such as when a “collation” or snack would be most appropriate.

Lost in the quibbling is a reflection on what penance means. This, of course, varies from one culture to another. Filipinos use the Spanish-derived word “penitensiya,” with rather severe connotations. Even today, there are areas in the Philippines where older Filipinos will try to get people not just to fast and abstain from meat but also to refrain from talking, laughing, even bathing (on Good Friday). Then, too, there are the extreme penitential modes like flagellation and crucifixions.

Rightly so, Lent and Holy Week should be a time for penance but serious questions have been raised about severe self-mortification. We forget that fasting is not meant to punish the body; instead, it is meant as an aid to prayer and spirituality. Emptying the body makes room for the less mundane. The hunger that comes with fasting is also a powerful metaphor for our hunger for spirituality. With that in mind, it’s easier to understand why we have Eucharistic fasting, the requirement that one should refrain from taking food and water an hour before communion.

There’s more to penance. Pope Paul VI’s “Paenitimini” reminds us that there is a “continuous need of conversion and renewal, a renewal which must be implemented not only interiorly and individually but also externally and socially.”

In that context, fasting and abstinence from meat are therefore not simply pathways to personal sanctity but also a way of expressing our solidarity with the poor, sharing their hunger and their usually meatless meals. One theologian notes, wryly: “Avoiding meat while eating lobster misses the point.” Isaiah (58:3-8) is more indignant, attacking the hypocrisy that may accompany religious fasting. To give just one excerpt: “Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.”

The whole idea then of social penance is to make up for our collective failings. Besides fasting and abstinence, there are other ways of doing penance, including prayers and charity work. We might do well to popularize a practice called “Scrutinies,” where entire communities or parishes come together for a kind of collective examination of conscience, not to ferret out sinners in our midst but to think of the times we shirked away from social responsibilities, and what we might want to do about it.

Changing times

When the Catholic Church “relaxed” its rules on abstinence, no longer requiring meatless Fridays throughout the year, New Yorker magazine came out with a cartoon showing Satan pointing to multitudes of people burning in hell and saying: “Now what do we do with them?” Presumably, the burning souls were Catholics who had eaten meat on a Friday when it was still considered a mortal sin.

Times do change and everywhere religions are moving toward an emphasis on substance rather than form, conscience rather than rules. Holy Week in the past was severely ascetic, but I wonder how much it contributed to our “holiness” as individuals or as a nation.

Today, we may be swinging to the other extreme, with Holy Week simply seen as time for a vacation, for Boracay and Baguio and Hong Kong or for staying home to watch a stack of DVDs, including some X-rated ones.

There is value in going back and rediscovering the value of self-denial. I’m amused to find these days people paying exorbitant fees to stay in expensive spas where they are forced to fast and abstain from all kinds of meat (including whales and turtles and...) so they can become healthier. Wise women and men of different faiths figured long ago that penance, without whips and chains, made us healthier both in body and in spirit. That’s something to reflect on this Holy Week as we do penance, individually or collectively, through fasting and abstinence or through good work.

(The full text of “Paenitimini” can be found on www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_p-vi_apc_19660217_paenitemini_en.html.)