When you do it by choice it probably does bring your focus to God. But as a child I was not given a choice of having meat on Fri. or not. I was told if I ate meat on Fri. it was a sin, that I would have to confess to a priest to be forgiven of or else. Now what does that do to children? Why did they view it as a sin that would send me to hell if you are not a works based religion? And if the rules have changed what happened to the people who ate meat on Fri. didn't confess before they died? Are they in hell? Either answer will not be fair, so where is the justice in that? When you are a child you were not given free use of your will. Sometimes you had to obey.
In some sense we are all children of God and we should all obey Him. We believe He establshed a Church, an authortative Church, and behave accordingly.
If you believe in the authority of the Church, then you should obey it. Period. If you do not obey, willfully, then you are basically being disobedient to God. That is a sin. If it was church law to abstain on Friday and you ignored the law for no good reason that is a sin. If it is not a law then eaing meat on Friday is not a sin. It has absolutely nothing to do with the act of eating meat itself. It is completely arbitrary. Disobeying the Church is a sin now. It was a sin then.
Someone who made a habit of being willfully disobedient to God's church will be judged for what they have done.
SD
I believe in the authority of the church as long as it lines up with scripture. Eating meat on Fri. is no where in the bible. In fact Jesus taught that fasting was a free choice thing and should be done with no show, quietly, secertly so as not to draw attention to the act.
Becky