Posted on 03/04/2003 12:41:05 AM PST by nickcarraway
Dear Grace: Someone recently asked me why Catholics have Lent and also why we do not fast for the entire forty day period. Could you please explain the message behind Lent and why we do not fast every single day of the forty days?
As Christians, in everything we do, we should have as our model Jesus Christ. Scripture tells us that "Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil and he fasted forty days and forty nights" (Matthew 4:1-2). The season of Lent is a commemoration of Our Lord’s fast, which He undertook before entering into His public ministry. It was a time of preparation for the tremendous mission that lay before Him. To do this, He denied Himself food and water during those forty days and nights, relying instead only on God (with whom He was One) to sustain Him.
In the history of the Church, Lent has undergone much development and change, both in duration and in practice. In other words, it was not always forty days in length and the fast was not always observed the same way. For example, during the late second century, the season of penance before Easter was much shorter and some people fasted for one day, others for two days, and others for a greater number of days. The first clear mention and observance of the forty days does not come to us until the fourth century in the decrees of the Council of Nicea in 325 AD.
What we see from some of the earliest references is that originally the season of Lent was meant as a preparation for baptism or as a time in which people sought absolution from God for their sins. Even though fasting and abstinence were part of the practice, there was no uniform manner in which this was done. That came later. It was observed differently in various countries. In Rome, where it had been customarily three weeks, it was eventually extended to six weeks, but always leaving out the Sundays. Because this made the Lenten season only thirty-six days in duration, with time it was lengthened by adding four more days, making it forty, in remembrance of Jesus’ fast in the desert.
As to why most Catholics do not fast the entire forty days of Lent, the Church in fact strongly recommends that we do so, but leaves it to us to decide for ourselves. On November 18, 1966, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, in keeping with the letter and spirit of Pope Paul VI's constitution Pænitemini, published some norms on penitential observance. In one part of the document, they specifically wrote about what is expected and recommended for all Catholics during the entire season of Lent. They stated: “We ask, urgently and prayerfully, that we, as people of God, make of the entire Lenten season a period of special penitential observance.”
In addition to making it clear that we are bound by obligation to fast and abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and to abstain from meat on every Friday of Lent, they also added the following: “For all other weekdays of Lent, we strongly recommend participation in daily Mass and a self-imposed observance of fasting.”
Remembering that fasting is a form of penance and self-denial, we must keep in mind that we are urged to do this during the entire season of Lent, but it does not have to be a fast from food on all those forty days. For example, those Catholics whose health would be compromised, such as the sick, are not bound to observe the Church's laws of fast and abstinence. But there are many other ways in which we can show God how sorry we are for our sins. Among them are the following: being generous with others, visiting the sick and lonely, feeding the poor, studying Scripture, making the Stations of the Cross, praying the rosary, practicing self-control, and many others.
Even when the US Bishops no longer required the faithful to abstain from meat on all the other Fridays of the year, it was never their intention that we should discontinue this practice. What they had hoped was that people would continue to do it out of their love for God and not because they were required to, and also to give us an opportunity to deny ourselves in other ways. Friday has never ceased to be a day of penance and self-denial, and abstaining from meat on that day is given first place, because it was on a Friday that our Lord died for our sins.
Every Friday is a day to prepare for Sunday, the day that, for us who believe, is Easter every week of the year. And Sunday is never a day of fasting (not even during Lent). It is the glorious Day of the Lord!
I haven't, unlike you, done much investigation into all the changes through the years. Unless it was announced in church, I didn't know about things unless it was in the paper.
I think when you are raised a Catholic, it is IN you. Those who leave the church must feel continuous guilt. I admire your devotion.
And who does that? I long for freedom for the innocent Iraqui Christians (Chaldeans) of which there are very few left, or so I understand. And that does not mean that I have to buy French goods.
A whole new definition of "killing them with kindness."
The Holy Season of Lent -- Fast and Abstinence
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Lenten Question |
BTTT! Lent, 2006, is fast approaching!
BFLR thank you.
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