Fasting and Abstinence
1. Nowadays fast and abstinence take the form of precepts of the Church
which bind us under pain of mortal sin. Before they were commanded by
the Church, however, they had been commanded by God. God made the first
law of this kind when He ordered Adam to abstain from the forbidden
fruit. Moses made particular laws of fast and abstinence for the Jewish
people. He also fasted himself, as did
the prophet Elias. “My knees totter from my fasting,” writes King David,
“and my flesh is wasted of its substance.” (Psalm 108:24) “Prayer is
good with fasting and alms,” (Tob. 12:8) says Tobias. Jesus fasted for
forty days as an example to us and He warned us that the devil can be
conquered only by prayer and fasting. (Mt. 17:20) In a more general way,
He warned us that: “Unless you repent, you will all perish.” (Luke
13:5) One of the means of doing penance most often recommended in Sacred
Scripture is fasting and abstaining.
Why, you may ask, should
Our Lord and the Church command us to mortify ourselves in regard to
food? There is a strong reason. It is an act of obedience to God, our
absolute master, Who does not demand anything of us save for our own
welfare. Secondly, it is an act of reparation for our sins. In the third
place, it enables us to subdue our carnal impulses and in this way
makes us more obedient to the law of God. A man who cannot mortify his
appetite for food will certainly not be able to resist the temptations
of the flesh. There is a connection between all these things. If we
cannot subordinate our bodily appetites to our spiritual faculties and
to the divine law, we shall not be able to raise ourselves from the
level of an animal existence to contact with God through prayer and the
practice of virtue.
2. It is irrelevant to object that there is
no harm in eating one kind of food rather than another. In fact, this
is not a question of food at all. It is a question of obedience to the
laws of God and of the Church. God is the supreme Lord of heaven and
earth and it is wrong to disobey His commands. Similarly, it is not
permissible to disobey the precepts of the Church which Jesus Christ
founded to be our infallible guide. God commanded the Hebrews to abstain
from blood-meat and from so-called unclean animals. Today the Church
has set aside a minimum number of days of fast and abstinence. How can
we ignore the commands of God and of the Church? To do so would be an
act of rebellion against the highest of all authorities as well as a
sign of indifference to our eternal salvation. Even the purest of the
Saints, such as St. Aloysius Gonzaga, constantly mortified themselves in
this way. "If you have sinned, do penance," writes St. Augustine. If we
reflect on the number of our sins, the insignificant degree of fast and
abstinence demanded by the Church today will not seem excessive.
Indeed, we should be glad to fast and abstain a little more than is
necessary in order to expiate our sins and to gain control over our
carnal instincts. Let us show God how much we love Him by being prepared
to undertake voluntary mortification.
3. Other objections are
sometimes raised against fasting and abstaining. These include poor
health, excessive work, a frail constitution, and so on. Such reasons
for exempting ourselves should be carefully considered before God and in
consultation with our confessor. If they are genuine, we are entitled
to omit fast and abstinence either partly or entirely. God is more
interested in our good intentions than in any material act, which is
demanded only as a proof of our good will.
If we cannot
actually fast and abstain we can mortify ourselves spiritually. We can
curb our tongues by avoiding idle and uncharitable conversations. We can
mortify our eyes by avoiding looking at anything which might lead us
into danger. We can mortify our hearing by seeking a certain degree of
solitude and silence. We can mortify our bodies by depriving ourselves
of unnecessary luxuries. Above all, we must abstain from sin and from
the occasions of sin. This is the basic fast which we are all obliged to
keep at all costs by means of constant and fervent prayer.
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