Why Fish Is Okay, But Not Meat On Fast Days

[laetitia crucis]

Recently, I came across [url="http://cantuar.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-fish-is-okay-but-not-meat-on-fast.html"]this blog post[/url] from Taylor Marshall's "[url="http://cantuar.blogspot.com/"]canterbury tales[/url]" and thought it would be interesting to share here.

[sub]Plus, it has a nice plug for St. Thomas Aquinas... [/sub]

[quote]

[b]Why Fish is Okay, but Not Meat on Fast Days (Interesting Answer from Thomas Aquinas!)[/b]

Many people ask why Catholics are permitted to eat fish on days of abstinence ("Fish Fridays"!), but not meat. After all, isn't fish a kind of "flesh"?

The traditional Catholic allowance for fish on days of abstinence has a mystical relationship to the episode of the Great Flood of Noah, in which it rained forty days and forty night - just as Lent is a forty day period of universal cleansing. During this time, Noah and his family ate fish, since they were not permitted to eat the animals on board the ark. Moreover, the fish were preserved in the Great Flood (fish can swim), but land animals were not (they drowned). Hence, fish also play a part in the ministry, parables, and teaching of Christ - after all, many of the Apostles were once fishermen.

However, Saint Thomas Aquinas provides us with a more practical reason for why meat is not allowed, but fish are permitted:

[indent]I answer that, fasting was instituted by the Church in order to bridle the concupiscences [i.e. inordinate desires] of the flesh, which regard pleasures of touch in connection with food and sex. Wherefore the Church forbade those who fast to partake of those foods which both afford most pleasure to the palate, and besides are a very great incentive to lust.

Such are the flesh of animals that take their rest on the earth, and of those that breathe the air and their products, such as milk from those that walk on the earth, and eggs from birds [here is the traditional prohibition against eggs, milk, and coagulated milk since they all come from land animals]. For, since such like animals are more like man in body, they afford greater pleasure as food, and greater nourishment to the human body, so that from their consumption there results a greater surplus available for seminal matter, which when abundant becomes a great incentive to lust. Hence the Church has bidden those who fast to abstain especially from these foods. (Summa theologiae II-II q. 147, a. 8)[/indent]

Are there any nutritionists out there who can confirm this? Any comments?[/quote]

The comments on that post are also quite interesting. Makes for some good "food for thought".

[CatherineM]

I'd never heard the Noah's Ark thing before. That's an interesting way to look at it.

[LouisvilleFan]

I appreciate the parentheses explaining that fish can swim and land animals cannot. Saved me an afternoon trying to figure out why Noah didn't have an aquarium on board.

[Resurrexi]

[quote name='LouisvilleFan' date='27 February 2010 - 12:47 PM' timestamp='1267292849' post='2063756']
I appreciate the parentheses explaining that fish can swim and land animals cannot. Saved me an afternoon trying to figure out why Noah didn't have an aquarium on board.
[/quote]

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[Apotheoun]

[quote name='laetitia crucis' date='26 February 2010 - 11:34 AM' timestamp='1267209283' post='2063261']
Recently, I came across [url="http://cantuar.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-fish-is-okay-but-not-meat-on-fast.html"]this blog post[/url] from Taylor Marshall's "[url="http://cantuar.blogspot.com/"]canterbury tales[/url]" and thought it would be interesting to share here.

. . .
[/quote]
That is interesting. The differences between East and West on fasting add to the richness of the Church's life.

[url="http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/index.php?showtopic=102561&view=findpost&p=2051202"]Traditional Byzantine Lenten Fast[/url]

[mommas_boy]

Doing a little bit of searching, I would say that St. Thomas may have been wrong:

http://infertility.health-info.org/male-infertility/male-infertility-improve-sperm-quality.html#_b
http://www.livestrong.com/article/81412-foods-affecting-volume-sperm/
http://www.increasesperm.com/foods.html

It appears that BOTH terrestrial and marine meats are good for healthy sperm and semen production.

I would wager that where St. Thomas is going is that having a full belly is pleasurable, just as sex is pleasurable, and that there is something about the sins of gluttony, sloth, and lust that seem related, and also seem to feed into one another.