Meat On Fridays

[liveoutloud]

During Lent, Fridays are more of a treat to me than a day of fasting. I look forward to eating fish every friday. However, I'd like to understand WHY I don't eat meat. Is there a reason? Also, why don't we do it all year, like other countries?

Secondly, is it a sin to eat meat on Fridays, if the circumstances are bad? For example, I was at a friends house, who is a christian, but not a Catholic, and she served meat. I didn't want to be rude, and I also was starving. I declined the meat, but is that okay?

[Lil Red]

moving from Q&A board

[thessalonian]

[quote name='liveoutloud' date='Apr 2 2004, 10:55 PM']During Lent, Fridays are more of a treat to me than a day of fasting. I look forward to eating fish every friday.  However, I'd like to understand WHY I don't eat meat. Is there a reason? [/quote]

It is a form of fasting. The Church desires for us to fast and sets as a minimum fasting from meat during the Fridays of lent and on Ash Wednesday. Fasting is for our spiritual good because it counteracts vices such as gluttony. Also in our bodily weakness we are to call upon God in prayer.

[quote]Also, why don't we do it all year, like other countries? [/quote]

Please do and increase it to a bread and water fast better yet. The Church encourages this but does not require it.

[quote]Secondly, is it a sin to eat meat on Fridays, if the circumstances are bad? For example, I was at a friends house, who is a christian, but not a Catholic, and she served meat. I didn't want to be rude, and I also was starving. I declined the meat, but is that okay? [/quote]

There are circumstances in which the fast may be excused. For instance a pregnant or nursing mother is not required to partake in the fast. However, being over at a friends house and not wanting to be rude is not one of them that I know of. We are to obey the Church first and foremost even in the face of embarrassement to ourself or offense to others. Definitely decline the meat.

The issue of the sin in not fasting as the Church requires is not the sin of eating meat but rather the sin of disobedience to the Church which Christ founded which is disobedience to God almighty, just as Adam and Eve disobeyed him in partaking of the fruit in the garden.

Hope that helps.

[Aloysius]

Christ was sacrificed on a Friday, therefore we spare eating animals sacrificed for our sustinence on fridays.

Of course, we only spare the flesh of warm blooded creatures, "carnis", so you can eat lizards if you want

[jezic]

if you like fish, it isn't so much of a sacrifice, but then i would encourage you to eat something else so that you do join Jesus more closely.

[ReinnieR]

II. Abstinence from meat during Fridays of Lent





The tradition goes back to the 1st century, when Christians abstained from eating meat on Fridays to honor Jesus’ death on the cross on Good Friday. Because Jesus sacrificed his flesh for the salvation of humankind, the flesh of warm-blooded animals wasn’t consumed on Friday.



The practice of abstaining from certain foods and fasting actually goes back to Old Testament times.



God’s first command to man with respect to abstinence occurred in the Garden of Eden.



Genesis 2:17



17 except the tree of knowledge of good and bad. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die."



God commanded in the Torah dietary (“kosher”) laws that the people Israel were to abstain from eating particular kinds of animals, (Leviticus 11, Deuteronomy 14) and that Jews fast as a penance on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.



Leviticus 16:29-31



29 "This shall be an everlasting ordinance for you: on the tenth day of the seventh month every one of you, whether a native or a resident alien, shall mortify himself and shall do no work.

30 Since on this day atonement is made for you to make you clean, so that you may be cleansed of all your sins before the LORD,

31 by everlasting ordinance it shall be a most solemn sabbath for you, on which you must mortify yourselves.



Numbers 29:7



7 "On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall hold a sacred assembly, and mortify yourselves, and do no sort of work.



The ancient rabbis understood “mortify yourselves” as a command to fast. Jews fasted in a spirit of penance on similar occasions.

Judges 20:26



26 So the entire Israelite army went up to Bethel, where they wept and remained fasting before the LORD until evening of that day, besides offering holocausts and peace offerings before the LORD.



God further commanded abstinence in the Jewish Passover celebration.



Deuteronomy 16:3



3 You shall not eat leavened bread with it. For seven days you shall eat with it only unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, that you may remember as long as you live the day of your departure from the land of Egypt; for in frightened haste you left the land of Egypt.



The New Testament also mentions the practice.



Acts 15:28-29



28 'It is the decision of the holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities,

29 namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage. If you keep free of these, you will be doing what is right. Farewell.'"



Christ fasted forty days in the desert, during which time He took neither food nor drink.



Matthew 4:2



2 He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry.



He told the Jews in the synagogue at Capernaum,



John 6:51



51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."



Christians have abstained from eating meat on Fridays in commemoration of His passion and death since the First Century.



In Christ’s time, the Pharisees fasted twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. In His parable the Pharisee prayed,



Luke 18:12



12 I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.'



Christians, following ancient Jewish traditions of fast and abstinence for penance, observed the law of fasting on Wednesdays and Friday abstinence from the time of Christ’s Crucifixion. The Didache (Teachings of the Apostles), chapter 8: “But let not your fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast on the second and fifth day of the week. Rather, fast on the fourth day and the Preparation.” (Wednesday and Friday).



The Church for her part has specified certain forms of penance, both to ensure that the Catholic will do something, as required by divine law, while making it easy for Catholics to fulfill the obligation. Thus, the 1983 Code of Canon Law specifies the obligations of Latin Rite Catholics [Eastern Rite Catholics have their own penitential practices as specified by the Code of Canons for the Eastern Churches].


CHAPTER II : DAYS OF PENANCE

Can. 1249 All Christ's faithful are obliged by divine law, each in his or her own way, to do penance. However, so that all may be joined together in a certain common practice of penance, days of penance are prescribed. On these days the faithful are in a special manner to devote themselves to prayer, to engage in works of piety and charity, and to deny themselves, by fulfilling their obligations more faithfully and especially by observing the fast and abstinence which the following canons prescribe.

Can. 1250 The days and times of penance for the universal Church are each Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.

Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Can. 1252 The law of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year. The law of fasting binds those who have attained their majority, until the beginning of their sixtieth year. Pastors of souls and parents are to ensure that even those who by reason of their age are not bound by the law of fasting and abstinence, are taught the true meaning of penance.

Can. 1253 The Episcopal Conference can determine more particular ways in which fasting and abstinence are to be observed. In place of abstinence or fasting it can substitute, in whole or in part, other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety.

The Church, therefore, has two forms of official penitential practices - three if the Eucharistic fast of one hour before Communion is included.

Abstinence The law of abstinence requires a Catholic 14 years of age until death to abstain from eating meat on Fridays in honor of the Passion of Jesus on Good Friday. Meat is considered to be the flesh and organs of mammals and fowl. Also forbidden are soups or gravies made from them. Salt and freshwater species of fish, amphibians, reptiles and shellfish are permitted, as are animal derived products such as margarine and gelatin which do not have any meat taste.

On the Fridays outside of Lent the U.S. bishops conference obtained the permission of the Holy See for Catholics in the US to substitute a penitential, or even a charitable, practice of their own choosing. They must do some penitential/charitable practice on these Fridays. For most people the easiest practice to consistently fulfill will be the traditional one, to abstain from meat on all Fridays of the year. During Lent abstinence from meat on Fridays is obligatory in the United States as elsewhere.

i used this when somebody told me this

[quote]with regards to the false prophets, the bible says this in 1 Timothy 4:1, 3
"1Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;"

"3Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth."[/quote]


that was my e-mail to the person

here's a copy of that e-mail

[url="http://reinnier.tiamzon.net/My_Response_2.htm"]http://reinnier.tiamzon.net/My_Response_2.htm[/url]

[Paladin]

[quote name='Aloysius' date='Feb 22 2006, 03:38 PM']Of course, we only spare the flesh of warm blooded creatures, "carnis", so you can eat lizards if you want
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[/quote]
So those of us in Louisiana can have gator gumbo? :

[Church Punk]

At another level couldnt abstaining from meat be because meat is the food of the rich? Meat very expensive in the way, you must support the animals agriculturally then only to consume them as a secondary operation.

By giving up meat, do we not also unite our selfs with the poor and starving of the world?

[thessalonian]

Today I was walking through the lunchroom. The line was quite long at the grill where fish sandwichs were being served. Everyone was ordering the fish. One guy remarked "they're making it hard today. They have ribs over in the other line". I guess that sums up the answer to this thread. While fish might be preferred by some, the majority prefer meat I believe. I know I do, though I like fish as well.