Fasting, prayer and almsgiving are sensitive signs of the penitence with which we prepare ourselves to commemorate the central event of Salvation History: the Resurrection of the Lord. What is the origin and the meaning of Christian fasting?
Newsroom (04/03/2022 09:58, Gaudium Press) Fasting is nothing more than the voluntary deprivation of food – eating less, or not eating at all -, a practice different from abstinence, which implies the deprivation of certain types of food, but without necessarily reducing their quantity. For example, someone can abstain from meat, but not fast. Both, however, are forms of mortification.
In recent years fasting has gained a great deal of popularity for its many benefits. Research journals have been publishing articles on its positive impact on health since the 1960s, but since 2005 the rate of publication has jumped into the thousands and are nearing 10,000 per year. Mainstream media and pop culture have explored the link between fasting and spirituality, but fewer than ten research papers per year include the spiritual aspects.
St. Thomas Aquinas explains that for fasting to be an act of virtue, it must be done with a supernatural end in view; fasting out of vanity has no merit before God…
When a man fasts with a religious purpose, he is moved by the realization that he is in a land of exile and that his true homeland is Heaven. To get there, one must keep one’s eyes fixed on the life to come, with little regard for earthly goods.
Moreover, there are still more specific purposes for which fasting is necessary: to curb the concupiscence of the flesh, to raise the soul more freely to the contemplation of sublime realities, and to make reparation for our sins.
Each one, by natural reason, is obliged to fast as much as is necessary to attain these objectives. Therefore, fasting is included among the precepts of the natural law.
It is up to the ecclesiastical authority, however, to define the time and manner of fasting, according to the convenience and usefulness of the Christian people, which is a precept of positive law.
Therefore, the Church has the right and the duty to prescribe norms for the fasting of the faithful, according to the needs and possibilities of each age and group of individuals. Let us see, then, briefly, how fasting has been done throughout the centuries.
Underlying Hebrew custom
Just as from the bud blossoms the flower, so the Church comes from the Synagogue. For this reason, in the early days of Christianity, the customs of the Hebrew fast were adopted. However, this practice did not take long to undergo certain adaptations.
In the weeks preceding the Passover celebration – the main liturgical feast since the Old Testament – a period of preparatory fasting was instituted and soon fixed at forty days. These were the beginnings of the Lenten Season, already in the first century. Later, many communities established the habit of intensifying fasting during Holy Week, especially on Good Friday.
Fasting and abstinence at that time were practiced more rigorously by means of xerophagy, which consisted in eating, only after sunset, dry food, excluding fresh vegetables and fruit, all meat, fats, and seasonings. The ordinary form, however, was to take the only meal after sunset, to the exclusion of meat, dairy products, eggs and wine. A milder form (semi-fasting) was to bring forward the only meal by three o’clock in the afternoon, as was done in the West on Wednesdays and Fridays, and sometimes on Saturdays, in the early centuries of Christianity.
As the years went by, the days of penance increased and, in the Middle Ages – when for the first time ecclesiastical laws began to prescribe abstinence – in addition to Lent, all Fridays and Saturdays of the year, the four seasons and the vigils of certain liturgical feasts were days of abstinence.
Season of relief and dismissals
After this period began what some define as “the time of reliefs and dispensations,” modern times, in which the requirements of previous eras were gradually dropped and a small evening meal was consolidated in addition to the main meal, a custom that dates back to the late Middle Ages.
Closer to us, at the beginning of the last century, there used to be three meals: breakfast, lunch, which was a little more substantial, and the main meal. The last two could be taken at noon time or in the late afternoon, depending on convenience. There were days of fasting and abstinence, fasting without abstinence, and abstinence without fasting.
How should one fast these days?
In our time, the Church continues to prescribe occasions for fasting and abstinence: the penitential days and times. These are every Friday throughout the year and the period of Lent.
On Fridays throughout the year, abstinence from meat or other food must be observed, according to the prescriptions of each Episcopal Conference. The only exceptions are Fridays that coincide with the date of a liturgical solemnity.
There are also other days when not only abstinence, but also fasting should be observed. These are Ash Wednesday and Passion Friday.
The Church currently states that fasting should consist of eating no more than one full meal, but allowing some food two other times a day.
With regard to abstinence, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops also gives other options: “Abstinence may be replaced by another practice of penance, charity or piety, particularly by participation in the Sacred Liturgy on these days.”
To the law of abstinence everyone is bound from the age of fourteen until the end of their lives; to that of fasting, from the age of majority – roughly eighteen – until the age of sixty.
However, those who care for souls and parents must watch over those who, because of their age, are not yet obliged to this rule, in order to be formed in the true meaning of penance.
By Pedro Elias Cordeiro de França Casado
Text extracted, with minor adaptations, from the magazine Heralds of the Gospel n. 243, March 2022.
Compiled by Camille Mittermeier
