Fasting and Meatless Fridays
It's generally a Catholic thing but it the idea behind it is not
On Sunday, we talked a lot about knowing your own story behind why you have faith. What is the source of your hope? Why is Jesus more than a figure in a book to you? In the process of going through the lesson, the following scripture came up.
6yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.
7However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.
8But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat.
9But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
10For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols?
11For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died.
12And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
13Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.
1 Corinthians 8:6–13 (NASB95)
The point of including this passage was to highlight verse 9’s warning that while we are not under sin and the penalty for it anymore, thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice, forgiving sin, we shouldn’t abuse that liberty. However, as often happens in class, someone asked, “Why don’t Catholics eat meat on Friday?” My flippant response was because it’s FRY day, and you fry fish, that’s why they call it Friday. I did promise to dig into it a little further, and here we are.
Canon 1251 is a Catholic document or order from the church requiring the abstinence from eating meat on Fridays. It was originally put in place for every Friday. Still, in 1966, the authority to determine when this canon would apply was handed over to the local Conference of Bishops in each region. Since 1966, this obligation has been restricted to Lent only.
The actual text of the canon is as follows:
“Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Bishops’ 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.” The law of abstaining from meat on Fridays “binds those who have completed their fourteenth year” (canon 1252).
But why? Why restrict the consumption of meat at all? That answer carries some profound implications, and how do earthly bishops have this power to bind or release us from these things at all? Let’s take that last part first because it is scriptural.
Peter was talking with Jesus, and Jesus gave us the power to set up these rules. Because Jesus was talking to Peter, Catholics give this power to the Pope as they claim Peter to be the first Pope, to which they say they have an unbroken line of succession of people in charge of the Catholic church from our current Pope Leo XIV all the way back to Peter. There are two scriptures where Jesus gives people this power.
16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
18“I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
19“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
Matthew 16:16–19 (NASB95)
And the following…
18“Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
19“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.
20“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
Matthew 18:18–20 (NASB95)
So, scripturally, humans have the power to bind or loose things here on earth, in the flesh. The immediate reaction from non-Catholics is that we aren’t Catholic, so it doesn’t apply, and that claim is also scriptural, which is the scripture that started this discussion from 1 Corinthians 8:6-13. If someone claims the title of Catholic, they put themselves under those rules. For those of us who go by another name, such as United Methodist, that puts us under a different structure and set of things to adhere to or lose on earth.
That goes for everyone, by the way.
If you claim to be “non-denominational” and “I only adhere to the Bible,” that’s fine, but that means all of scripture binds you, so you better know it because that’s the bar by which you will be judged.
Judgment isn’t the point of this morning’s writing. Our liberty is and how it applies to us. The point is also expanding on knowing why we have hope and where our faith comes from, so let’s get back to that.
Fasting is a spiritual tool, and giving up meat on Fridays is a form of fasting. We tend to think of fasting only in terms of giving up all food, but that’s not strictly true. A fast can be from anything you would normally have access to but voluntarily choose to abstain from. A fast is not being forced away from something by circumstances or other people removing your access to the thing.
Let’s look at this another way. If God limits things in our lives as a result of our disobedience, that is punishment or consequences for our actions. However, if we voluntarily limit our access to things making our lives more difficult by choice, that is a sacrifice and becomes an act of love because we chose to do it rather than having it imposed on us. In this case, we are abstaining from something by choice.
Both fasting and abstinence are viewed as good things, and behind the idea of giving up meat on Friday. But, there is more behind this meaning, too. This added meaning makes our choice to fast or abstain a solemn one, not just a personal hardship.
On Good Friday, Jesus gave of His flesh so that we might have salvation. When we give up meat on Friday, we are both acknowledging and mirroring Christ’s sacrifice in a very small way. It is this solemn sacrifice that I believe is at the heart of the practice, to remind us of the sacrifice made by Jesus on our behalf. That’s why the flesh of animals is symbolic here, and fish is okay to eat. For sacrifice in the temple, it was animal flesh given to God, not fish. Plus, the fish is the symbol of Christ, which then substitutes for the flesh given up, just as Jesus substituted His flesh for ours to pay the price of our sins, so we don’t have to.
To close, let me leave you with this. Whether you choose to fast or not, we have direction on how to do it from scripture. This is not supposed to be an act whereby we advertise to the world what we are doing. This is between you and God, so consider what you do and how you do it carefully in light of Jesus’ direction from Matthew below. God bless and Godspeed.
16“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
17“But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face
18so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
20“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
21for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:16–21 (NASB95)