Fat Tuesday/Skinny Wednesday

This is something that I feel needs to be explained. Every year when the Lenten Season comes upon the Christian World, they jump into this frenzy of giving things up, not eating meat and especially it seems, sweets and candies go out the door until the Easter Bunny loads them up with chocolate bunnies and strange eggs. I guess it means something but lets look at it from the way it was originally intended.

The idea of fasting and abstinence (two different events by the way, fasting being eating only one meal and a snack for the other two, and abstinence which is the not eating of a particular food such as the meat of warm blooded animals on Fridays of Lent) has as it basis the idea that you would take the cash saved from eating less (fasting) or from eating less expensive foods (like red meats) and give that cash to the poor. In the middle ages and even into the late 1700's early 1800's beef was a rarity and an expensive meal. Fish on the other hand was cheap and easy to come by in most places, as major cities and towns were located on rivers. This served two purposes, one being water to drink, the other being fish to eat. It was also an economic advantage for moving goods from one place to another. But I digress, the main reason for not eating meat was to save the money, and then give that to the poor.

The idea that God likes it when we suffer, or that self imposed pain is a good thing that God encourages is not a Christian idea. To develop a strong self discipline is good in general, but it is not a road to salvation. The old idea that if something is good it must be sinful is outrightly wrong. That was the heresy of Jansenism, in Jansenist thought, human beings were born sinful, and without divine help a human being could never become good. Jansenism was officially outlawed by the Catholic Church in 1712. Yet many of the ideas of the Jasenists carry over in the overt ideas of fasting for the sake of the poor. That is a silly idea if you just think about it for a minute. “I fast to experience the suffering of the poor therefore the poor are better for my gift of suffering and becoming like them for that time. I have a better understanding of their pain and suffering.” No, you do better by fasting and giving the money you saved to a food bank to help relieve the suffering of the poor.

God does not relish the idea of his people in pain. God does not want everyone to be poor and hungry. God desires that we all be well fed, and happy. If we have more than someone else is not a sin, it is using our talents as given to us by God. Do we have a responsibility with extra goods and material things we have, yes we do. We need to share, we need to give to those who are less fortunate than us in talents and gifts. That is where fasting and abstinence come into play.

You see, it is far better to fast and abstain from bad habits than from food. We have focused on food, yet what God wants is for a people who are loving and caring. When I worked in Catholic Schools, I used to encourage my students NOT to give up candy, but to choose an aspect of their life where they were failing or felt they needed improvement. It could be being mean to a sibling or not being respectful. It could be in an area of their life that wanted to improve such as manners or courtesy. Every day during the 40 days of Lent, they were to address that issue and try either to change that behavior, if it was a bad behavior or make it a part of their life, if it were a good behavior. That is what God wants from us, not people who moan about what they cannot eat or have given up, but people who are trying to become better people.

Fasting is a nice idea, becoming better people is a better idea.