Fasting and Lent

Donald P. Goodman III

It is Quinquagesima Sunday today, and it seems important to make a few notes about fasting. Lent is nearly upon us (if you follow literally any of the traditional calendars, eastern or western, you have been preparing for two weeks already, since Septuagesima, of which the novel rite has inexplicably deprived us), and so we should be thinking very seriously about how we will fast for it. Yes, not just what we are “giving up for Lent”; this is a salutary practice, but it's insufficient. We need to fast, to some degree or other, and this fast is absolutely central to Catholic Christian spirituality.

Particularly since the publication of Islamic practices, fasting has become associated primarily with the Muslim season of Ramadan, which happens to fall very closely with Lent this year. However, the Muslim fast for Ramadan doesn't approach the Christian idea of fasting, and it's tragic that people act as though Christians don't, or even shouldn't, fast, while Muslims have this great season in which they practice strong devotion. But their fast is both (a) inferior to the Christian fast in austerity, and (b) inferior to the Christian fast in its purpose.

Consider the Muslim fast materially for a moment: it forbids eating, drinking, smoking, or engaging in sexual relations from dawn to sunset. This certainly sounds very rigorous, until one considers its extent. They have a breakfast (suhoor) before sunup, and a feast (iftar) at sunset. This is, depending on latitude, a twelve-hour fast, shorter if Ramadan falls in the wintertime. The breaking of the fast often involves huge feasts, frequently at night and sometimes also in the morning, meaning that one will actually be hungry only a relatively short time. Indeed, some Muslims have noted that they actually gain weight during Ramadan, as they end up eating more than they would otherwise! This fast is uncomfortable for brief periods, and in our hedonistic age any denial of instant gratification must be applauded; but as Christians, we can, and always have, done better.

While the current fasting rules are laughably weak, it has not always been such. Let's focus on the Lenten fast and consider: until the “reforms” after Vatican II, Catholics were expected to fast every single day but Sunday during Lent; that is, six days a week. There were no large meals; there was a single normal meal, which had to be taken after noon; in the morning, a very small morsel of two ounces or less was permitted, and in addition a small snack of eight ounces or less was permitted. Depending on when the meal was taken, the snack (“collation”) could be taken at noon, or in the evening. These small snacks outside of the meal were permitted to enable those who would otherwise not be able to fast—manual laborers are the most common example—to fast anyway. It was always encouraged to forego them if possible.

So the Lenten fast, until very recently (within the lives of our parents and grandparents), was mandatory fasting six days a week for everyone. Suffice to say, no one keeping such a fast would complain about gaining weight during Lent. One was hungry a good deal of the time, leading to a real suffering that could be offered to Christ. This fast is clearly and objectively much more significant than the daylight-hours fast that allows gorging in the morning and evening that Muslims keep.

In addition, on all Fridays and on Ash Wednesday no meat was permitted, either, further increasing the difficulty of the fast.

But the Lenten fast mentioned above, Christians may be surprised to hear, is actually hugely reduced from the ancient fasts. As late as the close of the seventeenth century, we see the following Lenten fast:

• One meal per day, which had to be taken after the hour of none (about three in the afternoon). It could be slightly bigger than a normal meal, within the limits of temperance (no extravagant iftar feasts).
• Liquids were permitted outside the meal, but only to slake thirst and not hunger; e.g., water would be permitted, but not a thick smoothie or milkshake.
• For the sick, or those in heavy manual labor, the collation was allowed. It was a modest piece of bread or fruit.

That was all.

When discussing these traditional rules, or even the more recent ones, people inevitably object to the discomfort of it all. “But I'd be so hungry!” “But I get hangry!” Indeed, fasting is uncomfortable; that is precisely the point. It is important, when fasting, that we fast enough that we're actually uncomfortable, and preferably for significant periods of time. We need to separate ourselves from the needs of our bodies and focus on those of our soul.

But Christian fasting is, first and foremost, an opportunity to practice virtue. Fundamentally, we are disciplining our bodies to practice temperance, and ultimately also fortitude; we are conditioning ourselves to discomfort, both for our daily lives and for the eventuality, God help us, that we are called to martyrdom. How can we ever expect to have the strength and the devotion to die for Christ if we can't even skip a few meals?

Second, we fast for charity. At least some of the money that we would otherwise be spending on food for ourselves should be given to the poor. Almsgiving is a vital part of Christian fasting practice; many of the Church fathers told us that fasting without this almsgiving does not profit us.

Third, we fast to join our sufferings to Christ's. Christ fasted in the desert; Christ suffered hunger and thirst as He carried His cross, as He hung on it to die for us. We cannot crucify ourselves for Him; but we can suffer lesser things, unless He call us to give our lives. These lesser things we can not only receive from the world, but also inflict upon ourselves; fasting is one of the most constant in the Christian tradition, one of the most important, and indeed, one that Christ Himself recommended to us:

• “And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward.” Mt 6:16.
• “And they said to him: Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees in like manner; but thine eat and drink? To whom he said: Can you make the children of the bridegroom fast, whilst the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, then shall they fast in those days.” Lc 5:33–35.
• “This kind can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” Mc 9:28.

For our Lent this year, as Catholics, let us endeavor to fast as Catholics have always fasted: at the very least, let us keep our fast as we did before 1970. Train ourselves! Cast out the demons! Suffer for Our Lord Jesus Christ!

Praise be to Christ the King!