By Jenna Marie Cooper, OSV News
Q: I think the Catholic Church’s Lenten discipline is kind of a joke. Specifically, Friday abstinence really isn’t that tough since most people aren’t going to suffer if they can’t have meat for one day a week. Why doesn’t the Church require something more demanding, like omitting all animal products on days of penance, or fasting on only bread and water?
A: I think it might make sense to start by drawing a distinction between the personal penance an individual member of the faithful freely embraces for himself or herself, and the communal nature of the Church’s required Lenten penances.
With respect to personal penance, we know that all Christians need some sort of asceticism – that is, spiritual practice of self-denial – in their lives of faith. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us:
“Christ’s call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of Christians. This second conversion (i.e., after baptism) is an uninterrupted task for the whole Church who, ‘clasping sinners to her bosom, (is) at once holy and always in need of purification, (and) follows constantly the path of penance and renewal.’ This endeavor of conversion is not just a human work. It is the movement of a ‘contrite heart,’ drawn and moved by grace to respond to the merciful love of God who loved us first” (CCC 1428).
And while an interior conversion of heart is always the primary and most important thing, the Catechism further observes that nevertheless “interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance” (CCC 1430).
To be truly effective as a means of interior purification, the personal penances we embrace for ourselves need to be appropriate for our own unique circumstances. That is, they should be serious enough that we notice them, but also not so burdensome that they interfere with the duties of our state in life or injure our health.
For example, waking up an hour or two before dawn to study Scripture devoutly might be helpful to a young university student, but might be overly taxing and thus spiritually counterproductive to a sleep-deprived nursing mother.
In contrast, the Church’s official Lenten disciplines are meant to apply broadly to the faithful in general to be observed together, as a community. This not only fosters an important sense of Catholic identity, but it also reminds us that nobody is saved on his or her own. These communal penances are fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and, as you mentioned in your question, abstaining from meat on all Fridays in Lent.
There are some limited exceptions, of course. As per Canon 1252 of the Code of Canon Law, strictly speaking, only Catholics ages 14 and older are obliged to abstain from meat on Fridays (although “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.”)
The requirement to fast is only binding on Catholic ages 18 to 59 who are medically able to restrict food safely. And even so, the fast the Church requires doesn’t restrict to any particular amount of food. Catholics can have one full meal on fast days, with two smaller snacks if needed, as long as the two snacks together are not as much as the full meal. So while there are some objective parameters, it is at least somewhat customizable to the strength of the individual.
You’re right that none of these required communal penances are overly demanding. But, in some ways that is a feature, not a bug. A more demanding common discipline would require far more exceptions, which could make it difficult for the majority of the Church to observe them together as one spiritual family.
Like so many Catholic things, this isn’t a matter of “either/or,” but of “both/and.” That is, we are called to both the Church’s required Lenten discipline and to our own personal penances.
Jenna Marie Cooper, who holds a licentiate in canon law, is a consecrated virgin and a canonist whose column appears weekly at OSV News. Send your questions to CatholicQA@osv.com.
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