I have a question I always wanted to ask about no meat on Fridays.
Do you think this is a rule that would possibly be changed in the future by a real Pope. I don't know which dogma this abstinence is based in.
Abstinence from meat on Friday is of Apostolic tradition. In the first centuries of
the Church, fasting and abstinence was much more demanding, but the rules were
eased up over the centuries. Eastern rite Churches have different rules. I have a
friend who is Russian Orthodox and he tells me about "The Great Lent" they have
and it's very informative.
The point of abstinence on Friday is in honor of Our Lord's crucifixion.
For those
who recognize the conciliar popes: it ought to be remembered that
making
Fridays penitential was not changed. There was just an "option" added where
you can substitute abstinence for some other, equivalent penance. That's rather
vague (no surprise there!) but should not be ignored. Far too many conciliar
priests ignore it, though. They prefer to make a joke about how oppressive and
"negative" the old ways were, and how it's so much better now.
They'll find out
how much "better" things are at their particular judgment, I suppose.
Bottom line is, any modern Catholic who dares to eat meat on Friday, ought to
know that he is obliged therefore to make some other "equivalent" penance.
What could that be? I wouldn't even trust the answer given by a conciliar priest.
They are so removed from the concept of penance, they wouldn't know what to
tell me. They're too used to finding reasons NOT to practice penance, so this kind
of question is not in "their realm of experience." And remember, for a
phenomenologist like JPII, and therefore for those who follow after his lead, their
"experience" is their teacher; experience is their reality; experience is their god.
It seems to me that if you really like eating meat, then you should be obliged to
find some alternative penance that is really difficult, since not eating meat one
day is so terribly difficult for you. For example:
~ If you like to talk a lot, then you should keep silent all day on Friday. Use a
portable dry-erase board, you know, like Zacchary, the father of St. John the
Baptist. (Yes, he used a kind of chalk board, but you can use dry-erase, okay?)
And when anyone who teases you about it, you should make it a consequential
and
necessary penance to accept the criticism with joy, for it gives you another
chance to make reparation for your sins, which God is giving you by the
criticism of observers - because that is not within your control, therefore, it is
the will of God!!
~ If you really enjoy having your morning coffee, a bagel for breakfast, an
hour-long lunch, and an apertiff with your dinner, then you ought to go without
morning coffee, without a bagel for breakfast, skip lunch, and forget the apertiff.
And when anyone teases you, "Hey, where's your coffee?" or "Hey, why no bagle?"
or "Hey, no lunch hour today?" then it's your chance to joyfully accept the teasing
as God's will that you endure it, for reparation for your sins.
~ If you really enjoy going for an evening walk and watching the sunset, with
a beer in hand, you should not go for the walk, nor watch the sunset, nor have
a beer on Friday, if you're going to have meat for dinner. And take any criticism
of your action as a chance to make reparation for your sins.
None of this should be in a spirit of dissent or crabbiness. The Church is not
"oppressive" for teaching penance. The Church is doing you a FAVOR by teaching
penance. When you die, your life is over, and you can't do penance any more.
Now is YOUR CHANCE to do penance. This is a great gift for you: time to do
penance.
Abstaining from meat on Friday is an EASY thing to do, compared to what you
ought to do to substitute for it!
The erroneous practice of NOT doing penance is not doing you any favors. You are
cheating yourself, by wasting the opportunity to do penance. Every single soul
in Purgatory has but ONE THING on his mind: Why did I waste so many days in
my life, not doing penance? Why did I ignore the opportunities to do penance?
That's all they have to think about! THAT'S IT. Why didn't I teach my children to
do penance? These thoughts fill their consciousness and awareness without
reprieve, and only ADDS to their torment. And their repentance must be pure,
for nothing impure can enter eternal beatitude.
In the Old Testament there are places where someone gives somebody a
blessing saying,
may God grant you length of days, and that sort of thing,
(sort of like "live long and prosper" in Star Trek! HAHAHA). This should be
understood not as "more time on vacation," or "plenty of entertainment and free
food" or the like. Every day we have in this life is a day that we can use to grow
closer to our heavenly Father if we practice penance, for the right motive. The
right motive is to make reparation for our sins, and, if we have done that to a
significant degree, to make it for the sins of others, but keep making it!
What about Our Lady? She had no sin to make reparation for, and still, she led a
life of penance. She was the model of penance for all the Apostles in the years
following the Ascension. Take St. Mary Magdalene, whose sins were forgiven her
in no small manner, by the words of Our Lord Himself, with witnesses, in Scripture.
But did she live then as if she were "off the hook now?" No, she spent the last
40 or so years of her life in a cold, dark, damp cave in France, and she still found
the energy to get out and go to daily Mass, climbing over the rocky slopes to get
there, and back again to sleep at night (if there was much sleep to be had!) -- and
that was after Jesus had forgiven her sins. You can be absolutely sure that they
did not eat meat on Friday.
Therefore, if some future, "real pope," changes the rule of abstinence on Friday,
you can be sure that he will make the substitution principle most understandable.
I would expect that, seeing as how we have had nothing but confusion and
misunderstanding in the past 50 years over this, that he would most necessarily
include a few pages of examples of what would constitute adequate substitutions.
You can be sure it won't be things like "help an old lady across the street," or
"smile today at everyone you meet."
Topic: What do you eat on Fridays? (Read 14491 times)