Fasting is now 2 small meals and a regular meal. Why did it change from no food at all? Is it because people won't comply so the church is trying to make it easier for people?
Lent will begin in just a few days on Ash Wednesday. As you know, fasting, along with prayer and almsgiving, is a big part of lent. On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday all Catholics (in good health) aged 18 to 60 are obliged to fast. Our definition of fasting is one full meal in a day with two other small meals also permitted “to maintain strength according to each one’s needs.” Sometimes as a guideline it is said that the two small meals combined should not amount to more than the full meal. Eating between meals is not permitted, but liquids, including milk and fruit juices, are allowed. In addition, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence: forbidding the eating of meat (except from cold-blooded animals such as fish, frogs, clams, turtles, etc.)
I think that just as the questioner has identified, this is really pretty easy. Many times we regularly eat one large meal a day with two smaller meals, so to fast as we have defined it is not too burdensome. Also, refraining from meat is no problem especially when we can go dine on lobster or other delicacies.
And if you go on to compare our way of fasting to the way people fasted in the Bible (no food or water at all), we might really feel like lightweights. When I spent a summer as a hospital chaplain, I had a fellow chaplain who was an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi. One summer day was a Jewish fast day, and the rabbi proceeded to fast in the biblical way—no food or water from sundown to sundown. Sometime in mid-afternoon he remarked to me as he was resting (looking somewhat distressed) that he really thought we Catholics were on to something in our fast rules. He thought that people today are not like the people of old. We are so used to eating and drinking all the time, whereas long ago, people might have regularly gone a day without food or water. So the rabbi thought that fasting probably should be lighter today. Of course, at the time he was nearly delirious from lack of food and fluids….
Still, I was inspired by this Rabbi’s fasting, and I would say to anyone that they are free to do more than the minimum in fasting if they so feel called to do so and it is reasonable and not dangerous to their health. The point of our fasting is to step away from the things of this world and to turn toward God. The Church’s fasting rules are a good guideline, but each person should know what they really need to fast from to be more open to God. No Church law can make us do that; we have to choose it on our own. I think the Church’s easing of fast laws over time reflects this. So, please consider prayerfully what you need “to give up” this Lent. (My #1 suggestion is to give one hour per week of time to God in Eucharistic Adoration.)
-Fr. Greg
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