This smaller sin is one of neglect. Part of the reason why the Church asks us to mark Fridays by refraining from eating meat is to remember that on this day Christ died for our sins, and therefore it is good for us to keep it as a day of penance. If we forget what day it is, or that we are expected to do penance on this day, then we have become too distracted by other things and need to strive to keep God in first place in our lives. You go to Taco-Bell for lunch and order a plain bean burrito.
You take your first bite and think to yourself how especially yummy these beans taste… then you realize, this is beef! They gave you the wrong order! Have you sinned by eating meat on Friday? No, you have not. Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is it not that fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Is it not to deal thy break to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Still, Christian tradition has since its beginning maintained the Jewish practice of fasting, as a modality of ascesis and discipline.
The Didache, for instance, one of the most ancient Christian texts — from the 1 st century — provides guidance on fasting, as well as the New Testament. Therefore, fasting — as any ascetic practice — has the function of exercising our freedom, of freeing us from the need to answer to the first suggestions of our body, our mind, and our environment.
It is a way of tidying up the house, so that we have true conditions of putting our lives to the service of good. Flesh meat includes the meat of mammals and poultry, and the main foods that come under this heading are beef and pork, chicken and turkey. While flesh is prohibited, the non-flesh products of these animals are not, things like milk, cheese, butter, and eggs. Fish do not belong to the flesh meat category.
The Latin word for meat, caro , from which we get English words like carnivore and carnivorous, applies strictly to flesh meat and has never been understood to include fish. Furthermore, in former times flesh meat was more expensive, eaten only occasionally, and associated with feasting and rejoicing; whereas fish was cheap, eaten more often, and not associated with celebrations.
Abstinence is a form of penance. While flesh is prohibited, the non-flesh products of these animals are not prohibited—meaning things like milk, cheese, butter, and eggs. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, some bishops have excused their dioceses from the Friday abstinence, but Catholics are still expected to observe Good Friday by abstaining from eating meat, such as the Most Reverend James F.
Checchio of Metuchen. From the Bishop's Desk: "I have granted a dispensation from abstaining from meat on Fridays for the rest of Lent, except Good Friday which is universal law.
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