Fasting and Abstaining from Eating Meat

‘This is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, setting free the oppressed, sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the homeless, and not turning your back on your own.’

In his role as prophet, Isaiah confronts the people of Israel about their worship practices, and their faithfulness to the covenant with God.  Like St. James in the New Testament, Isaiah reminds us that our religious activities don’t mean much unless they lead to action and service.

One out of six people in the current generation lives in extreme poverty – not simply below the poverty line established by government organizations, but extreme poverty.  Extreme poverty means living in danger of death because there is no food.

We live in a country where food is made affordable by subsidies, and meal programs are available to make up the shortfall, and so it is very difficult for us to imagine the kind of suffering starvation entails.

But if one in six neighbors were hungry, wouldn’t the other five feed that person?

On all Fridays of Lent, we are required to abstain from eating meat, and on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, fasting is required of those between 18 and 59 years of age.  Some question the purpose of such regulations.  After all, is there not more penance involved in eating a McDonald's hamburg than a lobster dinner? 

Fasting and abstaining from eating meat reminds us that our neighbor IS hungry, and that it is our responsibility to help.  Eating a lobster dinner in lieu of meat is not within the spirit of the law.  But, even if we refrain from eating meat and still give no thought to those who go without anything to eat this day, we have missed the whole point of what the regulation is trying to instill in us.

May all of our Lenten practices truly assist us to go forth and do what we can, on whatever level we can – local, national or international – to assist those in extreme poverty, so that in continuing the work of Jesus himself, we might truly assist in the building of the Father’s Kingdom of true and lasting peace.