Leila from CWN's Off the Record links to a story about the Wisconsin Friday tradition of the fish fry, and how the article points out that "you don't have to be Catholic to eat fried fish."
Leila's wistful observation struck me as being pretty insightful:
Some people think that culture is something super refined that you find in a museum, like a big oil painting, and some people think that it’s something you think hard about and get a government grant for, like learning liturgical dance. Actually, culture is the deeply satisfying stuff that “we have always done” – and it comes, unawares, from people either celebrating or, interestingly, not celebrating (like giving up meat on Fridays). If you think I’m wrong spend a minute thinking about what you admire about other cultures.When things are done the same way for a long time, with families (meaning that somehow everyone from children to old people have to find their place), that’s when you get traditions, and that’s when you get a culture.
Now maybe a fish fry isn’t everyone’s idea of culture, but I’m getting a little wistful reading about this, and proud that Catholics gave this little bit of meaningfulness to the people of Wisconsin (especially because you don’t have to be Catholic to enjoy it), and wondering what our present loophole-finding approach to religion will leave the next generation, in the way of fun.
That's very true. I think that we lost, or simply threw away, a lot of our unique Catholic heritage in the 1960s. Out of curiosity, I pulled up the Vatican II document on fasting and abstinence, Paenitemini, just to see what it actually said -- as opposed to what we were taught it said. Like many of the Vatican II documents, it reads far better than it has been interpreted.
Christ, who always practiced in His life what He preached, before beginning His ministry spent 40 days and 40 nights in prayer and fasting, and began His public mission with the joyful message: "The kingdom of God is at hand." To this He added the command: "Repent and believe in the Gospel."(33) These words constitute, in a way, a compendium of the whole Christian life.The kingdom of God announced by Christ can be entered only by a "change of heart" ("metanoia") that is to say through that intimate and total change and renewal of the entire man—of all his opinions, judgments and decisions—which takes place in him in the light of the sanctity and charity of God, the sanctity and charity which were manifested to us in the Son and communicated fully.(34)
The invitation of the Son to "metanoia" becomes all the more inescapable inasmuch as He not only preaches it but Himself offers an example. Christ, in fact, is the supreme model for those doing penance. He willed to suffer punishment for sins which were not His but those of others.(35)
In the presence of Christ man is illumined with a new light and consequently recognizes the holiness of God and the gravity of sin.(36) Through the word of Christ a message is transmitted to him which invites him to conversion and grants forgiveness of sins. These gifts he fully attains in baptism. This sacrament, in fact, configures him to the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord,(37) and places the whole future of the life of the baptized under the seal of this mystery.
Therefore, following the Master, every Christian must renounce himself, take up his own cross and participate in the sufferings of Christ. Thus transformed into the image of Christ's death, he is made capable of meditating on the glory of the resurrection.(38) Furthermore, following the Master, he can no longer live for himself,(39) but must live for Him who loves him and gave Himself for him.(40) He will also have to live for his brethren, completing "in his flesh that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ...for in the benefit of his body, which is the church."(41)
In addition, since the Church is closely linked to Christ, the penitence of the individual Christian also has an intimate relationship of its own with the whole ecclesial community. In fact, not only does he receive in the bosom of the Church through baptism the fundamental gift of "metanoia," but this gift is restored and reinvigorated in those members of the Body of Christ who have fallen into sin through the sacrament of penance. "Those who approach the sacrament of penance receive from the mercy of God forgiveness for offenses committed against Him and at the same time become reconciled with the Church on which they have inflicted a wound by sinning, and the Church cooperates in their conversion with charity, example and prayer."(42) And in the Church, finally, the little acts of penitence imposed each time in the sacrament become a form of participation in a special way in the infinite expiation of Christ to join to the sacramental satisfaction itself every other action he performs, his every suffering and sorrow.(43)
It doesn't seem to me that Vatican II intended to back away from fasting and abstinence at all. In fact, Paenitemini seems to encourage it, while simultaneously warning against "pharisaism".
Against the real and ever recurring danger of formalism and pharisaism the Divine Master in the New Covenant openly condemned—and so have the Apostles, Fathers and supreme pontiffs—any form of penitence which is purely external. The intimate relationship which exists in penitence between the external act, inner conversion, prayer and works of charity is affirmed and widely developed in the liturgical texts and authors of every era.(54)CHAPTER III
Therefore the Church—while it reaffirms the primacy of the religious and supernatural values of penitence (values extremely suitable for restoring to the world today a sense of the presence of God and of His sovereignty over man and a sense of Christ and His salvation)(55)—invites everyone to accompany the inner conversion of the spirit with the voluntary exercise of external acts of penitence:
Here's where the document left itself open to interpretation:
In the first place, Holy Mother Church, although it has always observed in a special way abstinence from meat and fasting, nevertheless wants to indicate in the traditional triad of "prayer—fasting—charity" the fundamental means of complying with the divine precepts of penitence. These means were the same throughout the centuries, but in our time there are special reasons whereby, according to the demands of various localities, it is necessary to inculcate some special form of penitence in preference to others.(60) Therefore, where economic well-being is greater, so much more will the witness of asceticism have to be given in order that the sons of the Church may not be involved in the spirit of the "world,"(61) and at the same time the witness of charity will have to be given to the brethren who suffer poverty and hunger beyond any barrier of nation or continent.(62) On the other hand, in countries where the standard of living is lower, it will be more pleasing to God the Father and more useful to the members of the Body of Christ if Christians—while they seek in every way to promote better social justice—offer their suffering in prayer to the Lord in close union with the Cross of Christ.Therefore, the Church, while preserving—where it can be more readily observed—the custom (observed for many centuries with canonical norms) of practicing penitence also through abstinence from meat and fasting, intends to ratify with its prescriptions other forms of penitence as well, provided that it seems opportune to episcopal conferences to replace the observance of fast and abstinence with exercises of prayer and works of charity.
In other words, there are poor people suffering in the world, and if you choose to replace works of penitence such as fasting and abstinence with works of prayer and/or charity, you may, but where observing traditional fasts and abstinence can be observed, it ought to be.
Perhaps my reading comprehension skills are not what they ought to be, but I often have trouble seeing the coded, subliminal content in the documents of Vatican II.
The document continues with the specifics:
In order that all the faithful, however, may be united in a common celebration of penitence, the Apostolic See intends to establish certain penitential days and seasons(63) chosen among those which in the course of the liturgical year are closer to the paschal mystery of Christ(64) or might be required by the special needs of the ecclesial community.(65)Therefore, the following is declared and established:
I. 1. By divine law all the faithful are required to do penance.
2. The prescriptions of ecclesiastical law regarding penitence are totally reorganized according to the following norms:
II. 1. The time of Lent preserves its penitential character. The days of penitence to be observed under obligation throughout the Church are all Fridays and Ash Wednesday, that is to say the first days of "Grande Quaresima" (Great Lent), according to the diversity of the rites. Their substantial observance binds gravely.
2. Apart from the faculties referred to in VI and VIII regarding the manner of fulfilling the precept of penitence on such days, abstinence is to be observed on every Friday which does not fall on a day of obligation, while abstinence and fast is to be observed on Ash Wednesday or, according to the various practices of the rites, on the first day of "Grande Quaresima" (Great Lent) and on Good Friday.
III. 1. The law of abstinence forbids the use of meat, but not of eggs, the products of milk or condiments made of animal fat.
2. The law of fasting allows only one full meal a day, but does not prohibit taking some food in the morning and evening, observing—as far as quantity and quality are concerned—approved local custom.
IV. To the law of abstinence those are bound who have completed their 14th year of age. To the law of fast those of the faithful are bound who have completed their 21st year and up until the beginning of their 60th year.
As regards those of a lesser age, pastors of souls and parents should see to it with particular care that they are educated to a true sense of penitence.
V. All privileges and indults, whether general or particular, are abrogated with these norms, but nothing is changed either regarding the vows of any physical or moral person or regarding the constitutions and rules of any approved religious congregation or institute.
VI. 1. In accordance with the conciliar decree Christus Dominus regarding the pastoral office of bishops, number 38,4, it is the task of episcopal conferences to:
A. Transfer for just cause the days of penitence, always taking into account the Lenten season;
B. Substitute abstinence and fast wholly or in part with other forms of penitence and especially works of charity and the exercises of piety.
2. By way of information, episcopal conferences should communicate to the Apostolic See what they have decided on the matter.
VII. While the faculties of individual bishops of dispensing, according to the decree Christus Dominus, number 8b, remain unchanged, pastors also for just cause and in accordance with the prescriptions of the Ordinary may grant to individual faithful as well as individual families dispensation or commutation of abstinence and fast into other pious practices. The superior of a religious house or clerical institute enjoys the same faculties for his subjects.
VIII. In the Eastern rites it is the right of the patriarch, together with the synod or supreme authority of every rite, together with the council of hierarchs, to determine the days of fast and abstinence in accordance with the conciliar decree on the Eastern rites, number 23.
IX. 1. It is strongly desired that bishops and all pastors of souls, in addition to the more frequent use of the sacrament of penance, promote with zeal, particularly during the Lenten season, extraordinary practices of penitence aimed at expiation and impetration.
2. It is strongly recommended to all the faithful that they keep deeply rooted in their hearts a genuine Christian spirit of penitence to spur them to accomplish works of charity and penitence.
X. 1. These prescriptions which, by way of exception, are promulgated by means of L'Osservatore Romano, become effective on Ash Wednesday of this year, that is to say on the 23rd of the present month.
2. Where particular privileges and indults have been in force until now—whether general or particular of any kind—"vacatio legis" [suspension of the law] for six months from the day of promulgation is to be regarded as granted.
We desire that these norms and prescriptions for the present and future be established and effective notwithstanding—inasmuch as is necessary—apostolic constitutions and regulations issued by our predecessors and all other prescriptions, even if worthy of particular mention and revocation.
Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, February 17, 1966, the third year of our pontificate.
PAUL VI
As I read it, the old law was, indeed, abolished, but it was to be superseded by guidance from the bishops, and where the fasting and abstinence was done away with, it was to be replaced by works of charity and exercises of piety.
Now perhaps there has been an extraordinary outpouring, since Vatican II, of charity and piety. As for piety, I frankly do not see it. While the rules of fasting and penitence may have been "pharisaical", I would suspect that there was also a good deal more piety among the average people back in the 1940s and 1950s.
As for charity, I'd like to see someone make the case as to whether we Catholics are more charitable now then we were, as a group, in the 1950s, in terms of percentage of income. Certainly we write bigger checks now than our parents did -- but there has also been an explosion of wealth in our country.
While my father was, relatively speaking, a more successful man than I am -- he owned his own business and was well known in the community -- as a glorified corproate clerk with a small degree of mad computer skillz, I live a standard of living that I think my parents would envy. I entertain myself with cable television broadcast in HD, I can read news from around the globe in electronic format, I can eat steak several times a week if I want, I have a small wine cellar, and do a fair amount of traveling. I want for nothing.
But if I had to consider myself in comparison to my father, I'd say I am only now approaching the degree of rectitude with regard to the practice of my faith that he maintained for much of his life. He lived a better life spiritually than I did until very recently; I have no doubt that if we both attain heaven, his home there will be more richly appointed than mine -- like the rich man in the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man in Luke 16:19-31, I've gotten much of my reward already, and will have to very careful that I do not suffer the rich man's fate. Although we know Christ taught with some humor -- the irony in this story is that Christ's friend Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead, and whose name he gave to the poor man in the parable, was actually a well-off man -- I really don't think he was kidding at all when it came to parables such as these. I think there is a hell and there is a heaven, and that the rich have a special obligation to acts of charity.
But penitence and prayer have, in my view, been neglected. I'd love to see a bishop, on his own authority, reinstitute the old rules of fasting and abstinence, in view of the fact that we have not been nearly as generous as we could be, and have certainly neglected, in the years since Vatican II, penitence and prayer. If I were a bishop whose diocese had priests implicated in the sex abuse scandals of the 1990s, I would certainly impose the rules on myself and my clergy.
And were I a real Abbot, fasting and abstinence would be the rule. I might well institute the Carthusian practice of bread and water on Fridays if I had my way.
We could all do with a little more penitence.