Abstaining from Meat

As Catholics, there may be times when we are asked a question about our faith and have no answer.  One of those occasions may be when you are asked by a Protestant co-worker or family member, “Why do Catholics abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent?”

Since meat is usually the main course of most meals – as well as the most anticipated - abstaining from meat on certain days during Lent is an excellent way for Christians to practice this act of self-denial so that we can unite ourselves to the sufferings of Christ.  Rom. 8:16-17 and 1 Pet. 2:21 tell us that we that we receive grace from God when we suffer for what is good.  We become joint heirs with Christ, who left us an example to follow when he suffered for us.  In comparison to the sufferings of our Lord, abstaining from meat is really a minor self-denial.

Whereas most Catholics are aware that all persons over the age of 14 years of age are required to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during Lent, many are unaware that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) recommends that we practice abstinence and other penances on the remaining Fridays of the year.

St. Paul calls these disciplines of the flesh, “mortification” because by this denial of the body, we die to the flesh so as to live in the spirit:  "If you live after the flesh, you shall die, but if through the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live." (Romans 8:13; see also Col. 3:5, and Gal. 5:24).  Mortification is a good discipline for our souls as well as a means of strengthening our resistance to temptation.

St. Paul not only recommended mortification, he practiced it himself.  In 1 Cor. 9:27, he tells us, “I drive my body and train it, for fear that after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified”.

There are many anti-Catholic legends that have grown out of the Lenten practice of abstinence from meat.  There are some who even claim that the Catholic Church at one time owned a large interest in the fishing industry and that this was the reason why meat was forbidden on Fridays.  First of all, this claim cannot be historically substantiated.  Secondly, we are not required to eat fish on Fridays during Lent.  We are simply required not to eat meat.