Dear Father: The Sacrifices of Lent

As we know, this holy season of Lent is a time when we focus, in a devoted way, on the three pillars of the penitential season: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Certainly these are practices we should be observing all of the time; however, Lent gives us a short window of 40 days to concentrate more intensely on these three areas to remind ourselves of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.
 
On the Fridays of Lent (and actually throughout the calendar year) we are asked to observe a day of personal penance, and more specifically to abstain from eating meat. In part, this is to remind us of the poor, because it was the rich who could afford meat, and the poor who could easily obtain fish. It is also a way to unite as the universal Church, as Fridays have traditionally been a day of penance for Christians because, of course, Jesus died on a Friday. This is similar to celebrating Sunday as is the Lord’s Day because Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday.
 
But let’s be honest, many of us don’t exactly make the meatless Fridays of Lent special days of sacrifice. For some, it’s a day to enjoy shrimp cocktails, fish or lobster or another favorite meatless dish at our favorite restaurant.
 
 I’m just as guilty. A few years back on a Friday of Lent, I went with a friend to a nice seafood restaurant. This particular restaurant had a pseudo Cajun/ seafood fusion theme. It was nowhere near a sacrifice. That evening we proceeded to order a nice seafood meal, knowing that it was a Friday of Lent. As a side, we ordered “dirty” rice. As we were enjoying our meal, one of my parishioners happened to be at the restaurant. He stopped by our table and immediately began challenging me as to why I wasn’t observing the abstinence from meat. Little did I know that this particular dirty rice had pork in it! We had no idea. Embarrassed, I explained that I didn’t know it had meat in it. We all had a good laugh. And, to be truthful, I finished my meal — dirty rice and all. Wasting the food seemed to be a bigger deal than accidentally violating the practice of abstinence from meat.
 
I learned a valuable lesson that day. It is a lesson that I will never forget. Lent, at its core, isn’t so much about following rules on Fridays. It’s not really about extra prayer, either. Instead, we do these things for a reason. We are reminded of suffering. We are reminded of sacrifice. We are reminded of the bounty we have. It’s a reminder of the poor. It’s a reminder of Jesus Christ, who suffered and died for us.
 
So if you want my advice, don’t eat dirty rice with pork on Fridays. But let us make sure we do our best to observe these Fridays, and all of Lent, as times for prayer, fasting and almsgiving that truly make a difference. Our Easter joy will be that much better if we are willing to make the sacrifices of Lent

Side Notes

CHURCH TERMS:

• Canon is the Greek word for rule, norm, standard or measure. It is used in several ways in church language: The canon of Sacred Scripture is the list of books recognized by the Church as inspired by the Holy Spirit. Before the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the single Eucharistic prayer used universally in the Latin Mass was called the Roman Canon. Now that there are four Eucharistic prayers in general use, they are usually referred to as Eucharistic Prayer I, II, III or IV, but they may also be called canons. The first of these is still called the Roman Canon because it is nearly identical to the original Roman Canon. Canon is another name for a law in the Code of Canon Law. (Adjective form is canonical.)
• Canon Law is a code of ecclesiastical laws governing the Catholic Church. In the Latin or Western Church, the governing code is the 1983 Code of Canon Law, a revision of the 1917 Code of Canon Law. (Source: USCCB)
• An episcopal conference is a form of assembly in which the bishops of a certain country or region exercise their pastoral office jointly in order to enhance the Church’s beneficial influence on all Catholics, especially by devising forms of the apostolate and apostolic methods suitably adapted to the circumstances of the times. (Christus Dominus, 38).

PER THE 1983 CODE OF CANON LAW:

•  Can. 1249 The divine law binds all the Christian faithful to do penance each in his or her own way. In order for all to be united among themselves by some common observance of penance, however, penitential days are prescribed on which the Christian faithful devote themselves in a special way to prayer, perform works of piety and charity, and deny themselves by fulfilling their own obligations more faithfully and especially by observing fast and abstinence, according to the norm of the following canons.
•  Can. 1250 The penitential days and times in the universal Church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.
•  Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference*, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. * In 1966, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops — now known as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a “Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence” in which they declared: “Among the works of voluntary self-denial and personal penance which we especially commend to our people for the future observance of Friday, even though we hereby terminate the traditional law of abstinence binding under pain of sin, as the sole prescribed means of observing Friday, we give first place to abstinence from flesh meat. We do so in the hope that the Catholic community will ordinarily continue to abstain from meat by free choice as formerly we did in obedience to Church law."