Homily for the First Sunday of Lent - 5 March 2017

N.B.: A few grammatical and editorial corrections have been made to the text of the following homily.

The First Sunday of Lent (A)

Dear brothers and sisters,

Earlier this week, the Holy Father Pope Francis announced his prayer intention for this month of March and asked us a direct question: “How many of you pray for persecuted Christians?”[1] So important is this question to Pope Francis that the Holy See produced a short video to accompany His Holiness’ prayer intention “that persecuted Christians may be supported by the prayers and material help of the whole Church.”

So many of our fellow members of the Body of Christ experience daily something of what the Lord Jesus experienced in the desert, “harsh conditions, utter loneliness, and the gnawing discomforts of hunger” and, more than this, the “assaults of [our] archenemy, the devil.”[2] We make their situation more desperate by frequently giving too little thought to them.

In his brief message accompanying this video, Pope Francis said:

How many people are being persecuted because of their faith, forced to abandon their homes, their places of worship, their lands, their loved ones!

They are persecuted and killed because they are Christians. Those who persecute them make no distinction between the religious communities to which they belong.

I ask you: how many of you pray for persecuted Christians?

Do it with me, that they may be supported by the prayers and material help of all the Churches and communities.

These words of the Holy Father stand as a stark challenge for each us during these days of Lent. Grateful for the riches of his merciful love and confident in the certainty that “because [Jesus] himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted,” so many of our brothers and sisters willingly endure great hardships for the sake of his name, while we all too often grumble about not being allowed to eat meat one day of the week, which we sometimes forget or even give in to social pressure (Hebrews 2:18). It rather puts things in perspective, does it not?

Some Catholics seem to be under the curious impression that they must eat fish on Fridays during Lent, which, of course, is incorrect. While we are obliged to abstain from eating meat each Lenten Friday, this does not mean we have to eat fish; though the eating of fish has because customary, it is not required. Here many ask why we are allowed to eat fish and not meat.

Some – speaking from an anti-Catholic bias – have claimed the Church first allowed us to eat fish on Lenten Fridays to support the fishing industry in the middle ages. This, however, is not true. In his book, A Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England, Ian Mortimer includes a chapter on “What to Eat and Drink.” In this chapter, he notes, quite rightly, that

The medieval Church [that is, the Catholic Church] used to restrict the eating of meat on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, as well as in Advent and Lent and on the vigils on certain saints' feast days. In 1549 Edward VI [a Protestant] reestablishes Fridays and Saturdays as nonmeat days, as well as Lent and other religious feasts. In 1563 Elizabeth's government [which was also Protestant] imposes fasting on Wednesdays too, including a prohibition on slaughtering animals. There is an important difference compared to pre-Reformation [that is, Catholic] times, however: avoidance of meat is no longer a religious observance but secular law. The purpose of fasting on Wednesdays is specifically to encourage the eating of fish, to support the fishing industry.[3]

It was, then, the Protestant government of England and not the Catholic Church that banned meat and allowed fish to support the fishmongers. If this is case, why did the Church allow our ancestors in the faith to eat fish, but not meat, on certain days?

For the Church, the reason for the forbidding of meat and the allowing of fish was less temporal, much simpler, and more spiritual than that of the secular government. In his Liber Festivalis, which he wrote in the late 1400s, John Myre explains that “when God, for Adam’s sin, cursed the earth and the land, he cursed not the water; wherefore it is lawful for a man to eat in Lent that which cometh of the water.” In fact, centuries earlier, Saint Isidore of Seville, who died in 636, wrote in his De Ecclesiasticis Officiis, "We are certainly able to eat fish, because the Lord accepted one after the resurrection. Neither the savior nor the apostles have forbidden this."[4] From this, we see that the non-eating of meat and the eating of fish was – and is – intended as both a penance, a small communal sacrifice offered lovingly to God, and a reminder of God's merciful and victorious love.

When we fail to realize this connection, when we fail to see the value and importance to our fasting and abstinence, it is because we have become, like our first parents, too focused on ourselves and on our own pleasures. “Adam was placed in Paradise, and there, seeking pleasure, he fell.”[5] How often do we, too, fall into sin by seeking pleasure and running from the Cross instead of seeking union with God? Unlike Adam, Jesus “was led into the desert, and there, by constant fasting, overcame the devil.”[6]

In these days of Lent, then, let us not seek our own pleasure, but let us go with Jesus into the desert. Just as he fasted out of love for us, let us fast out of love for our persecuted brothers and sisters who grow more numerous each day.

If we focus our thoughts and our prayers not on ourselves but on others, we, too, can, with the help of divine grace, overcome the sin of self-centeredness and experience the joy of salvation (cf. Psalm 51:17). This is why Pope Francis has asked the Holy Spirit this Lent to “lead us on a true journey of conversion, so that we can rediscover the gift of God’s word, be purified of the sin that blinds us, and serve Christ present in our brothers and sisters in need.”[7]

Let us then ask the Lord to help us acknowledge our sins, to forgive our sins, and to cleanse our hearts so that his compassion may be ours. Moreover, “let us pray for one another so that, by sharing in the victory of Christ, we may open our doors to the weak and poor. Then we will be able to experience and share to the full the joy of Easter.”[8] Amen.

---

[1] In “Pope’s Prayer Intention for March: Support Persecuted Christians,” Vatican Radio, 2 March 2017. Accessed 4 March 2017. Available at http://www.news.va/en/news/popes-prayer-intention-for-march-support-for-perse

[2] Curtis Mitch and Edward Sri, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture: The Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2010), 74.

[3] Ian Mortimer, A Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England (New York: Penguin Books, 2012), 215.

[4] Saint Isidore of Seville, De Ecclesiasticis Officiis, 1.44[45].2.

[5] Saint Anthony of Padua, Sermon for the First Sunday of Lent, 4. In Paul Spilsbury, trans., Sermons for Sundays and Festivals, Vol. I: General Prologue, Sundays from Septuagesima to Pentecost (Padua: Edizioni Messaggero Padova, 2007), 73.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Pope Francis, Message for Lent 2017, 3.

[8] Ibid.

Did Catholics forbid meat to support the fishing industry, or Protestants?

At some point in your life you have probably been told that the only reason Catholics eat fish on Fridays - at least during the season of Lent - is because a medieval pope - who is never named - had family in the fishing industry - which is also never named - and they needed a financial boost. This claim, of course, is false and is made by those ignorant of history.

I have recently finished reading Ian Mortimer's enjoyable and educational book, The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England (New York: Penguin Books, 2012); his The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England is also excellent. Loaded with endnotes, his books are well-researched and documented, and written in a readable, intelligent, and humorous fashion; I cannot recommend them enough.

Of particular interest to me is Mortimer's treatment of religion. These days, it can be difficult to find historians who give religion - especially Catholicism - a fair treatment, but Mortimer does so very well.

In his third chapter on "Religion," for example, we find several important - and historically accurate - observations:

• "In Mary's reign, no fewer than 283 men and women are burned at the stake for maintaining their Protestant beliefs - many of which were called orthodox in Elizabeth's reign. Although Elizabeth's government does not burn as many people as Mary's [N.B.: It was not the Church that killed people, but the state], proscribed views are still enough to get you killed" (61).
• "What is orthodox in 1558 is sufficient to have you hanged in 1570" (61).
• "And propaganda is key. Elizabeth makes sure all history books praise her and Protestantism, and reflect Mary's reign in a negative light" (68).
• "A second act [of Parliament] forbids the importation of [papal] bulls from Rome, as well as crucifixes and rosary beads" (69).
• "Anyone trying to persuade people to join the Catholic Church is held to be guilty of high treason and executed" (70).
• "Catholics are not allowed to travel more than five miles from their homes - on pain of forfeiting all their property and estates" (71).
• "Just thirty-five years see Catholicism change from being the respectable norm to the religion of a persecuted minority" (71).

You will not likely find such clear statements in most history text books, although the statements are entirely true.

Now, then, back to the topic at hand, that of eating fish on Fridays. Before we continue, let it be remembered that Catholics are not required to eat fish on Fridays; rather, they are simply not to eat meat on Fridays (fish is not the only meatless option).

In Mortimer's ninth chapter on "What to Eat and Drink," he includes an informative and useful paragraph about the eating of meat and fish in Elizabethan England, that is, between 17 November 1558 and 24 March 1603 (with my emphases):

Harvest time and fruit picking impose one form of seasonality. Another is entirely artificial. The medieval Church [that is, the Catholic Church] used to restrict the eating of meat on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, as well as in Advent and Lent and on the vigils on certain saints' feast days. In 1549 Edward VI [a Protestant] reestablishes Fridays and Saturdays as nonmeat days, as well as Lent and other religious feasts.  In 1563 Elizabeth's [also a Protestant] government imposes fasting on Wednesdays too, including a prohibition on slaughtering animals. There is an important difference compared to pre-Reformation [that is, Catholic] times, however: avoidance of meat is no longer a religious observance but secular law. The purpose of fasting on Wednesdays is specifically to encourage the eating of fish, to support the fishing industry. People therefore respond differently. Some households uphold the old religious fasts during Advent and Lent, as if they are still observing the old religious law; others ignore Advent but observe the Lenten fast. Still others ignore Wednesdays and just fast on Fridays and Saturdays. But be careful if you adopt a partial regime: heavy fines are levied for eating meat on nonmeat days. The standard fine is £3 or three months imprisonment, but in 1561 a London butcher slaughtering three oxen in Lent is find £20. Fines can be levied on the head of a household for every single member who breaks the fast, so if you have lots of servants, make sure they obey the law (215).

Did you catch it? The forbidding of the eating of meat in order to support the fishing industry did not arise from the Catholic Church, but from Elizabeth's Protestant/Anglican government. Prior to this decision of Elizabeth's government, the Catholic Church did not forbid the eating of meat to support the fishing industry; rather, the reason for the forbidding of meat was less temporal, much simpler, and more spiritual.

As John Myre explains in his Liber Festivalis, written in the later 1400s: "For when God, for Adam’s sin, cursed the earth and the land, he cursed not the water; wherefore it is lawful for a man to eat in Lent that which cometh of the water."

In fact, centuries earlier, Saint Isidore of Seville, who died in 636, wrote in his De Ecclesiasticis Officiis, "We are certainly able to eat fish, because the Lord accepted one after the resurrection. Neither the savior nor the apostles have forbidden this" (1.45[44].2). The non-eating of meat and the eating of fish was both a penance and a reminder of God's mercy.

In this Jubilee of Mercy, then, do not forget the second spiritual work of mercy, that of instructing the ignorant.

Fish, a sign of God's mercy

If you are a Catholic who lives your faith in public (as every Catholic should), you are likely to be asked this week a question along these lines: Why do you eat fish but not meat? Or, perhaps, you may be asked this question: Isn't fish a kind of meat? Unfortunately, many Catholics do not know how to adequately answer these questions.

This is a topic about which I have written several times before (Feb. 27, 2015, Feb. 27, 2009, and Feb. 15, 2008). I won't go through the lengthier explanations today - you can read those again on your own if you wish - but I will remind you of a very good and simple reason why we can eat fish but not meat on the Friday's of Lent and Ash Wednesday.

This reason comes from John Myre (about whom I know nothing more) in his Liber Festivalis, which he wrote in the late fifteenth century:

For when God, for Adam's sin, cursed the earth and the land, he cursed not the water; wherefore it is lawful for a man to eat in Lent that which cometh out of the water.

Catholics, then, are allowed to eat fish because it is a sign of God's mercy.

From the Archives: Why do we eat fish on Fridays?

Here's a timely post from last year that I'll repost here today (the comments there are always worth a read):

Why do we eat fish on Fridays (in Lent)?

It may well be at this time of year that the most frequently asked question of Catholics concerns the eating of fish on Fridays during Lent.

First, we should recall that Catholics are obliged to refrain from meat on every Friday during the year (canon 1251). There are, though, as is often the case with canon law, exceptions: unless the Conference of Bishops decides otherwise or a particular Friday happens to be a Solemnity.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has decided to allow Catholics to eat meat on Fridays outside of Lent if – and here’s the kicker – they perform a different act of penance in its place. I know. You probably haven’t heard this before, but now you have. And now that you know you have to follow it. Sorry. It’s what I do.

The second exception reminds me of an episode in the life of my favorite saint, Francis of Assisi.

The Poverello loved Christmas more than any other Feast or Solemnity and he encouraged great festivity for the Nativity of the Lord (but he still put ashes on his food so as not to enjoy it too much [I’ll follow him in some things but I won’t go that far]).

One particular Christmas one of the brothers didn’t think he should eat meat at Christmas because it fell on a Friday. Francis reprimanded him severely, saying that even the walls should eat meat on Christmas and – if they couldn’t (he must have been a bit delirious from lack of food) – that the meat should be smeared on the walls of the rooms of the house (kids, don’t try that at home).

Now, if you happen to live in a parish or a Diocese under the patronage of Saint Patrick you can eat meat on his feast if it should fall on a Friday because his feast – for you – is a solemnity. For everybody else, you have to ask your Bishop for permission. But, really, I don’t think Patrick would mind if you didn’t have corned beef on his feast day and wanted one more day. I can’t understand why anybody would eat corned beef anyway, but that’s just me.

Where was I going?

Oh, yes.Second, we should note that we are not required to eat fish on Fridays. We are merely told to abstain from meat. In the Latin, we are told to abstain from carnis, which from the most ancient of times has always meant the meat of things that walk on the ground.

Now, fish resembles meat to some extent and Catholics, being the clever folks they often are, knew that they couldn’t eat meat but that fish were not mentioned. So they kept the rules and ate fish. Ah, yes, loopholes are a glorious thing, aren’t they?

It has absolutely nothing to do with fishmongers needing more money and talking to the Pope. That’s a bunch of rubbish from people too lazy to do a bit of investigating.

Catholics eat fish on Fridays because they can’t eat meat (and apparently we don’t want to eat a meal of only grains, fruits and vegetables). Personally, I love fish, especially a tuna with lemon and dill…

(My mind is wandering quite a bit right now. I wonder if I’ve had too much Dr Pepper?)

A couple of years ago I stumbled upon an intriguing explanation as to why we eat fish on Fridays but not meat, and one that I rather like. The explanation comes from – I believe – the fifteenth century (though it might be sixteenth), from one John Myre in his Liber Festivalis:

For when God, for Adam’s sin, cursed the earth and the land, he cursed not thewater; wherefore it is lawful for a man to eat in Lent that which cometh of thewater.

Ponder that, and try that answer the next time somebody asks you about your fish sandwich.

Who's hungry for fish?

Why do we eat fish on Fridays (in Lent)?

It may well be at this time of year that the most frequently asked question of Catholics concerns the eating of fish on Fridays during Lent.

First, we should recall that Catholics are obliged to refrain from meat on every Friday during the year (canon 1251). There are, though, as is often the case with canon law, exceptions: unless the Conference of Bishops decides otherwise or a particular Friday happens to be a Solemnity.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has decided to allow Catholics to eat meat on Fridays outside of Lent if – and here’s the kicker – they perform a different act of penance in its place. I know. You probably haven’t heard this before, but now you have. And now that you know you have to follow it. Sorry. It’s what I do.

The second exception reminds me of an episode in the life of my favorite saint, Francis of Assisi.

The Poverello loved Christmas more than any other Feast or Solemnity and he encouraged great festivity for the Nativity of the Lord (but he still put ashes on his food so as not to enjoy it too much [I’ll follow him in some things but I won’t go that far]).

One particular Christmas one of the brothers didn’t think he should eat meat at Christmas because it fell on a Friday. Francis reprimanded him severely, saying that even the walls should eat meat on Christmas and – if they couldn’t (he must have been a bit delirious from lack of food) – that the meat should be smeared on the walls of the rooms of the house (kids, don’t try that at home).

Now, if you happen to live in a parish or a Diocese under the patronage of Saint Patrick you can eat meat on his feast if it should fall on a Friday because his feast – for you – is a solemnity. For everybody else, you have to ask your Bishop for permission. But, really, I don’t think Patrick would mind if you didn’t have corned beef on his feast day and wanted one more day. I can’t understand why anybody would eat corned beef anyway, but that’s just me.

Where was I going? Oh, yes.

Second, we should note that we are not required to eat fish on Fridays. We are merely told to abstain from meat. In the Latin, we are told to abstain from carnis, which from the most ancient of times has always meant the meat of things that walk on the ground.

Now, fish resembles meat to some extent and Catholics, being the clever folks they often are, knew that they couldn’t eat meat but that fish were not mentioned. So they kept the rules and ate fish. Ah, yes, loopholes are a glorious thing, aren’t they?

It has absolutely nothing to do with fishmongers needing more money and talking to the Pope. That’s a bunch of rubbish from people too lazy to do a bit of investigating.

Catholics eat fish on Fridays because they can’t eat meat (and apparently we don’t want to eat a meal of only grains, fruits and vegetables). Personally, I love fish, especially a tuna with lemon and dill…

(My mind is wandering quite a bit right now. I wonder if I’ve had too much Dr Pepper?)

A couple of years ago I stumbled upon an intriguing explanation as to why we eat fish on Fridays but not meat, and one that I rather like. The explanation comes from – I believe – the fifteenth century (though it might be sixteenth), from one John Myre in his Liber Festivalis:

For when God, for Adam’s sin, cursed the earth and the land, he cursed not the
water; wherefore it is lawful for a man to eat in Lent that which cometh of the
water.

Ponder that, and try that answer the next time somebody asks you about your fish sandwich.