I was explaining to a new Catholic recently
that the color purple (violet) used in advent is akin to its use in Lent, in
that both are considered penitential seasons. Hence we are to give special
attention to our sins and our need for salvation. Traditionally Advent was a
time we would, like Lent take part in penitential practices such as fasting and
abstinence.
Of course, in recent decades Advent
has almost wholly lost any real penitential practices. There is no
fasting or abstinence required, they are not really even mentioned. Confession
is encouraged and the readings still retain a kind of focus on repentance and a
focus on the Last Judgment.
But long gone are the days of a forty
day fast beginning on Nov 12. The observances in the period of the
Middle Ages were every bit as strict as Lent. St. Martin’s Feast Day was a day
of carnival (which means literally “farewell to meat” (carnis +
vale)). In those days the rose vestments of Gaudete (Rejoice
Sunday) were really something to rejoice about, since the fast was relaxed for a
day. Then back into the fast until Christmas. Lent too began with Mardi Gras
(Fat Tuesday), as the last of the fat was used used up and the fast was enjoined
beginning the next day.
And the fast and abstinence were far
more than the tokenary observances we have today. In most places, all
animal products were strictly forbidden during Advent and Lent. There were many
regional differences about the rest of the details. While most areas permitted
fish, others permitted fish and fowl. Some prohibited fruit and eggs,
and some places like monasteries ate little more than bread. In some places, on
Fridays of Lent and Advent, believers abstained from food for an entire day;
others took only one meal. In most places, however, the practice was to abstain
from eating until the evening, when a small meal without vegetables or alcohol
was eaten.
Yes, those were the day of the Giants!
When fasting and abstinence were real things.
Our little token fast on only two days
(and only in Lent) really isn’t much of a fast: two small meals + one
regular meal; is that really a fast at all? And we abstain from meat only on the
Fridays of Lent, instead of all forty days.
What is most remarkable to me is that
such fasts of old were undertaken by men, women and children who had a lot less
to eat than we do. Not only was there less food, but is was far more
seasonal and its supply less predictable. Further, famines and food shortages
were more a fact of life than today. Yet despite all this they were able to
fast, and twice a year at that, for eighty days total. There were also “ember
days” sporadically through the year when a day long fast was
enjoined.
Frankly I doubt we moderns could pull
off the fast of the ancients, and even the elders of more recent
centuries. Can you imagine all the belly-aching (pun intended) if the Church
called us to follow the strict norms of even 200 years ago? We would hear that
such demands were unrealistic, even unhealthy.
Perhaps it is a good illustration of
how our abundance enslaves us. The more we get, the more we want. And
the more we want the more we think we can’t live without. To some degree or
another we are so easily owned by what we claim to own, we are enslaved by our
abundance and we experience little freedom to go without.
I look back to the Catholics of 100
years and before and think of them like giants compared to us. They had
so little compared to me, but they seem to have been so much freer. They could
fast. And though poor, they built grand Churches and had large families. They
crowded into homes and lived and worked in conditions few of us would be able to
tolerate today. And sacrifice seemed more “normal” to them. I have not read of
any huge outcries from those times, that the mean nasty Church imposed fasting
and abstinence in Advent and Lent. (Though certainly there were exceptions for
the very young, the old the sick, and also pregnant women). Neither have I read
of outcries of the fasting from midnight before receiving Communion. Somehow
they accepted these sacrifices and were largely able to undertake them. They had
a freedom that I think many of us lack.
And then too, imagine the joy
when, for a moment the fast lifted in these times: Immaculate Conception,
Gaudete, Annunciation, St. Joseph’s Feast day, Laetare Sunday.
Imagine the joy. For us its just a pink candle and a pondering, “Rejoice? Over
what?” For them these were actual and literal “feast days.”
I admit, I am a man of my time and I
find the fasting and abstinence described above nearly “impossible.” I
did give up all wine for this Advent. Last Lent I banished radio and TV. But
something makes me look back to the Giants of old, who, having far less than I,
did such things as a matter of course.
There were giants in those days!
Note: Two additional articles on this topic can be read at
