Section 1: Definition and Significance of Fasting

1. DEFINITION.—To fast, broadly speaking, means to abstain from sensual pleasure or to mortify the senses from a virtuous motive. In a narrower sense it means to abstain from food and drink as a means of penance and moral perfection. Fasting, therefore, is an essentially virtuous act (actus virtutis abstinentiae).¹

¹ St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 147, art. 1 sq.; cfr. qu. 141, art. 1; qu. 146, art. 2.

The theologians distinguish a fivefold kind of fasting: (a) ieiunium spirituale, which consists in refraining from sin; (b) ieiunium naturale, which consists in abstaining from food and drink before the reception of the Holy Eucharist (also called ieiunium Eucharisticum);² (c) ieiunium morale, which consists in the moderate use of food and drink; (d) ieiunium ecclesiasticum, i. e., the bodily fasting (ieiunium corporale) enjoined by the third commandment of the Church; (e) ieiunium poenale, i. e., fasting for penitential reasons over and above the measure imposed by the Church.

² Cfr. this Handbook, Vol. II, pp. 128 sqq.

Fasting has a twofold signification, (a) moral-ascetical and (b) social. a) As a moral and an ascetical practice, fasting was known among the ancient heathen, and is partly recommended and partly enjoined by Divine Revelation³ for the reason that to abstain from permissible pleasures of the palate, if done as a matter of duty and for the purpose of strengthening the spiritual powers of the soul, is an excellent means of suppressing lustful appetites, doing penance for one’s sins, and advancing in grace and virtue. The angel said to Tobias “Prayer is good with fasting and alms more than to lay up treasures of gold.”⁴ Jesus declared that a certain kind of evil spirits “is not cast out but by prayer and fasting.”⁵ The Apostles and disciples are often described as fasting.⁶ The Church prays in her Lenten Preface: “O God, who by means of bodily fasting dost restrain the evil passions, uplift the heart and freely bestow virtue with its reward. . . .”⁷ St. Ambrose calls fasting “the food of the mind,” “the life of the angels,” “the death of sin,” “the root of grace,” and “the foundation of chastity.”⁸ In a sermon formerly attributed to St. Augustine fasting is described as “cleansing the mind, elevating the senses, and subjecting the flesh to the spirit.” It “disperses the mists of concupiscence, extinguishes the fires of lust, and kindles the light of charity.”⁹ St. Leo the Great says that nothing is more efficacious for bringing us nearer to God and resisting the blandishments of sin, than fasting. “Fasting has always been the food by which virtue is nourished.”¹⁰

³ Cfr. Deut. IX, 18 sq.; 2 Kings XII, 16; Jud. IV, 8; VIII, 6; Joel II, 12; Matt. IV, 2; 2 Cor. VI, 5.—St. Leo the Great says (Serm., XV [al. XIV], c. 2): “Among the number of these [duties of piety] is also the solemn fast of this tenth month, which is not therefore to be neglected because it was taken from the observance of the Old Law, as though it were among those things which have ceased among distinctions of foods, among differences of baptisms, and among sacrifices of birds and cattle. For when those things which bore figures of future things were fulfilled, the things which they signified came to an end. But the grace of the New Testament has not removed the usefulness of fasts and has embraced with pious observance continence of body and soul as always profitable.” (Migne, P. L., LIV, 175).

⁴ Tob. XII, 8.

⁵ Matt. XVII, 20.

⁶ Acts XIII, 3; XIV, 22.

⁷ Miss. Rom., Praef. in Quadrag.: “O God, who by bodily fasting repress vices, elevate the mind, and bestow virtue and rewards.”

⁸ De Elia et Ieiunio, c. 3, n. 4: “What is fasting but the substance and image of heaven? Fasting is the refreshment of the soul; fasting is the food of the mind; fasting is the life of angels, the death of fault, the destruction of sins, the remedy of salvation, the root of grace, and the foundation of chastity.” (Migne, P. L., XIV, 699).

⁹ Pseudo-Augustine, Appendix Serm., 73 (al. 230, De Temp.), n. 1: “Fasting purifies the mind, raises the sense, and subjects the flesh to the spirit. Fasting makes a contrite and humbled heart, which God does not despise. Fasting disperses the clouds of concupiscence, extinguishes the fires of lust, and kindles the light of chastity.” (Migne, P. L., XXXIX, 1887).

¹⁰ St. Leo M., Serm., XII (al. XI), c. 4: “There are three things which especially pertain to religious actions, namely, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. . . . For by prayer God’s propitiation is sought; by fasting the concupiscence of the flesh is extinguished; by alms sins are redeemed (Dan. IV, 24); and at the same time through all of them the image of God is renewed in us, if we are always ready for His praise, unceasingly solicitous for our purification, and continually intent upon the support of our neighbor. This threefold observance, dearly beloved, embraces the effects of all the virtues. It attains to the image and likeness of God and makes us inseparable from the Holy Spirit. For in prayers right faith remains; in fasts, an innocent life; in alms, a kindly mind.” (Migne, P. L., LIV, 171).—IDEM, Serm., XVII (al. XII), c. 1: “What can be more efficacious than fasting, through whose observance we draw near to God and, resisting vices, overcome alluring sins? For fasting has always been the food of virtue. From abstinence proceed chaste thoughts, reasonable wills, and more wholesome counsels. Through voluntary afflictions the flesh dies to concupiscences and the spirit is renewed in virtues.” (P. L., LIV, 172).

In the ideal sense, says Bishop Linsenmann,¹¹ to fast means to abstain from sin.¹² It has never been the wish of the Church that abstinence from material food and drink should supplant fasting in this ideal or spiritual sense, but she regards bodily fasting, both in its ascetic aspect (mortification) and from the religious and mystical point of view (sadness, penance) as a condition of sanctification, its beginning and means, because it is only by religious exercises and bodily abstinence that men are enabled to appropriate the fruits of the atonement and thereby attain forgiveness of sin.¹³

¹¹ Moraltheologie, p. 383.

¹² Cfr. Is. LVIII, 2 sqq.; Pastor Hermae, Simil. V, c. 1, 4–5; c. III, 5–6 (Funk, Patres Apostolici, Vol. I, 2nd ed., pp. 530, 535; Kirsopp Lake’s ed. in The Apostolic Fathers [Loeb Classical Library], Vol. II, pp. 153, 159 sq.)—St. Augustine, Tract. in Ioann., XVII, n. 4: “The great and general fast is to abstain from iniquities and from the unlawful pleasures of the world, which is a perfect fast.” (Migne, P. L., XXXV, 1529).

¹³ St. Jerome, Epist., 130 (al. 8), n. 11: “You ought so to fast that you do not palpitate or can scarcely breathe and are carried or dragged by the hands of your companions, but so that, with the appetite of the body broken, you do no less than usual in reading, in the Psalms, or in vigils. Fasting is not a perfect virtue but the foundation of the other virtues; and sanctification and chastity, without which no one will see God, furnish a step for those ascending to the heights; nevertheless, if it is alone, it will not be able to crown a virgin.” (P. L., XXII, 1116).—IDEM, Epist., 148 (al. 14), n. 22: “Take care lest, if you begin to fast or abstain, you think yourself already holy. For this virtue is an aid, not the perfection of holiness. . . . Then, I say, is abstinence illustrious; then is chastisement of the body beautiful and magnificent, when the soul fasts from vices.” (P. L., XXII, 1214).—St. Leo the Great, Serm. XIX (al. XVIII), c. 2: “Since all vices are destroyed by continence, and whatever avarice thirsts for, whatever pride aspires to, whatever luxury desires, is overcome by the firmness of this virtue, who does not understand how great a protection is bestowed upon us through fasts? In them it is commanded that we be temperate not only from foods, but also from all carnal desires. Otherwise it is superfluous to undertake hunger and not put away an unjust will, to be afflicted by cutting off food and not draw back from a sin conceived. It is a carnal, not a spiritual, fast where the body alone is not spared, while perseverance continues in things more harmful than all delicacies. What does it profit the soul outwardly to act as mistress and inwardly to serve as captive, to command its own members and lose the right of its own liberty? And deservedly it very often suffers a rebellious servant, since it does not render due service to the Lord. Therefore, while the body fasts from foods, let the mind fast from vices and judge earthly cares and desires by the law of its King.” (P. L., LIV, 187).

Bodily abstinence (ieiunium corporale) is a means of spiritual or perfect abstinence, as may be gathered from the liturgical prayers of the Church, who again and again during the Lenten season declares: “as we abstain from food in the body, so may we abstain from sin in the mind.”

“Bridle gluttony,” says Thomas à Kempis, “and thou shalt the more easily restrain all carnal inclinations.”¹⁴

¹⁴ De Imit. Christi, l. I, c. 19 (ed. Pohl, II, 34). Cfr. Stöhr-Kannamüller, Handbuch der Pastoralmedizin, 5th ed., pp. 530 sqq.; Antonelli, Medicina Pastoralis, Vol. II, 3rd ed., Rome 1909, pp. 487 sqq.

“At all times and every day during this our earthly life,” observes St. Leo the Great, “fasting makes us stronger in combatting sin; it conquers the carnal inclinations, drives away temptations, curbs pride, softens anger, and aids the will in striving after virtue, provided that it is accompanied by benevolence and charity and wisely exercises itself in works of mercy.”¹⁵

¹⁵ St. Leo the Great, Serm., XV (al. XIV), c. 2 (Migne, P. L., LIV, 175).

b) The social value of fasting consists not merely, nor even principally, in the substitution of almsgiving for abstention from food, but in supplementing that act of mortification by works of corporal and spiritual mercy. Already in the Shepherd of Hermas the faithful were exhorted to give to the poor and needy what they saved by fasting.¹⁶ “Let the refreshment of the poor be the abstinence of the one fasting,” says St. Leo.¹⁷ The Church has always taught that fasting without almsgiving, i. e., without the simultaneous exercise of charity, is an act of covetousness rather than of self-denial. “Let our fasting be rich in fruits of liberality,” says Pope St. Leo, “and fertile in generous donations for Christ’s poor. In this even those who are not wealthy should not grow careless, thinking that what they might be able to save would be but little. The Lord knows the ability of each and, seeing through everything in justice, knows how great or how small is the measure with which each one gives. Inequality of possessions prevents equality in giving, but in most cases the unequal gifts are equalized by merit, for the intention may be the same, even though the means differ.”¹⁸

¹⁶ Past. Herm., Simil. V, c. 3, 7 (Funk, Patr. Apost., Vol. I, 2nd ed., p. 534).

¹⁷ St. Leo the Great, Serm., XIII (al. XII), c. 1: “Because the salvation of our souls is not acquired by fasting alone, let us supplement our fasting with mercies toward the poor. Let us devote to virtue what we withdraw from pleasure. Let the refreshment of the poor be the abstinence of the one fasting. Let us devote ourselves to the defense of widows, the advantage of orphans, the consolation of mourners, and the peace of those at variance. Let the stranger be received, the oppressed be helped, the naked be clothed, the sick be cherished, so that whoever of us has offered to God, the Author of all goods, the sacrifice of this piety from his just labors may deserve to receive from Him the reward of the heavenly kingdom.” (Migne, P. L., LIV, 172).

¹⁸ Cfr. St. Leo the Great, Serm., XV (al. XIV), c. 2: “For fasting without almsgiving is not so much the purification of the soul as the affliction of the flesh, and is to be referred more to avarice than to continence when someone so abstains from food that he also fasts from piety. Therefore, dearly beloved, let our fasts abound in fruits of generosity and be fruitful in kindly gifts to the poor of Christ. Nor let men of moderate means be delayed in this work because what they can take from their resources is little. The Lord knows the powers of all, and the just Inspector knows from what measure each gives what he can. Dissimilar fortunes cannot have similar expenditures, but what differs in expenditure is often equaled in merit, because an intention can be equal even where the property is unequal.”—IDEM, Serm., XLIX (al. XLVIII), c. 6: “With the supreme Father, he who has not been in the charity of his brethren will not be counted among the sons. In the distribution of alms and the care of the poor let Christian fasts also grow rich, and let each spend upon the weak and needy that which he withdraws from his own sins.” (P. L., LIV, 175, 305).

If the law of fasting and abstinence were obeyed in the right spirit by all, its enforcement would undoubtedly exercise a wholesome economic influence by causing men to use the good things of this earth with greater moderation and thereby preventing extreme and wide-spread poverty. The example of self-denial given by the rich would induce the poor to bear with greater patience and fortitude the privations imposed on them by bitter necessity. If the law of fasting oppresses the poor, instead of alleviating their lot by almsgiving and the decreased consumption of utilities, and still more, if it can be evaded by the rich through the use of substitutes or purchased dispensations, then it does not fulfil the social purpose for which it was imposed.

The Church expects the individual Christian, impelled by love and the spirit of penitence, to do more than the letter of the law commands. The rich man is in duty bound to give alms even aside from the requirements of the law of fasting, whereas the poor man is not required to give that which he saves by fasting to others who are no needier than he.¹⁹

¹⁹ Cfr. F. X. Linsenmann, Lehrbuch der Moraltheologie, pp. 388 sq.

To the evangelical commandment which bids us pray for those who persecute us,²⁰ the Didaché adds the exhortation to fast in their stead.²¹ This precept, which is mentioned nowhere else, is hardly to be interpreted in the sense of Hermas, who recommends that the food saved by fasting be given to the poor, or in the sense of the ninth beatitude which Origen says he read “in some book” and credits to the Apostles, namely, “Blessed is he that fasts in order to feed the poor.” What the unknown author of the Didaché probably meant was that fasting is useful for strengthening the prayers a man offers for those who persecute him on account of his religion.²²

²⁰ Matt. V, 44.

²¹ Doctr. XII Apost., c. 1, 3: “Bless those that curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for those that persecute you.” (Funk, Patr. Apost., Vol. I, 2nd ed., p. 4; Kirsopp Lake, The Apostolic Fathers, Vol. I, p. 309).

²² Cfr. J. H. Kurtz, Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte, Vol. I, 13th ed., Leipsic 1899, p. 179.

READINGS.—St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 146 sq.—J. B. Ferreres, S.J., Compendium Theol. Mor., Vol. I, pp. 389 sqq.—H. Noldin, S.J., Summa Theol. Mor., Vol. II, pp. 697 sq.—Ad. Tanquerey, Synopsis Theol. Mor. et Past., Vol. II, pp. 631 sq.