Article — Marc, Institutiones Morales
Article I: On the Obligation of Fast
- FAST, in general, imports abstinence from food.
A threefold fast is distinguished: 1. natural, or abstinence from every food and drink absolutely, such as is required for receiving the Holy Eucharist; 2. moral (the fast of virtue), or abstinence from food taken immoderately; 3. ecclesiastical, which is abstinence from food, defined by the precepts of the Church.
- The days of ecclesiastical fast are: 1. LENTEN TIME, which was instituted by the Apostles themselves, for imitating the fast of our Lord, so that the faithful may thus duly prepare themselves for the paschal solemnity. It commonly begins from Ash Wednesday, endures up to the feast of Easter, exclusively; although the Milanese church retains the use of beginning only from the first Sunday of Lent exclusively. Yet Sundays are excepted, on which only abstinence is prescribed, although fast, at least from present discipline, is not prohibited if it is observed for the sake of mortification (cf. St. Thom., 2. 2, q. 147, a. 5, ad 3).
THE FOUR TIMES, which likewise are said to have taken beginning from the Apostles (Eusebius being witness, Hist. Eccl., l. 5, c. 23) and were instituted for this end, both that the Christian faithful at every time of the year expiate their crimes and demand graces for themselves, and that they obtain good ministers from God. But the Four Times are celebrated on Wednesday and Friday and Saturday, after the third Sunday of Advent, after the first Sunday of Lent, after Pentecost Sunday, and finally after the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
Certain VIGILS, namely of the Nativity of the Lord, Pentecost, Assumption, St. John the Baptist, of the individual Apostles (excepted the vigils of Sts. Philip and James, and also St. John the Evangelist) and of All Saints. The end of these fasts is that the coming feasts may be celebrated worthily and devoutly.
- PRINCIPLES. I. Moral fast is prescribed by the natural law itself. For thus St. Thomas teaches: "It has been said that fast is useful for the deletion and restraint of fault and for the elevation of the mind into spiritual things. But each one from natural reason is held to use fasts so much as is necessary for himself for the aforesaid things. And therefore fast in common falls under the precept of the law of nature" (2. 2, q. 147, a. 3).
- II. The precept of ecclesiastical fast obliges, under grave matter, all baptized persons having use of reason, unless they are totally or partly exempted. It is established from the practice of the Church and the common opinion of Doctors (III, 1035; cf. Billuart, a. 3). See n. 194.
We have said: 1. Under grave matter; because the law regards matter grave per se, inasmuch as it conduces notably to the salvation of souls. Hence this proposition 23 was condemned by Alexander VII: "One breaking the fast of the Church, to which he is held, does not sin mortally, unless from contempt
or disobedience he does this." Yet smallness of matter is admitted (cf. n. 1225 and 1226).
Baptized persons having use of reason, namely in the sense explained in the treatise on Laws, n. 195 ff.
Unless they are exempted; but legitimate custom exempts, or at least excuses; for since the law is of positive and human Right, just as it is confirmed by the consent of those using it, so by contrary custom it is weakened and taken away. Wherefore, at diverse times and in diverse regions, the form of ecclesiastical fast is diverse (III, 1025). b) A special cause, for example impotence, labor, piety, etc., as will be explained below (n. 1232 ff.).
Totally or partly; for the obligation of fast is divisible, and he who is excused or dispensed from one part, for example from abstinence from meat, is not for that reason freed from the other conditions of fast, as is established from definitions of the Apostolic See (III, 1005). Cf. n. 1242.
Note. a) The fasts of vigils have almost everywhere by pontifical indult been reduced, or transferred (as in the dear City the fasts for vigils of the Apostles, the vigil of Sts. Peter and Paul excepted) to Fridays and Saturdays of Advent. In France, by Decree of Card. Caprara, 9 Apr. 1802, the obligation of fasting on the vigils of suppressed feasts was taken away, even of those whose solemnity is transferred. In Belgium, from the year 1896, the same law has force. From a declaration of the S. C. C. it is established that vigils of suppressed feasts must be observed if up to now they have been observed from precept or vow. Cf. Decrees of 18 Sept. 1911 and 25 Feb. 1912 (A. A. S., III, p. 480; IV, p. 142).
b) The fast on the day before the consecration of a church, prescribed in the Roman Pontifical, is of strict obligation for the Bishop consecrating, and only for those who ask that the church be consecrated for them; therefore also for the rector of the church, but for him alone, if he alone presented the suppliant petition for asking the consecration. S. R. C., n. 2519.