Furlock Bones said:
that's pretty much what Pope Francis was speaking about back in 2015. fasting from one particular thing isn't the point of fasting in the Lenten season.
At the risk of sounding like I'm disagreeing with myself and totally derailing the thread, I do want to add in a pretty big caveat here.
There is a critique I see of Lenten fasting that follows a theme you see with so many other topics regarding Christian discipline, ritual, and tradition. The critique is essentially that we shouldn't let particular rules of the fast distract us from the end goal. Don't miss the forest for the trees, and all that. It's a valid point, and I don't disagree with this, but in practice I see far too many people doing the exact opposite.
There's this tendency among both Protestants and secular non-religious people to make the argument that X ritual or practice is unnecessary, and that we should only focus on the end goal. Some examples: Going to church every Sunday isn't really necessary as long as you love God and your neighbor. Fasting during Lent is unnecessary as long as you remember to be charitable to others. Going to confession is unnecessary as long as you recognize your sins and apologize to God directly. Worrying about arcane rules from some dudes in Rome is unnecessary as long as you are true to your own morals. Etc. etc. etc.
What these arguments overlook is that the entire point for every single one of those rituals and traditions is to help believers to practice and refine their faith. It's partially correct to say that the ritual may not be the end goal, but that doesn't mean it's not the best way to get there. Yes, the end goal is being close to God, but the ritual of the mass is the best way we know how to accomplish that. Yes, the end goal is being charitable to our neighbors, but the discipline we achieve through fasting and self-sacrifice is the best way we know how to refocus ourselves on the needs of others. Yes, the end goal is for God to forgive our sins, but confession with a priest is the best way we know how to name and confront our sins, and commit to sin no more. Yes, being a moral person is the end goal, but studying the law of the Church as handed down over the ages is the best way we know how follow the narrow path.
To make a perhaps poor analogy, to ignore or dismiss the importance of fasting is like dismissing the important of practice and exercise for an athlete. "Don't worry about all these passing and ball control fundamentals, just remember that the important thing is to get the ball in the hoop."
To bring this back to my earlier point, I suppose you could say that the rules around Lenten fasting involve a multi-step process. Abstain from meat -> gain self discipline -> learn to be more charitable to others. If, for whatever reason, we find that abstaining from meat fails to achieve for ourselves the proper level of self discipline, the answer is not to skip the discipline step entirely, it's rather to fix that first step so that we can get back to discipline, and then onto charity.
