Corned Beef, Culture and The Church

The corned beef was very good. Lean. Tasty. Excellent with a little horseradish. Yum. Most of my Irish American friends are practicing Roman Catholics, which would normally have meant that they could not have enjoyed the corned beef on this St. Patrick’s Day Friday. But, thanks to the dispensation of Catholic Bishops, they could join me in the meat and potatoes feast “guilt free.” Because I didn’t grow up Catholic it is very hard for me to understand that another person, like a Bishop, has the authority to tell what I may eat and when. But, I respect their tradition and I am impressed that millions of people faithfully follow what the Bishop says when it comes to fasting and eating.

The explanation for the St. Paddy’s Day dispensation on meat eating is that it recognizes the cultural realities.   I can relate in the sense that, though God calls us to offer a sacrifice of praise, I often am asked to give my nod of understanding, if not blessing, to the cultural reality that Sunday is first a “sports” day and second a “worship” day.  Culture trumps Church on more than St. Paddy’s Day. Fasting, whether from food or pleasure, has a way of creating hard choices for which the Church feels compelled to say “God understands.”

Still, I wonder and worry whether the Church has done its people a disservice in the way we teach about fasting? The danger of fasting, whether from food or pleasure, is that we might conclude, “There, now we’ve done our duty towards God.”  God does call people to fasting as a way of religious observance, so meatless Fridays make Biblical sense. But what seems to drive God to distraction is when God’s people use their ‘little fast’ to rationalize that they have now satisfied God’s desire for real fasting:

“This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
    to break the chains of injustice,
    get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
    free the oppressed,
    cancel debts.” (Isaiah 58:6 The Message)

God may smile on a little cultural concession for Friday meat or Sunday worship, but God will never smile on the Church’s failure to speak up against “me-first” cultural values which result in injustice, discrimination or the endorsement of hate. God is much more interested in justice than corned beef.  May the Church never stop teaching that truth.