More Irish Than Catholic

On a Lenten Friday a few years ago, my mother and I were in need of a meatless meal while running errands far from home.  We found an Indian restaurant with an all-you-can-eat buffet and decided to check it out.  A quick look at the offerings revealed many vegetarian items like aloo gobi, saag paneer, vegetable pakoras, chana masala, and naan so we decided to stay.  Passing up some of their yummy chicken dishes was a sacrifice but we still enjoyed what turned out to be a very memorable Lenten meal.

According to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, meat from cows, sheep, pigs and birds is prohibited on fast days but eggs, butter, cheese, fish, amphibians, reptiles and shellfish are not.  Also permissible are meat juices and products made from meat like seasonings, condiments, broth, gravy and sauces.  In Canada, beaver is considered fish and in some parts of South America so is the capybara.  This all seems so strange given that Jesus once said in Matthew 15:11, "A man is not defiled by what enters his mouth, but by what comes out of it."

When I was younger, I wondered if God really cared about such arbitrary things.  Now I see Lent as a way to better yourself through sacrifice...a sacrifice that pays homage to Christ's suffering and death on the cross.  It unites us as Catholics and is a personal way of saying, "This is what we believe."  Perhaps that's why I'm bothered by those special dispensations for corned beef when St. Patrick's Day falls on a Friday during Lent.

This conflict in the spiritual calendar doesn't happen very often so why can't certain segments of the Catholic population wait a mere 24 hours to indulge their earthly desire for meat?  At one time, abstinence in Ireland was serious business with many restrictions.  Even babies couldn't receive milk until they cried three times.  For more on this: http://ic2.irishcentral.com/roots/your-irish-ancestors-and-lent  St. Patrick's Day itself was celebrated solemnly and until the 1970s, pubs were closed.  No one knows for sure why corned beef dinners became associated with the Irish but it's a tradition that has its roots in America not Ireland.

If rules can be waived so easily, then how important are they in the first place?  Newspaper articles on these special dispensations read like Catholics are getting away with something...like they have been given official permission to cheat during Lent.  When bishops and cardinals swap out the fast day, they are placing an indulgence above a sacrifice.  Isn't this encouraging moral weakness?  Part of my ancestry is French but you don't see me clamoring for a traditional meat pie on Fridays.  If the hierarchy actually maintained this year's fast day, would there be riots in the streets?

The irony is when some Catholics place more value on their culture than their religion, what St. Patrick stood for tends to fade into the background.  We see this play out during Boston's annual St. Patrick's Day parade which is no longer about the man who brought Catholicism to Ireland.  Instead, it has turned into a free-for-all where cultural pride and political statements overshadow any moral teachings the Church might hold dear.

Frankly, I never understood the huge appeal of the traditional corned beef dinner because the food is so bland.  In fact, my favorite part of the meal is grinding it all up and having corned beef hash the next day.  But even if it was the best-tasting food ever, I still wouldn't break the Lenten fast.  Jesus suffered and died for us.  We can't honor this sacrifice by going without a piece of meat for a few hours?  To me, the special dispensation smacks of entitlement rather than reverence.