Give, Don’t Give Up, Something for Lent

by

John J. Dunphy

(Originally published in the 3/7/20 edition of The Telegraph of Alton, IL)

During my Catholic childhood, I was required to abstain from meat on every Friday, not just Fridays during the liturgical season of Lent. Consuming any kind of meat — even a solitary hot dog — was forbidden upon pain of having committed a mortal sin, which was the kind of offense that earned even a kid a one-way ticket to hell. No bacon and eggs for a Friday breakfast. Oatmeal or cold cereal had to suffice. A cheese sandwich was a quick and safe lunch, while dinner alternated between salmon croquettes and Mrs. Paul’s fish sticks.

Back in the day, everyone knew that meat came from cows, pigs, chickens and other land-dwelling critters. It was such a simple time. Today, however, even our food has become complex. Catholics and members of other Christian denominations that refrain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent are now faced with a dilemma that their forebears couldn’t even have imagined. The faithful and even their clergy these days must ask themselves just what constitutes meat.

Faux meat contains nothing that moos, oinks or clucks. It’s made from vegetables and supposedly — I can’t speak from personal experience — tastes just like real meat. So one can partake of faux meat on Lenten Fridays without so much as even the faintest pang of guilt, right? Not so fast!

“You risk losing the whole spirit of it,” warns Todd Williamson, director of the Office of Divine Worship at the Archdiocese of Chicago. “What’s behind the whole tradition in practice is to go without [meat] in order to be in solidarity with those who are hungry, with those who can’t afford meat,” according to Williamson. “By going without we are reminded of others. So it’s a bit deeper than whether it’s just a meat product.”

I find it curious that Williamson defines hunger as merely going without meat. My working class family had to make do with fish sticks on Lenten Fridays to satisfy the meat nix. Well-to-do Catholics could refrain from eating meat by dining on shark steaks or lobster thermidor. Did that qualify as expressing solidarity with those who couldn’t afford meat?

If Christians really want to experience solidarity with the poor, they should set aside Lenten Fridays as days when they eat like those with low-incomes. Forget about abstaining from meat. Dine on cheap lunchmeat that contains three times as much fat as protein as well as chemical preservatives. Peanut butter is a stable in low-income households. Be sure to make your sandwiches with the cheapest white bread you can find. And forget about anything organic. Such products cost more and the poor can’t afford them.

Still want to stick with meatless Fridays? Well, don’t have dinner at Red Lobster. Buy some cans of sardines when you shop for groceries. Skip the canned salmon and tuna. Mackerel is much cheaper.

If such a diet repulses you, please keep in mind your desire to achieve solidarity with the poor. You should also remember that this exercise in dietary slumming applies only to Fridays in Lent. Eat whatever you please on the other six days. And keep in mind that Fridays will no longer be a bad food day for you once Lent ends. You can return to your usual diet. The poor, however, are stuck with the food you probably found abhorrent seven days a week. It’s always a Lenten Friday for them.

Instead of eating certain foods to achieve a “solidarity” with the poor, why not make a point of donating to your local food pantry on a weekly basis? Low-income persons don’t need your one-day-a-week-in-Lent solidarity. They need your help.

John J. Dunphy is the author of Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials: The Investigative Work of the U.S. Army 7708 War Crimes Group, 1945–1947 and Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois.