Lenten Friday "Fishy" Humor - Cuaresma Viernes Pescado homor : Del pecado Para el pescado. La Cuaresma es un tiempo de cambio, Vamos a cambiar nuestro pecados en los pescados para nuestro apetito!

Today is the first Friday of Lent.

Ah, do you smell grilled fish or fried fish?

You may be curious, even you are Catholic, why Catholics throughout the world tend to eat fish in place of meat on Fridays during Lent.

Since I teach a lot of Latino and Latina kids, here is my answer.

La palabra para el vicio es  el pecado.  Pez en agua es el pescado.  

Ahora,  compare estas palabras: pecado y pescado.

Adicion de “S” a pecado hace pescado!

Los viernes, comemos pescados, durante la Cuaresma.

Cuando comemos pescados, no hay peces, sin hay pescados  ya no! 

Por lo tanto, sin pecado!  Comemos nuestro pecados cuando comos pescados los Viernes durante la Cuaresma!!  (My apology for this poor Spanish of mine..)

Basically, I am telling that the word for vice or sin in Spanish is “pecado”. The word for fish in Spanish is “pescado”.  These words are similar in their spellings.  If you add the letter “S” to a Spanish word for sin, “pecado”, it makes the Spanish word for fish, “pescado” . 

On Fridays during Lent, we eat fish (pescados). When we eat fish, there is no (sin)  fish (pescados) anymore. Therefore, there is no sin!

Of course, this is just my fun word play in Spanish.

“Sin hay pescados ya no” (There is no more fish) means “Sin hay pecados”(There is no more sin), when we eat fish on Fridays, because fish we eat – el pescado – is a modified form of el pecado (sin).

Of course, sin pescado (no fish), sin pecado (no sin), is another word play, as English word for defilement is sin, which is the same spelling with the Spanish word for “no” – sin.

Lent is a time of a change. So, let's change our sins (pecados) into fish (pescados) for our appetite! All we have to do for our Lenten "conversion" is adding the letter "s" to our sins!

Of course, this answer has no theological or biblical roots. This is just my way to lighten up a somber mood of Lenten Fridays with my “fishy” sense of humor.  Right now, my breath smells fishy because I just ate some fish.

Answering the question: Why Catholics eat fish on Fridays during Lent is not easy, if you try to give a theologically or biblically sound answer.

In fact, Jesus was not so picky about what to eat and what not to eat on certain days.  As Luke’s Gospel seems to depict more vividly, compared to other Gospels, Jesus loved to eat, in his practice of the table fellowship, which is a Jewish custom.

In fact these are words of Jesus:

Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.  (Mark 7:14-16)

Jesus said these words in response to the Pharisees accused him and his disciples for eating without washing hands, which is a Jewish law based on Exodus 30:19-21.

As you can see in this segment of Exodus, this hand-washing law is applied more for Kohenian, as this is about how the priest purify himself before a sacred ritualistic offering.  However, the Pharisees seemed to have wanted to impose this law to Jesus and his disciples. Perhaps, this implies that Jesus is the ultimate priest – the eternal priest on the Melchizedek’s order, superseding  the  Aaronic or Levitical priesthood (Hebrews 7).

Anyway, in the scriptures, there is no particular mentioning of Jesus’s teaching on what to eat and what not to eat.  So, we cannot say that the custom of fish eating on Fridays during Lent is biblical or based on Jesus’ teaching.  Thus, eating fish on Fridays was not even an Apostolic practice, either.

So, where in the world this custom started?

I said, “custom”, because there is nowhere in the Catholic doctrine and Canon Law to say that we must eat fish. In fact, Canon Law 1251 mandates the Catholics to abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during Lent, including Good Friday. The rational for this law of the Church is to honor the sacrificial passion and death on Good Friday.

In fact, the spirit of Canon Law 1251 is to focus on meaning of fasting.

Perhaps, in light of Leviticus 16, which may indicate Jesus as the ultimate Yom Kippur sacrificial sin offering, can be reflected to deepen our understanding of the reason behind fasting rule in Canon 1215, because fasting is also required for the Jewish sin offering practice, to atone our sins.  By connecting Canon 1215 mandate of fasting on Fridays to honor Christ’s sacrifice, our abstinence from meat on Friday helps us reflect more deeply on our own sins and sinfulness, heightening our need of atonement. And, this is what our Lenten journey leads to.

Fasting helps us grow in our spiritual faculty and acumen, too.  Jesus fasted for 40 days before he started his ministry (Matthew 4:1-11) to assure his spiritual power, which made his teaching and healing astonishing to those who witnessed and experienced.  It is to make us better instruments of the Holy Spirit (parakletos) , which the Father in Heaven sends in Jesus’ name (John 14:26).

Well, including myself, not so many Catholics practice complete fasting on every Lenten Friday. In this sense, I and the rest of the Catholics, who do not practice complete fasting, are embodiment of these words of Jesus on the night before his death in Gethsemane : The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Mark 14:38).  Oh, Lord, please do not get disappointed about us not being able to practice complete abstinence in honor of and in memory of your sacrifice, sacrificing your own flesh and blood, to redeem us on the Cross!

I am sure Jesus understands that we, the sinners, are not as strong as Jesus, who fasted for 40 days in the desert. I am sure that he appreciate the fact that we, at least, give up on eating meat for this, as stated in Canon 1251.

So, because of our inherent weakness with our carnal desire – an appetite, in this case, we make compromise by eating fish, as a substitute to meat. And, this substitution has become customary over the centuries.

Perhaps, Catholics who feast on fish on Lenten Fridays are not as spiritually strong, yet, as their peers, who practice complete a fast.

But, again, remember, Luke portrayed Jesus as a friend of sinners, those who cannot completely overcome carnal desires, including appetite, better than Mark, Matthew, and John. In fact, Jesus himself did not scold his disciples when they were picking and eating grains on Sabbath day but defended their “violation of the applicable Mosaic Law of Sabbath” when the Pharisees criticized him for not “disciplining” his disciples (Matthew 12:1-8).

So, here is an important lesson.

We do not have to be so uptight about Canon 1215, which mandate fasting on Fridays during Lent, as long as we abstain from meat eating. Doing a complete fast may be too much to most average Catholics, like me. So, we settle by eating fish – unless you gave up eating fish for Lent.

And, let us not forget a sense of humor – unless that is what you gave up for Lent.  That is why I told that “pesca” and “pescado” joke to lighten up the Lenten Friday fasting or meat-eating-abstinance.

Jesus let his disciples eat grains even though the Law of Moses, which is to the Jews is like what the Canon Law is to the Catholics, prohibited. At least Canon Law does not prohibit us from fish eating. And, to respect the Mosaic Law (Leviticus 11:9) we make sure that fish we eat on fasting days has scales and fins.

Remember, our sins (pecados) may “converted” into fish (pescados), if we misspell or add “S” deliberately. So, fish is a sin that is transformed. And, on Fridays, we eat this. It means we eat our sins.  Sin pecados ya no, porque sin pescados!

Lent is a spiritual marathon of 42 Km…I mean of 40 days. This is not like a 400 M sprinting.

To complete successfully, we must pace ourselves. For this, it’s not good to be so uptight about regulations. So, we need to keep our sense of humor.

In fact, it is God Himself who exhibit His sense of humor, especially to those whose spirit is sagged, as in Job 38:13-18.  This was how God cured Job’s deep anger-driven depression. God also cured Elijah’s suicidal depression by letting him eat (1 Kings 19:1-7). Because God let him eat when his both spirit and flesh were on the verge of collapse, Elijah was able to get back on his mission and complete, upon fasting for 40 days (1 Kings 19:8).

Given this humorous and feeling nature of God Almighty, who sent Jesus, who liked to eat and whose compassion let his disciple eat even it was prohibited, we can feast on fish on Lenten Fridays, without feeling so guilty. Rather, we thank God the Father and the Son, Christ, for allowing us to eat fish with His compassion for us and a sense of humor – in addition to our reflection on Christ’s suffering and death on the Cross.

p.s. Let us not forget that what Jesus ate first upon his Resurrection was fish! (Luke 24:41-42)